This is one of my favorite 80s
movies.
Summary
-Centered around a group of Southern California high school students, based on the real life times of Cameron Crowe. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are friends slowly falling for each other, Jeff Spicoli is a stoner surfer who runs afoul of Mr. Hand, who is surely convinced everyone is on dope
Cast
-Sean Penn: Jeff Spicoli
-Judge Reinhold: Brad Hamilton
-Jennifer Jason Leigh: Stacy Hamilton
-Robert Romanus: Mike Damone
-Brian Backer: Mark "Rat" Ratner
-Phoebe Cates: Linda Barrett
-Ray Walston: Mr. Hand
-Scott Thompson: Arnold
-Vincent Schiavelli: Mr. Vargas
-Amanda Wyss: Lisa
-D.W. Brown: Ron Johnson
-Forest Whitaker: Charles Jefferson
-Kelli Maroney: Cindy
-Tom Nolan: Dennis Taylor
-Stanley Davis Jr.: Jefferson's brother
-Pamela Springsteen: Dina Phillips
-Patrick Brennan: Curtis Spicoli
Did You Know?
-Nancy Wilson, member of the female rock band Heart, appears in one scene where Brad is at a stop light in his pirate costume. Nancy Wilson was married to writer Cameron Crowe at the time
-The school that is used in the movie is Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, California
-When Mike Damone gives Mark Ratner his "five point plan" to scoring with a girl, he suggests playing side one of Led Zeppelin IV. The song that plays, "Kashmir", is actually on Physical Graffitti. (BTW, idk how Led Zeppelin is supposed to make a girl horny. Unless she's dreaming about screwing Robert Plant or any one of the band members, I sincerely doubt Led Zeppelin is going to make a girl hot!)
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| Led Zeppelin IV |
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Led Zeppelin Physical Graffitti
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-Ray Walston, who played on the 1960s era TV show My Favorite Martian as Uncle Martin, was often cast in typecast roles, like many actors and actresses of that era. After appearing in this movie, he said that if people saw him, they shouted "Mr. Hand!" He was grateful to be associated with a role other than playing Uncle Martin
-In one of the final scenes, Brad is seen working at the Mi-T Mart. He is seen wearing a t-shirt with Bruce Springsteen on it. His sister Pamela plays Dina in the movie
-Damone's car is a 1973 AMC Gremlin
-In the dugout scene where Stacy is having sex, she looks at the ceiling and sees graffiti saying "Disco sucks". This refers to Disco Demolition Night, where Chicago Radio DJ Steve Dahl blew up disco records at Comiskey Park while chanting "Disco sucks!"
-When Damone is trying to sell Cheap Trick tickets to a girl in the stands, he sings bits of three of their songs "Dream Police" "I Want You to Want Me" and "Surrender"
-The scene where Mike Damone and Stacy have sex in the pool house was not the original scene used. There was another scene used that showed them fully naked from the front. Director Amy Heckerling said that this would show the natural vulnerability between two teens. The intention was to show them fully naked from the front to show they were nervous and vulnerable. It was pulled because of an impending X-rating
-There are numerous rock music references in this movie. Like posters on walls, shirts worn by characters, Damone being a ticket scalper, etc. This all stems from Cameron Crowe starting out as a writer for
Rolling Stone Magazine
-Fred Gwynne, famous for playing Herman Munster, was offered the role of Mr. Hand, but turned it down due to the sexual content of the movie
-Nicholas Cage's film debut. If you look in the credits and see "Nicholas Coppola", this is the name he went by before changing it to "Cage".
-Nicholas Cage lied about his age to try and get a bigger part, but producers found out that he was only 17 at the time
-In one scene towards the beginning of the movie, when Mr. Hand hands out copies of quizzes, everyone is seen taking a deep inhale of the paper. That's because from the 1960s to the early 1980s, photocopy machines often were expensive so a cheaper alternative was used, called spirit duplicators. These machines used a colored wax as the ink and a solvent as a transfer agent to put the ink on the paper. Since these solvents took a while to dry, students would inhale to get a short term high
Stu Nahan: [Spicoli is dreaming that he's won a surfing competition] Hello everybody! I'm Stu Nahan, and I'd like you to meet this young man. His name, Jeff Spicoli. And Jeff, congratulations to you. Things looked kind of rough out there today.
Jeff Spicoli: Well, I'll tell you Stu, I did battle some humongous waves! But you know, just like I told the guy on ABC, "Danger is my business!"
Stu Nahan: You know, a lot of people expected maybe Mark "Cutback" Davis or Bob "Jungle Death" Gerrard would take the honors this year.
Jeff Spicoli: [laughs incredulously] Those guys are fags!
Stu Nahan: [oblivious] That's fantastic! Let me ask you a question. When you get out there, do you ever fear for your life?
Jeff Spicoli: Well Stu I'll tell you, surfing's not a sport, it's a way of life, it's no hobby. It's a way of looking at that wave and saying, "Hey bud, let's party!"
[focuses on Stu's sport coat]
Jeff Spicoli: Where'd you get this jacket?
Stu Nahan: [evasive] I got this from the network. Let me ask you a question. What's next for Jeff Spicoli?
Jeff Spicoli: Heading over to the Australian and Hawaiian internationals, and then me and Mick are going to wing on over to London and jam with the Stones!
[to the two girls next to him]
Jeff Spicoli: And you guys are invited too!
[Spicoli, talking on the phone, hits his head with a shoe]
Jeff Spicoli: That was my skull! I'm so wasted
