Rock 'n' Roll High School

At Vince Lombardi High School the new principal bans rock music. Riff Randell, a Ramones fan, resists, and when the band comes to town the school goes entirely out of control. The film ends with the building blown up. Allan Arkush directed, Roger Corman produced. P.J. Soles plays Riff; the Ramones play themselves. The project did not begin as a rock film. Corman wanted to ride the disco wave and it was to be called Disco High; Arkush and his team managed to turn it into rock and roll and settled on the Ramones. The budget is low, the shoot was fast, the editing rough. That is exactly where its energy comes from. The concert scenes were shot as real performances, and the best footage of the band in any film is here. It did no great business on release but became a cult item through midnight screenings and video. Who it is for: viewers who like punk and cheap seventies teen comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a properly built plot; the film never attempts one.