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L.A. Readers! Celebrate The 25th Anniversary Of THREE O'CLOCK HIGH At The New Beverly With Phil Joanou And Richard Tyson!
Beaks here...
Twenty-five years ago this October, Phil Joanou kicked off his feature filmmaking career with one of the most visually inventive teen comedies of the 1980s. It was, perhaps, too inventive.
Though THREE O'CLOCK HIGH failed to catch on with audiences during its... unenthusiastically promoted theatrical release, the movie gradually acquired a cult following thanks to VHS and heavy pay cable rotation. Shot by upstart cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld and scored by Tangerine Dream, it didn't look or sound like any other teen film of its day. It's also got a manic energy, which feeds off of its physically slight Jerry Mitchell's anxiety at having to fight the murderously imposing Buddy Revell after school. Casey Siemaszko and Richard Tyson are terrific as the soon-to-be combatants, while ace character actors Jeffrey Tambor, John P. Ryan and Philip Baker Hall ably contribute to the movie's off-kilter feel.
To celebrate the movie's twenty-fifth anniversary, Phil Joanou and Buddy Revell himself, Richard Tyson, will be dropping by the New Beverly this Wednesday (10/17) for a Q&A. It will be followed by a 35mm showing of Joanou's U2: RATTLE AND HUM, which is a must-see on the big screen for Jordan Cronenweth's color cinematography alone. Tickets are a mere $8 for the double feature, and you can buy them ahead of time right here.
THREE O'CLOCK HIGH starts at 7:30 PM, while U2: RATTLE AND HUM is scheduled to begin at 9:45 PM. Hope to see you there!
Readers Talkback
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Oct. 15, 2012, 3:59 p.m. CST
Three O'Clock High is absolutely classic. The buildup and showdown at the end is great stuff. And there are some premium looking babes in the movie.
by The Krypton Kid
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Three O'Clock High, Midnight Madness, Better Off Dead and Hamburger the Motion Picture.
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Filmed at Ogden High School in Utah, which the City has thankfully decided to renovate rather than tear down and replace with an awful cookie-cutter building.
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......when everyone is buying paper to cover the loss, and Tyson walks in and dumps the money Jerry gave him, the slightest smile on his face, respect for the kid who stood up to him....awesome.
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Gonna pop it in the old dvd player today. Wonder if it'll ever come out on Bluray?
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Bullshit convenience...new media and how many films never make it across from the previous form? How many films never made it to smaller formats for the home? How many never made it to vhs? To dvd and now to blu? Here I am reading about movies filmed on a nitrate based medium lost forever because the medium itself is volatile...but to loose films simply as a business 'supply & demand' decision just seems sad to me. sigh
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Love the knuckle imprint on Buddy's shirt. So many little details in this under-appreciated gem.
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Don't fuck this up Mitchell!
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the one scene that never escapes me is when our hero asks the football jock to help him, the jock approaches the bully in the library by simply tapping him on the shoulder, in which the bully grabs his finger and Beats him (or pushes him down, i forget)..I gotta go see this movie again. Jeffery Tambor and Philip Baker Hall?? I don't remember them in this movie, now I have to go.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 5:03 p.m. CST
This is the renaissance age of bullying. All bullying related films and other products will have a renewed life and significance
by Bobo_Vision
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is right hahaha i love that line--this movie is so dope! so much better than a lot of shit like just one of the guys which i still enjoy for nostalgia but this movie is actually good, shot well, great score, good actors (jeffry tambor!) wish i could go to the screening. also check out joanu's "state of grace" with sean penn gary oldman ed harris john c reilly john tuttero--under appreciated gem as well- oldman is amazing.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 5:10 p.m. CST
If kids today showed half as much guts as Mitchell does than we wouldn't have documentaries about bullying.
by kindofabigdeal
Just saying, we live in a society that coddles. And our kids will have no backbone because of it.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 5:17 p.m. CST
kindofabigdeal, so if your future kids are bullied, you will tell them to fight the bully afterschool?
by Bobo_Vision
And what will you did when you see a youtube video of your kid getting pummelled and possibly kicked in the skull while unconscious?
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Oct. 15, 2012, 5:30 p.m. CST
“I especially enjoyed the more expository chapters…..”
by I_Snake_Plissken
Book report scene - classic!
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Oct. 15, 2012, 5:30 p.m. CST
If the fight scene at the end of this film occurred for real today, all the kids watching would have their phones out filming it, and theyd be hoping that someone, likely the smaller guy, gets beaten to a pulp so that they can get a lot of views on their
by Bobo_Vision
Gotta be few things more disheartening as a parent than watching a video of your kid get pounded while onlookers cheer.
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that I live so far away from LA. I saw this flick no less than five times in the theater when it was originally released. Never understood why it wasn't as big a success as the John Hughes films. No one ever seems to remember it when I bring it up in conversations about the greatest high school experience movies of the 80's. Really happy to see it being celebrated like this.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 6:37 p.m. CST
Just watched this on NETFLIX last week, for the first time in more than twenty years
by Autodidact
It totally holds up. Great little movie. Why was Richard Tyson not a bigger star? Guess there can only be so many but I find him very watchable.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 6:39 p.m. CST
Yeah this movie presented late-80s female hotness in a way that actually still appeals
by Autodidact
So many movies from the 80s, you look at the girls and you can practically taste the lingering cloud of hairspray and makeup smells.
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TANGERINE DREAM can elevate any movie from cable-movie-of-the-week level to a hypnotic, dreamlike experience. Case in point: MIRACLE MILE.
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cyber bullying? really?
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Oct. 15, 2012, 7:29 p.m. CST
Hey how bout the fact that the screenplay was written by geek GOD Richard Matheson's kid??
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
Richard Matheson?? Wrote for the Twilight Zone as well as the books Stir of Echoes, I Am Legend, What Dreams may come... This film was written by his son, Richard Christian Matheson, YOU'D THINK THAT FACT WOULD BE WORTHY OF INCLUSION IN THE ARTICLE
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Oct. 15, 2012, 7:30 p.m. CST
Another movie that doesn't get enough respect is Rustler's Rhapsody.
by JudasPriestly
What's up with the RR on DVD/VHS missing scenes? I'm tempted to to get a laserdisc copy to see if it contains those missing scenes. Does anyone have a recorded airing of RR when it was first on cable?
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Oct. 15, 2012, 7:39 p.m. CST
PHIL JOANOU DIRECTED THE PUNISHER: DIRTY LAUNDRY.
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
Another tidbit that might have been worth sharing. Phil Joanou is therefore a geek hero worthy of much encouragement and support. MAKE A PUNISHER MOVIE, PHIL
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Oct. 15, 2012, 8:27 p.m. CST
Yes, also hate to say this movie probably inspired more than one kid to fight their bully, ending up with undiagnosed life-long brain damage from being punched/kicked while unconscious
by Autodidact
I'm almost to the point of not watching fight videos any more, because I find it so disturbing that every single person either films or screams "YOU GOT KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT" while the victim gets pummeled while unconscious.
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There was a completely different mindset back when THREE O'CLOCK HIGH got made -- back then, they made movies like STAR WARS. Today, they make movies about fat Asperger's Syndrome sufferers who like STAR WARS (FANBOYS). Flicks like THREE O'CLOCK HIGH, REVENGE OF THE NERDS, WEIRD SCIENCE, BETTER OFF DEAD and KARATE KID all had that recurring theme of the underdog growing a fucking backbone and standing up to the NFL-built jocks, even if it meant getting the shit stomped out of them. To the poster who said "What if you saw a YouTube video of your kid getting the shit kicked out of him and his skull kicked in while he was unconscious?" ... if that's your main worry in life, chances are high your kid's gonna be in an embarrassing YouTube video no matter what happens.</p><p> Anyway, yeah, THREE O'CLOCK HIGH is a classic. I'm not even entirely sure there's a director out there who could pull off a flick like that today, not that the studio would let them. Anyone notice that all the "asexual best friend girl characters" in that era of movies had the same haircut? The chick in THREE O'CLOCK HIGH had the same 'do and overall look as the same character in REAL GENIUS and TEEN WOLF, and there's probably five or six more I'm forgetting. I dug the fact that the main character is pretty flawed and cowardly until the end of the film, when he's pretty much backed into a corner. Also, great book report scene: (takes puff off of cigarette) "It's a good read."
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Yeah, instead teaching my future kid how to deal with conflict in a smart way, I should teach them to follow role models from Revenge of The Nerds, Weird Science, Better Off Dead, and Karate Kid. <p> Comments like that remind me of who I'm talking to here and I shouldn't have said anything. Wax on wax off, Armaggeddon!
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Dude who failed a grade or two said he was going to fight me after school. Word of this spread even though I had no reason to fight the guy. When afterschool came, I got on the bus and went home as usual. Next day he forgot all about it and had some other drama he was involved with. I'm sure if I showed up to fight him I might have possibly won his respect, but I didn't really care about what he thought of me. Last I heard he's a car salesman in a small town paying child support for kids he had with a few different mothers. He's pretty active on myspace.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 9:47 p.m. CST
A better movie on how to deal with conflict is Scarecrow with Al Pacino and Gene Hackman
by Bobo_Vision
Be a scarecrow.
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Oct. 15, 2012, 9:52 p.m. CST
There definitely are movies containing life lessons, but not the ones you mentioned, Armaggeddon
by Bobo_Vision
Anyhow, peace out.
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You didn't even try. How does that feel?
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Didn't even try what?
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3 O Clock High still holds up damn well & man, if Buddy Revell wasn't totally fuckable. Homocidal tendencies & all.
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..this movie had GREAT cinematography--the rapid close-ups on the clock as it mercilessly moves toward 3 o'clock, the shots of Mitchell as he gets hypoglycemic, and the best, the shot of the excuse note as the security guard throws it into the wind. It added an artistic element to the movie that other, albeit great, 80s movies didn't have.
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Great song! Jim Walker really knocked it out of the park when Joanou (the director) asked him to write a song for the film. A classic!
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Oct. 16, 2012, 2:17 a.m. CST
it didn't look or sound like any other teen film of its day
by Bedknobs and Boomsticks
Really? First time I saw it back in the 80's was after the credits had rolled, on HBO. I totally thought it were a John Hughes or Savage Steve Holland movie. Still, one of those I could watch over and over, forever.
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Oct. 16, 2012, 2:37 a.m. CST
Some jock guy named Kenny was threatening to beat me up once,
by Bedknobs and Boomsticks
in high school, when I wasn't around, but my older brother overhead his boasting, and took care of him. Little did Kenny know that my older brother was physically and somewhat mentally like Buddy Revell, and who had an even more psycho best friend. The two of them picked up Kenny by the ankles in the hall one day and shook him until he cried and all of his change fell out on the floor.
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Oct. 16, 2012, 4:32 p.m. CST
This would never be made in today's climate of complete pussification
by nephilim138
I loved these movies because the underdogs had the choice of staying complete pussies and possibly getting destroyed for the rest of their lives or take a stand for themselves and face some shit head on no matter the end result. That alone is indeed a valuable life lesson. So many people today just cry about shit 'til someone else fixes it.
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Oct. 16, 2012, 5:26 p.m. CST
nephilim138, i was bored and decided to google you, and discovered that you don't exactly practice what you preach
by Bobo_Vision
Here's an excerpt from your blog: I was walking to the corner shop to get some BBQ sauce when we approached a group of kids drunk in the streets, aged 15-25? One yelled "oi let me touch your beard", I declined. He went for my beard any way and I declined he touch it again. With a warning of "I'll bang ya" he swung for me and connected with my face. In shock I was separated from him by Karoline who was with me, then his mate came swinging in as the first guy started again, both of them hitting me over and over in the face. A third larger guy joined them and booted me in the face. Blood gushing from my nose and mouth I was in shock but still standing. The police rolled by and we flagged them down. They arrested the instigater and apparently another guy. We gave statements to the police and went home. I got a call saying The first guy has been bailed out and got off with a "final warning" as he's been involved with similar criminal activity before. I've actually suffered ABH at the hands of 3 chavs who get lairy when drunk. Photos of my messed up face to follow soon. xxx
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