Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Hand. An English pop opera filtered through Greek tragedy, the show was such a notorious turkey it provided the title to Ken Mandelbaum's survey of theatrical disasters, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. The movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High inspired a short-lived 1986 television series called Fast Times, featuring Courtney Thorne-Smith as Stacey, Wally Ward as Mark, Claudia Wells as Linda, Patrick Dempsey as Mike, Dean Cameron as Spicoli, James Nardini as Brad, and Ray Walston reprising his role as Mr. A 1988 Broadway musical, starring Betty Buckley, Linzi Hateley, and Darlene Love closed after only five performances and 16 previews. The "Ridgemont Mall" shown in the film was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria, with its exterior shot at Santa Monica Place. A much-belated and poorly-received sequel appeared in 1999; it featured another girl with telekinetic powers (who is eventually revealed to have shared a father with Carrie), but the overall plot was painfully similar to the first story. A TV movie remake was released in 2002, but the 1976 version is widely regarded as superior in both technique and fidelity to the source material. 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. Amy Irving, William Katt, Betty Buckley, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen and John Travolta are also featured.

"Ridgemont" is a fictional name, however; there is no California community by that name. Brian de Palma directed a film version of Carrie in 1976 with Sissy Spacek as Carrie. Although it is never explicitly mentioned as such in the film, Fast Times was filmed in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and many people identify the film with that area and the teen culture that existed there, or was perceived to exist there, in the early 1980s. Carrie draws strong parallels between the onset of the title character's adolesence, especially her menstruation and sexuality, and her psychic powers. Upon which, Brad utters the memorable line: "Doesn't anybody ever fucking knock anymore?". The novel also includes fictional news accounts detailing the town's destruction, the aftermath, "interviews" from survivors and transcripts from court proceedings concerning the investigation. Brad masturbates in the bathroom to this mental image until Linda, in real-life, accidentally walks in on him. Disgusted and embarrassed, she flees. Carrie later causes her house to implode, resulting in her own death.

The fantasy ends with Linda embracing Brad and kissing him. Then, after burning virtually the entire downtown Chamberlin, returns home to confront her mother, killing her by inducing cardiac arrest. The film is most memorable to some for a nude scene fantasized by Stacy's older brother Brad (Judge Reinhold) in which Phoebe Cates' character, Linda Barrett, emerges from a swimming pool wearing a red bikini, and--in slow motion, and with constant eye-contact with the camera-- she removes her bikini top, exposing her breasts. After causing a massive fire that destroys Ewin High School and trapping almost everyone inside, Carrie gets revenge on Billy and Chris (who had fled). Hand (Ray Walston), who is convinced that all students are on "dope." The film features small parts by many actors who later achieved some degree of fame: Anthony Edwards, Eric Stoltz, Nicholas Cage, and Forest Whitaker. Perceiving everyone to be laughing at her (not everyone was), she finally demonstrates the full effect of her telekinetic powers, wreaking her revenge on her terrified classmates. Another character in the film is Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn in an early film role and one for which he is still often remembered), a perpetually stoned surfer dude who faces off with history teacher Mr. After drenching Carrie and Tommy in pig's blood, Carrie is finally pushed over the edge.

Sophomore students Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Mark Ratner (Brian Backer) are both looking for love, and they are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates) and Mike Damone (Robert Romanus), respectively. It's a plan that Chris will soon regret. 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. For revenge, she and her boyfriend, Billy, decide to rig the election for prom queen, then hatch a subsequent plan to humiliate her in front of the prom-goers. The story is loosely inspired by the year Cameron Crowe, then in his early 20s, spent impersonating a high school student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. However, Chris Hargenson (the girl who hates Carrie and helped instigate the earlier episode in the showers) is incensed that she is unable to attend prom. Its title inspired Vernor Vinge's Hugo award-winning short story "Fast Times at Fairmont High". With prom fast approaching, Sue sets Carrie up with her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (the class hunk).

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American teen film directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe (who wrote both the screenplay and a book of the same name which inspired the movie). Meanwhile, Sue Snell one of the girls who had earlier teased Carrie begins to feel remorseful for her participation in the locker room antics, takes pity on her and offers to become her friend. However, Carrie gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers. Carrie tries to keep these powers under control, even though she is continually pressed to the limit. Gym teacher Miss Desjardin sees what is going on and immediately wants the other girls barred from attending the upcoming school prom as punishment. But the thought that this could be Carrie's first period never occurs to her classmates; instead of sympathizing with the frightened Carrie, they use it as an opportunity to taunt her, throwing tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping.

Carrie who is terrified has no concept of menstruation; her mother never spoke to her about it, and she has been a social outcast throughout high school. She does not fare much better at her school, Thomas Ewin High School; at the beginning of the novel, she has her first period while showering after her physical education class. The book uses fictional documents to frame the story of Carrie White, a teenager from Chamberlin, Maine, who has been bullied at home for years by her vindictive Christian fundamentalist mother. Carrie (1974) was Stephen King's first published novel.

ISBN 0743470605 (mass market paperback). ISBN 8401498880 (hardcover). ISBN 0671039725 (paperback, 2002). ISBN 0609810901 (paperback, 2001).

ISBN 0606205942 (prebound, 2001). ISBN 0671039733 (paperback, 2000). ISBN 8401499666 (hardcover, 1999). ISBN 0816156883 (library binding, 1994, Large Type Edition).

ISBN 1567800572 (paperback, 1992). ISBN 0385086954 (hardcover, 1990). ISBN 0606008233 (prebound, 1975).