"Do Your Parents Know That You're Ramones?" A Brief Review Of The 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray Of Rock 'N' Roll High School

The 1979 Allan Arkush film, Rock 'N' Roll High School is remembered as the Ramones movie, and rightly so. However, it's also a real hoot as a comedy film. Poised between Animal House (1978) and a whole string of teen comedies in the Eighties, the 1979 classic has never looked better than it does on this 40th Anniversary Edition from Shout! Factory.

Housed in a steel-book, the Blu-Ray features the film in a pristine print that's a 4K scan from the original negative. As a long-time fan of the movie, I didn't notice any major glitch, or any artifacts, in lots and lots of the film. The picture is bright, crisp, and uniformly well-defined. The high school sequences look a tiny bit better than the concert sequences but that's a very minor criticism. As Riff Randell (PJ Soles) chases after the band to try to get her songs into their hands, the film maintains an admirably breakneck pace, as absurd gags fly along the edges of the narrative. The formula is a simple one, and for a film that seems like a typical exploitation picture on the surface, Rock 'N' Roll High School remains a remarkably charming film, whether you're a Ramones fan or not.

Of course, while Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979) looks better than it's ever looked, the extras here are what should seal the deal, and what make this an ideal present for someone during the holidays. The hour-long documentary on the film, Class Of '79: 40 Years Of Rock 'N' Roll High School, provides a lot of necessary context for understanding how the film was made. And while director Allan Arkush's interview segments provided some nice background on the ideas behind the film, I really enjoyed the portions that discussed making movies for Roger Corman's New World Studios in the Seventies. And, as may be forgotten, Allan Arkush had a heart problem during filming and Joe Dante was brought in to finish up some scenes. Having constructed trailers with Arkush, Dante was the ideal guy to get this film finished, and it's fascinating now to hear which scenes he filmed. Knowing now that he shot the gym scene, pictured up above in a still, I can sort of see his touches in that sequence when I view it now. The documentary, along with a nice video introduction from Allan Arkush to the film itself, tells the story of Rock 'N' Roll High School, a film that was famously a disco film first, before The Ramones became the centerpiece attraction of the movie.

Back To School: A Retrospective is a shorter (30 minutes) documentary on the film, and it too tells the story of how this got made in a more concise fashion. I found this one, along with the interview feature with P.J. Soles, Dey Young, and Vince Van Patten, to be really a lot of fun. While some of the mysteries of Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979) have been solved, the film seems richer now and even more enjoyable when one knows the struggles that went on behind the scenes as the film was made. A brief Leonard Maltin interview with Roger Corman is pretty good, but it feels like it might have been shot a few years ago. Other extras, besides a whole bunch of commentary tracks with the director and cast, are audio outtakes from The Ramones' concert in the film, and TV spots and trailers.

Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979) is a classic. Part exploitation film, part rock movie, the picture still pleasures immensely. Tight, concise, silly, and heartfelt, it's the kind of release that reminds a viewer how much fun fandom can be, and how wonderful a thing a rock and roll single can be, and how a good rock song can make any of us remember what it felt like to be a teenager who wanted to take over the school from stupid teachers, and, if not rule it, blow it up.

Rock 'N' Roll High School is out now from Shout! Factory.