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What can be said about Fast Times at Ridgemont High that hasn't been said over and over again. The movie is great. It appeals to everyone. It boasts one of the greatest casts of young and future stars. The Phoebe Cates scene. Jeff Spicoli. To borrow one of the film's oft-used quotes - "Awesome! Totally Awesome!" And now the movie is available (again) with the release of the Special Edition DVD.
It's hard to pinpoint whose movie this is. Over the years it has become a Sean Penn movie, but really, I look at it as a Jennifer Jason Leigh/Judge Reinhold movie. Really, these two are pretty much the emotional core of the movie, with everything else being just comic fodder. Hilarious comic fodder, but really just background. Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Stacy Hamilton. Stacy is pretty naive to start the movie, and with the help of her sexually aware best friend Linda (Cates), she's educated in the ways of the world. Soon, she's sleeping with everybody. Before long, she's pregnant and has to get an abortion. Then there's her brother Brad (Reinhold) who's got it all going for him. He's got a steady girl. He the king of All-American Burger. However, after he tells off a customer (who hasn't wanted to do that!) he gets canned and goes through one humiliation after another including getting dumped, having to work dressed as a pirate and getting caught jerking off in the bathroom by Phoebe Cates after an awesome topless fantasy. The movie also stars Brian Backer as "Rat", the guy who wants Stacy and Robert Romanus as Mike Damone, the guy who gets her pregnant. And then there's Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) who's good for some of the best laughs. The movie also features such up-and-comers as Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, Forest Whitaker and, in the background, Nicolas Cage. There's really not a lot of other plot details to go over, since the movie is really a story of a year in the life of these characters and it covers a lot of material, but I'm sure you get the basics.
The story of Fast Times is almost as legendary as the movie itself. It's based on a book by the genius, Cameron Crowe. Is there a more brilliant guy in Hollywood? Anybody who's seen Almost Famous will know that Crowe was a young pup who wrote for Rolling Stone. So, being still young, he went back to high school undercover as a student and wrote a book about his experience. That book was the basis for Fast Times. I'm sure not all the stories are true, but the spirit is there. It's the characterizations that are based in reality - which is what makes the movie so great. These are real people with real life problems. We've been to high school. So watching the movie, even now so many years later, it still touches that part inside of us because we know that this is how things really happen.
This is pretty much the same DVD released back in 1999. That one was a "Collector's Edition". This one is the "Special Edition". Nothing new in terms of extras. They include a great commentary by director Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe (which actually runs about 8 minutes longer than the movie), a featurette looking back at the making of the movie titled "Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High", an interactive map titled "Hangouts of Ridgemont High" where you can get info about some of the locations in the movie, music highlights where you can skip to certain songs and their scenes in the movie, a theatrical trailer and your standard production notes and a look at the cast and filmmakers (without bios?!). Also, if you look around a little, there are a few easter eggs where you can skip to favorite scenes/quotes from the movie.
The standouts here are the commentary and the featurette. In the commentary, Crowe dominates with Heckerling pretty much just sitting in the background providing the odd blurb - mostly at Crowes urging. This aside, Crowe really is a great intelligent guy who comes off as nothing short of a genius. I'm probably biased seeing as though he pretty much tops my list of favorite filmmakers, but just give the commentary a listen and I'm sure you'll agree. As for the featurette, it's nice to get interviews with some of the cast all these years later, notably Sean Penn. The only downside with this featurette - no Cameron Crowe.
So what's the difference between the "Collector's" and "Special" editions, you ask? It's the audio. While the first release only offered an English mono track, with this new release we get an awesome, totally awesome 5.1 track - both Dobly Digital and DTS. If there's any reason to buy this DVD, it's this track. An incredible improvement over the previous release!
If there's one thing that bothers me about Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it's that I hate to think after all this time, and all the acclaim he's garnered, most people still remember Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli. And I blame the film's marketing. Like I said, this isn't really even his movie - he just happens to be the funniest part of it and the member of the cast that went on to the best things in his career. It's almost as though the marketing of the movie depends on his image. And while I'm sure the guy is happy for the success and recognition the character has brought him, I can't help but wonder what this guy has to do to get out of Spicoli's shadow?
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