User Reviews

warning, spoilers exist:I saw this little gem in 1981 or so,on the late nite MOVIE GREATS network,I believe on channel 5 Chicago.I can remember that my high school years were,at times, filled with brief periods of extreme alienation,along with a sense of i-wanna-be-anywhere-but-here.The main character is sick of high school and wants to spend his second semester of senior year in Europe.He has a profound sense of alienation,similar to the rebellious teens led by the Christian Slater character in PUMP UP THE VOLUME.I also vividly recall the brutal gym-class paddling scene.A 17 year old boy is not only humiliated by a public spanking,but howls because of the pain,which is real and intense.Having witnessed such spectacles at a Catholic high school,MID-'70S,I can attest to the grim reality of the scene,which is "played for real" and not sugar-coated or done in a nostalgic way at all.

I saw this on late-night TV back in the mid-'80s when teen cinema was coming into a "golden age" unlike any other, yet it was more in keeping with '70s styles and attitudes-- which is actually refreshing in retrospect, because teen film in the '70s was usually rather lame. Unlike showboat pieces such as "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" this film had a more subtle nuance to it, with a character who I could relate to as a small town school kid. Plus it came out before the later '80s codified so many of the high school stereotypes that we came to view as vapid and tired.

Alas, I can't say much about the story because so many of the details are lost on me, and if it ever came out on video, I never saw it over all these years. What I recall is its emotional impact, the sense of frustration the protagonist felt, as specifically rendered in one scene where he finally does "cut loose" alone in a classroom, but without breaking into dance or violence. And I do remember the ending, which has a great ambiguity to it that I won't spoil any further, in hope that someday it will become available.