Fast Times at Ridgemont High

"Ridgemont High" redirects here. For high schools called Ridgemont High, see Ridgemont High School (disambiguation).

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Amy Heckerling
Screenplay by	Cameron Crowe
Produced by	Irving Azoff Art Linson
Starring	Sean Penn Jennifer Jason Leigh Judge Reinhold Phoebe Cates Brian Backer Robert Romanus Ray Walston
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Edited by	Eric Jenkins
Production company	Refugee Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	August 13, 1982 (1982-08-13)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4.5 million
Box office	$27.1 million (domestic)

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe, adapted from his 1981 book of the same name. As a freelance writer for Rolling Stone magazine, Crowe went undercover at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California, and wrote about his experiences.

The film was directed by Amy Heckerling (in her feature film directorial debut) and chronicles a school year in the lives of sophomores Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Mark Ratner (Brian Backer), and their respective older friends Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates) and Mike Damone (Robert Romanus), both of whom believe themselves wiser in the ways of romance than their younger counterparts. The ensemble cast of characters form two subplots with Jeff Spicoli, (Sean Penn), a senior, carefree stoned surfer, facing off against uptight history teacher Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), and Stacy's brother, Brad (Judge Reinhold), a senior who works at a series of entry-level jobs in order to pay off his car, and who is pondering easing out of his relationship with his girlfriend, until she herself dumps him.

In addition to Penn, Reinhold, Cates, and Leigh, the film marks early appearances by several actors who later became stars, including Nicolas Cage, then billing himself as Nicolas Coppola, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, and Anthony Edwards. Among the actors listed, Penn, Cage, and Whitaker would later on in their careers win the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Penn winning twice.

In 2005, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Brad Hamilton is a popular senior who is looking forward to his last year of school and almost has his 1960 Buick LeSabre paid off. He has a part-time job at All-American Burger, a fast food joint where his girlfriend, Lisa, also works. This esteemed establishment has a strict policy of etiquette: "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice".

Brad's sister, Stacy Hamilton, is a 15-year-old sophomore and also a virgin. She is worried that she is not attractive or experienced enough to even meet, let alone have a relationship with, a man. Stacy works at a pizza parlor at the mall alongside her friend, popular and sexually active Linda, where she meets Ron Johnson, a 26-year-old stereo salesman who asks her out, after she tells him she's nineteen. She sneaks out to meet him and they have sex in a dugout at a softball field. Though he sends her a bouquet of roses the next day, Stacy never hears from Ron again. She reveals the loss of her virginity to Linda, who assures her that it will hurt less as she does it more.

Mike Damone, a pretentious dilettante, who drives a forest-green AMC Gremlin, earns money taking bets and scalping tickets, fancies himself a sagacious and worldly ladies' man. He lets his younger friend Mark Ratner in on his five secrets for picking up girls. Mike coaxes Mark into taking Stacy to a German restaurant. Afterwards, at her home, Stacy invites Mark into her bedroom, where they look at Stacy's photo album together. They eventually kiss, but he soon shies away and leaves after Stacy attempts to initiate intimacy with him.

Meanwhile, Brad mulls over how to end his relationship with Lisa so he can play the field during his senior year. However, Brad is fired for losing his temper at an obnoxious customer; when he tries to tell Lisa how much he needs her, she says she is dumping him to see other guys.

Jeff Spicoli is a surfer and habitual marijuana user who runs afoul of a strict history teacher, Mr. Hand, who is intolerant of Spicoli's disregard for his class. One night Spicoli wrecks Ridgemont football player Charles Jefferson's 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 during a joyride with Jefferson's younger brother. Spicoli decides to park the car in front of the school with slurs painted on it supposedly written by Ridgemont's rival, Lincoln High. When Ridgemont plays Lincoln, Jefferson is so angry about his car that he thrashes several of Lincoln's players and wins the game for Ridgemont in a 44-0 blowout. On the evening of the graduation dance, Hand shows up at Spicoli's house and informs him that since he has wasted eight hours of class time over the past year, Hand intends to make up for it that night. They proceed to have a one-on-one session that lasts until Hand is satisfied that Spicoli has understood the lesson.

Meanwhile, Mike and Mark visit Stacy and Linda at the Hamiltons' backyard pool. Brad comes home from his new job and is not only enamored with Linda, but she walks in on Brad masturbating in the bathroom when she needs to get a Q-tip to remove water from her ears.

Later, Stacy invites Damone over after school for a swim in their pool, which leads to sex in the pool house between the two. When Stacy later informs Damone that she is pregnant as a result, he agrees to pay half the cost of an abortion and to drive her to the clinic. But on the day of her appointment, Damone drives by and ignores her because he is unable to come up with the money to defray his part of the cost of the abortion. Desperate, Stacy asks Brad to drive her supposedly to a bowling alley, but after he drops her off, Brad sees her going to the abortion clinic across the street through the rearview mirror. Brad goes back and waits for Stacy, and she makes him promise not to tell their parents. When Stacy tells Linda, Linda becomes so angry at Damone that she spreads the word around school about Damone's irresponsibility, spray-painting "prick" on the side of his car and locker door in the process; this also leads to a confrontation between Damone and Mark in the boys' locker room.

Brad quits his next job at Captain Hook Fish & Chips because of the humiliation of having to wear a pirate costume when delivering food (especially when an attractive lady pulls up beside him at a red light and realizes afterward why she was laughing at him). He later gets a job at Mi-T-Mart, a convenience store, where he successfully thwarts an attempted robbery and is subsequently promoted to store manager.

In addition to Mark and Stacy's continuing relationship and Brad's promotion to manager at the convenience store, fates of some of the other characters are revealed in an epilogue sequence prior to the closing credits: Spicoli saves Brooke Shields from drowning and then spends the reward money hiring Van Halen to play at his birthday party; Linda gets accepted to UC Riverside and moves in with her Abnormal Psychology professor; Damone gets arrested for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and gets a job at 7-Eleven when he gets out; and Hand still believes everyone is on drugs.

Cast

• Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli
• Jennifer Jason Leigh as Stacy Hamilton
• Judge Reinhold as Brad Hamilton
• Robert Romanus as Mike Damone
• Brian Backer as Mark "Rat" Ratner
• Phoebe Cates as Linda Barrett
• Amanda Wyss as Lisa
• Ray Walston as Mr. Hand
• Forest Whitaker as Charles Jefferson
• Scott Thomson as Arnold
• Vincent Schiavelli as Mr. Vargas
• Lana Clarkson as Mrs. Vargas
• Eric Stoltz as Stoner Bud
• Anthony Edwards as Stoner Bud
• Nicolas Cage as Brad's Bud
• Taylor Negron as Mr. Pizza Guy
• James Russo as Convenience store robber
• Pamela Springsteen as Dina Phillips
• Kelli Maroney as Cindy

Production

Development

The film is adapted from a book Crowe wrote after a year spent at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. He went undercover to do research for his 1981 book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, about his observations of the high school and the students he befriended there, including then-student Andy Rathbone, on whom the character "Rat" was modeled.

Casting

Heckerling shepherded the young cast, which included Nicolas Cage in his first feature-film role. He was credited as "Nicolas Coppola" for the only time in his career. It was also the film debut for Eric Stoltz and provided early roles for Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker. Crowe's future wife Nancy Wilson of Heart has a cameo as "Beautiful Girl in Car".

Filming

Fast Times was filmed in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles (though the location is never mentioned in the film) from November 10 through December 28, 1981. Many people identify the movie with that area and the teen culture associated with it in the early 1980s. "Ridgemont" is the name Crowe gave to Clairemont, the San Diego high school at which he posed as a student. (Spicoli mentions surfing at Sunset Cliffs, a genuine surf spot in San Diego.) Most of the exteriors of Ridgemont High School were shot at Van Nuys High School, and other scenes were shot at Canoga Park High School. The "carrot" scene and football game were shot at James Monroe High School in Sepulveda (now called North Hills). The "Ridgemont Mall" shown in the film was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria, with its exterior shot at Santa Monica Place. Both have since been converted to open-air malls. "The Point" was filmed at the Encino Little League Field in Encino.

In the DVD commentary, director Heckerling tells of how Cates was initially reluctant to carry out her character's poolside topless scene at the house in West Hills because she thought the neighbors might be spying on the set from the surrounding rooftops.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

The soundtrack album, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Music from the Motion Picture, peaked at #54 on the Billboard album chart. The soundtrack features the work of many quintessential 1980s rock artists.

Several of the movie's songs were released as singles, including Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby", which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Other singles were the title track by Sammy Hagar, "So Much in Love" by Timothy B. Schmit, "Raised on the Radio" by the Ravyns and "Waffle Stomp" by Joe Walsh. In addition to Schmit and Walsh, the album features solo tracks by two other members of the Eagles, Don Henley and Don Felder. The soundtrack also included "I Don't Know (Spicoli's Theme)" by Jimmy Buffett.

Five tracks in the film, but not included on the soundtrack, are: "Moving in Stereo" by the Cars, "American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "We Got the Beat" by the Go Go's, Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", and "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms. In addition, the live band at the prom dance during the end of the film played two songs also not on the soundtrack: "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Wooly Bully".

The Donna Summer track, "Highway Runner", was initially recorded in 1981 for her double album entitled I'm a Rainbow; however, the album was shelved by Summer's then-label, Geffen Records, but ultimately released in 1996 by Mercury Records. The album is once again out of print.

Todd Rundgren also recorded the song, "Attitude", for the film at Crowe's request. It was not included in the film, but was later released on Rundgren's Demos and Lost Albums in 2001.

In some countries, the album was (also) released as a single LP with ten tracks.

Heckerling, in the DVD audio commentary, states that the 1970s "classic rock" artists, like the Eagles, were introduced by one of the film's producers. Coincidentally, Irving Azoff, one of the film's producers, was the personal manager for the Eagles.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Performer	Length
1.	"Somebody's Baby"	Browne, Danny Kortchmar	Jackson Browne	4:05
2.	"Waffle Stomp"	Walsh	Joe Walsh	3:40
3.	"Love Rules"	Henley, Kortchmar	Don Henley	4:05
4.	"Uptown Boys"	Goffin, Janna Allen	Louise Goffin	2:45
5.	"So Much In Love"	George Williams, Bill Jackson, Roy Straigis	Timothy B. Schmit	2:25
6.	"Raised on the Radio"	Rob Fahey	The Ravyns	3:43
7.	"The Look In Your Eyes"	McMahon	Gerard McMahon	4:00
8.	"Speeding"	Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey	The Go-Go's	2:11
9.	"Don't Be Lonely"	Marv Ross	Quarterflash	3:18
10.	"Never Surrender"	Felder, Kenny Loggins	Don Felder	4:15
11.	"Fast Times (The Best Years of Our Lives)"	Squier	Billy Squier	3:41
12.	"Fast Times at Ridgemont High"	Hagar	Sammy Hagar	3:36
13.	"I Don't Know (Spicoli's Theme)"	Buffett, Michael Utley	Jimmy Buffett	3:00
14.	"Love Is the Reason"	Nash	Graham Nash	3:31
15.	"I'll Leave It Up To You"	Rusty Young	Poco	2:55
16.	"Highway Runner"	Giorgio Moroder, Summer	Donna Summer	3:18
17.	"Sleeping Angel"	Nicks	Stevie Nicks	4:43
18.	"She's My Baby (And She's Outta Control)"	Dave Palmer, Phil Jost	Palmer/Jost	2:53
19.	"Goodbye, Goodbye"	Danny Elfman	Oingo Boingo	4:34

Reception

Box office

Universal gave the film a limited theatrical release on August 13, 1982, opening in 498 theaters. It earned $2.5 million in its opening weekend. The release was later widened to 713 theaters, earning $3.25 million. The film ranked 29th among US releases in 1982, ultimately earning more than $27 million, six times its $4.5 million budget, and later gaining popularity through television and home video releases.

Over the years the film has obtained an iconic status. In an interview, Penn stated "None of us had any idea it would take on a life of its own."

Critical response

The film has an 78% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, with the site's consensus stating "While Fast Times at Ridgemont High features Sean Penn's legendary performance, the film endures because it accurately captured the small details of school, work, and teenage life."

Roger Ebert called it a "scuz-pit of a movie", though he praised the performances by Leigh, Penn, Cates, and Reinhold. Janet Maslin wrote that it was "a jumbled but appealing teen-age comedy with something of a fresh perspective on the subject."

Accolades

Crowe's screenplay was nominated for a WGA Award for best comedy adapted from another medium. The film ranks #87 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list, #15 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies", and #2 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best High School Movies".

Television spin-off

The film inspired a short-lived 1986 television series for CBS called Fast Times. Ray Walston and Vincent Schiavelli reprised their roles, respectively as Hand and Vargas, the biology teacher. Other cast members were Courtney Thorne-Smith (Melrose Place) as Stacy, Wallace Langham (credited as Wally Ward) as Mark, Claudia Wells (Back to the Future) as Linda, Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) as Mike Damone, Dean Cameron as Jeff Spicoli, and James Nardini as Brad. Kit McDonough played teacher Leslie Melon, a character that was exclusive to the series.

Moon Zappa was a "technical consultant" for the television series. She was hired in order to research slang terms and mannerisms of teenagers, as she had just graduated from high school at the time and had a much better grasp of then-current high school behavior than the writers, and Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo) wrote and performed the television series theme.

See also

• Fast Times at Barrington High, an album by the band The Academy Is... is a play on the title of the film.
• "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", a Family Guy episode from Season 4
• Fast Times at Fairmont High, a novella by Vernor Vinge, is named in reference to the film.
• "Stacy's Mom", a song by Fountains of Wayne which pays homage to the film.
• "Damone", a song by the band 16 that uses many Mike Damone quotes and situations from the film.

External links

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High at IMDb
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High at Box Office Mojo
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High at Metacritic