wyoming posted:

When taken to the screwball extreme you get Troma's Class of Nuke 'em High.


And yes, the title is exactly what you think.

Young Freud posted:

Maybe I'm unclear about who Class of 1984 was made for, but I think that the difference between "Urban Terror" and "Punksploitation" is the audience. "Urban Terror" seems to be aimed more for audiences older than teenagers. For instance, Class of 1984's primary protagonist is Perry King, with the Roddy McDowell scene holding up a classroom viewed as "a honest man pushed too far" instead of "are you a goddamn maniac?", much like Martin Balsam and the residents of the apartment building in Death Wish 3 (in fact, Death Wish 3 has a similar scene where Balsam attempts to leap into action and fails when he misloads his machinegun).

The punks in both are typically viewed as being less than sympathetic. You can have Tim Van Patten, I'll raise you Gavan O'Herlihy, who seems to be channeling Richard Widmark in Kiss Of Death, except now he has a reverse mohawk. You do get outliers, like Tuff Turf and stuff like The Warriors and The Wanderers, who cast the youth or same punk gang members as heroes but essentially make them the least objectionable of the gangbangers. The Warriors look like the guys who could ride a train with compared to the Turnball ACs or the Baseball Furies.

Edit: I forgot, since you brought up Angel, but, holy poo poo is that film creepy, with all these guys running around looking for underage poon. It was really bad when Peter Jason shows up and you're going "Hey, it's the guy from Deadwood" and the first thing that's out of his mouth he's asking is if Angel is under age, because that's what he wants. And don't think that doesn't count, because the whole movie since it plays on "Dads, look out for your daughters" fears (especially with Rory Calhoun and the police detective as stand-ins for that audience) while encouraging them to watch them have sex

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

I bring up Angel and Savage Streets as kinda that creepy teenybopper rapesploitation that was on its way out by the 80s (and kinda ended up in 80's boob comedies) but was just par for the course in the porno chic 70's. Good points all around though.

dataisplural posted:

movie loving owns. i lose my poo poo every time timothy van patten slams his head into the drier

obligatory note that TVP when on to write and direct several episodes of The Sopranos

Young Freud posted:

I really probably write a paper or something on "Urban Terror" genre, since I don't think anyone has really used that phrase to describe these films. They really do cover a large section of films, mostly from the '80s into the '90s, such as the vigilante flicks like Death Wish series, trillers like Assault On Precinct 13, punksploitation films like Class Of 1984, the rapesploitation movies like Angel and Savage Streets, and science fiction movies like Escape From New York, Robocop, and Predator 2.

Part of the reason I had never really notice it before until I read a review of I, Robot where the reviewer mentioned the heavily-armed SWAT team that surrounds Sonny and comparing them to Robocop and how we view police differently now: in Robocop, the police are running around in tactical gear because they're fighting a war on crime and are outgunned and outmanned against an escalating criminal element, while we accept the heavily-tactical nature in I, Robot as a needed defense against this unknown crime. I thought that it was an interesting statement on police militarization and it started making me reflect on the nature of film in altering reality.

Young Freud posted:

I really probably write a paper or something on "Urban Terror" genre, since I don't think anyone has really used that phrase to describe these films. They really do cover a large section of films, mostly from the '80s into the '90s, such as the vigilante flicks like Death Wish series, trillers like Assault On Precinct 13, punksploitation films like Class Of 1984, the rapesploitation movies like Angel and Savage Streets, and science fiction movies like Escape From New York, Robocop, and Predator 2.

Part of the reason I had never really notice it before until I read a review of I, Robot where the reviewer mentioned the heavily-armed SWAT team that surrounds Sonny and comparing them to Robocop and how we view police differently now: in Robocop, the police are running around in tactical gear because they're fighting a war on crime and are outgunned and outmanned against an escalating criminal element, while we accept the heavily-tactical nature in I, Robot as a needed defense against this unknown crime. I thought that it was an interesting statement on police militarization and it started making me reflect on the nature of film in altering reality.

Young Freud posted:

I really probably write a paper or something on "Urban Terror" genre, since I don't think anyone has really used that phrase to describe these films. They really do cover a large section of films, mostly from the '80s into the '90s, such as the vigilante flicks like Death Wish series, trillers like Assault On Precinct 13, punksploitation films like Class Of 1984, the rapesploitation movies like Angel and Savage Streets, and science fiction movies like Escape From New York, Robocop, and Predator 2.

InfiniteZero posted:

This is a really good idea for a paper and as an aside, the vengeance film (and related rapesploitation film) really got its start in the 70s rather than the 80s and 90s (see: Death Wish, Thriller, I Spit on Your Grave) and before that in a nascent way in films like The Virgin Spring (and there are obviously other vengeance related films before that, but I'm thinking of films that directly spawned the others you mention).

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Even that's outdated, South Central is like 90% Mexican now.

Young Freud posted:

I know that the whole "Youth In Peril/Trouble" genre predates the "Urban Terror" with stuff like Blackboard Jungle in the 1950s, which in many ways mirrors Class of 1984 with it's suburban teacher getting thrown into a world of urban violence. One of the interesting thing is that, when you get to the '90s, there gets to be fewer "Urban Terror" films (namely with Trespass and Judgement Night) as most American society begins associating "urban" and "inner-city" with African-Americans (thanks to white flight to the suburbs, etc.) and the whole "urban gangbanger" genre gets merged with black American cinema with Boyz In The Hood, Juice, Fresh, etc. Even Walter Hill, who directed The Warriors, has hinted that any remake of that film would likely have to be black South-Central LA gang members because an interracial mixed gang is now a largely unheard of thing.

Young Freud posted:

One of the interesting thing is that, when you get to the '90s, there gets to be fewer "Urban Terror" films (namely with Trespass and Judgement Night) as most American society begins associating "urban" and "inner-city" with African-Americans (thanks to white flight to the suburbs, etc.) and the whole "urban gangbanger" genre gets merged with black American cinema with Boyz In The Hood, Juice, Fresh, etc. Even Walter Hill, who directed The Warriors, has hinted that any remake of that film would likely have to be black South-Central LA gang members because an interracial mixed gang is now a largely unheard of thing.

Charlz Guybon posted:

Were interracial mixed gangs ever a thing outside film/music videos? I really don't think so, so I don't see why that should stop film makers now.

quote:

Youth often “cut and paste” bits of Hollywood’s media images and big-city gang lore into new local versions of nationally known gangs with which they may claim affiliation. Other hybrids are homegrown and consider themselves to be distinct entities with no alliance to groups such as the Bloods/Crips or Folks/People. Because these independent gangs can be the most difficult to classify, they frequently pose the biggest problems for local law enforcement. Migrating gang members appear to have contributed to the growth of hybrid youth gangs in newer gang problem localities in the 1990s. Migrant gang members may act as cultural carriers of the folkways, mythologies, and other trappings of more sophisticated urban gangs (Maxson, 1998:3).

Movies and “gangsta” lyrics also have contributed to the proliferation of bits and pieces of gang culture. Law enforcement agencies began to notice hybrid gangs after one such gang was depicted in the movie Colors (Valdez, 2000:13). Gang migration, movies, and gangsta music work together to introduce local gangs to largecity gang culture. The lack of an existing gang culture allows for modification and adaptation of the culture of urban gangs.

PlisskensEyePatch posted:

In the book the Warriors are the Destroyers and are a black youth gang that wear Mercedes emblems on their hats if I remember correctly. Reall interesting book.

I'm on team "I'd read the hell out of it" on the subject of your "urban terror" paper.

Wasn't a good chunk of the suburban paranoia surrounding Death Wish and The Warriors the inflated reports about the "wilding" attacks in 70s and 80s NYC? Basically the standard "the young will eat the old" stuff that circles around every twenty years or so?

Drunkboxer posted:

Keep it narrow I say, keep it to things like Tuff Turf.

Mister Mind posted:

I'd like to see those two dudes work together in film again sometime.

Mister Mind posted:

I'd like to see those two dudes work together in film again sometime.

Young Freud posted:

I
Class Of 1984 was particularly interesting is that Stegman and his gang would be shut down. I was watching it and could see the changes clear as day. Like, if they had slipped into a time warp and ended up in 2015, they'd get locked-up the moment they got suspected let alone caught with drugs, no suspension, expulsion with possibility with being remanded to juvenile correctional facility thanks to zero-tolerance. And if they committed a violent act, then it's none of this "well he's a minor and it shouldn't go on his permanent record", they'd be treated as adults in today's courts and probably be sent to adult prison where even Barnyard would probably meet with a gruesome fate. It's humorous to watch Norris freaking out about the metal detectors and security guard (not police school resource officer, but a rent-a-cop with a gun) when detectors are almost everywhere now, especially when you're working as an adult carrying high value items (like retail )

Drunkboxer posted:

I think that even in those days they'd be shut down. I mean multiple rape and assault charges, prostitution and drug dealing... The movie just doesn't know who law enforcement works. I mean Roddy McDowall pulls a gun on the class room in front of everyone, and isn't even arrested, yet the fake assault by the band teacher is taken seriously to further the plot.

PlisskensEyePatch posted:

1984 had some of the same vibe, especially at the flagpole seen, 1999 is just really nonsensical and bad.

Drunkboxer posted:

It's bad as in good. It's bad to the bone.

Drunkboxer posted: