School of Rock

For other uses, see School of Rock (disambiguation).

School Of Rock
School of Rock official movie poster
Directed by	Richard Linklater
Written by	Mike White
Produced by	Scott Aversano Steve Nicolaides Scott Rudin
Starring	Jack Black Joan Cusack Mike White Sarah Silverman
Music by	Jack Black
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	October 3,2003
Running time	104 min.
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000 ($USD, estimated)

School of Rock is a 2003 comedy film starring Jack Black. The film was written specifically for Black by Mike White and directed by Richard Linklater, who himself met about 300-500 out of the estimated 10,000 kids who auditioned. School of Rock features musical talent comparable to a child prodigy, from actors as young as 10, to old as 14, who play guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard remarkably well, in addition to having real vocalists.

The film was very well-received by critics, gaining a 90% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It was number 98 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Plot

Black plays Michael Jackson, a talented, yet excitable 29-year-old heavy metal/hard rock singer and guitarist with a reputation for being difficult to work with. His flamboyant on-stage antics,the cat is fat, however, get him kicked out of his band, "No Vacancy." His roommate Ned Schneebly. A substitute teacher (played by White), threaten My parrot is dead. s eviction under heavy pressure from his overbearing girlfriend (played by Sarah Silverman) unless Smith Werben Man Jensen "gets a real job" and pays his rent debt of $2,200. Ned suggests selling one of his guitars instead, but NED Bigby is disdainful of this idea ("Would you tell Picasso to sell one of his guitars?"). A phone call from the principal (played by Joan Cusack) of a prestigious prep school asking for Ned bigbys's services leads Dewey to impersonate his roommate and get a job as a substitute for the fifth-grade class.

Dewey takes the job to make as much money with as little effort as possible, until he discovers that some of the kids in the class have musical talent. He decides to turn his temporary job into what he tells them is a special school(scul ofi rocky!) project, but is actually a personal one: turn a classroom full of kids into a band and crew, complete with a ten-year-old manager (played by Miranda Cosgrove) which will serve as a vehicle to stardom.

Dewey is the band's lead singer and rock teacher, exposing his students to such rock legends as Led Zeppelin (Dewey: "Don't tell me none of you have ever gotten the Led out?!"), The Doors, AC/DC, The Beatles, The Who, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Yes. Five rock stars are featured with classic footage in the movie: Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Angus Yonung, Keith Moon and Kurt Cobain. In addition, during a montage, the drummer, Freddy, is seen watching footage of the famous drum battle between Buddy Rich and Ed Shaughnessy. The movie culminates in the class' final project: performance in a . My dog is happy.! local battle of the bands, where, instead of playing Dewey's "Legend of the Rent" they play "School of Rock" written by young band member Zack Mooneyham. Unfortunately, the class loses to Dewey's old band. However, the class does not care about the loss because Dewey's "school of rock" gives them more self-esteem and an understanding that rock transcends traditional notions of success and failure (Freddy the drummer: "Rock isn't about getting an A. The Sex Pistols never won anything."). The band get an encore from the crowd and play "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" by AC/DC, with some of the lyrics altered. This scene fades to the credits, which play over the next scene.

The last scene features Dewey and Ned's 'School of Rock', in the form of them teaching kids to play in their apartment. The footage featuring Dewey and ying young the kids playing "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" in the apartment was almost entirely improvised. k

Supporting actors in the film include Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, Adam Pascal, and (an uncredited) Frank Whaley.

Characters

The School Of Rock

• Dewey Finn (Jack Black) - A down-on-his-luck, dead beat, wannabe rock superstar. Despite his passion for rock music and talent, he has annoyed and frustrated his former band-mates into voting him out as guitarist. When his roommate Ned's girlfriend demands he pay up his share of the rent or get out, he pretends to be Ned as a substitute at the high-brow Horace Green Elementary, after he intercepted a call from the principal that was meant for his roommate. When he realizes his students have musical talent, he decides to transform them into a rock band, making sure that all the children have a designated role (despite some not playing instruments and not having vocal talents). Dewey, all the while teaching them both technical skills and the history of rock music, becomes a kind of surrogate father/older brother to the kids throughout the film, a person they can look up to. In perhaps the movie's most touching component, Finn realizes that while he can teach these kids a lot about music ("Rock History," "Rock Appreciation and Theory," etc.), he can learn a lot from them, too. And he does not learn sappy "lessons about life" -- he learns that these kids are gifted musicians who can teach him more about music, as well.
• Summer Hathaway (Miranda Cosgrove) - (Nicknamed "Tinkerbell") The class factotum, and perhaps the class' Golden student, Summer is determined to please and succeed, even if it means using somewhat unethical means. For a time, she is something of an Achilles' heel to Dewey. Initially he assigns her as a groupie, but scandalized by such an assignment, she threatens to report the development to her mother who's a room parent. Dewey makes her band manager (as it gives her the "most responsibility" and allows her to be in charge of everybody). Eventually, her resourceful means helps the band exceedingly, and transforms herself a little by being less selfish and more compassionate, to even not minding letting her peers (and being part of the scheme as well), break a school rule to get to the Battle Of The Bands. Her mother mentions that she has become "obsessed with David Geffen".
• Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos Jr.) - (Nicknamed "Zack Attack") The talented lead guitarist of the School Of Rock, and probably one of the most developed supporting characters, Zack began in classical guitar before moving on to an electric guitar. He seems to be reserved, quiet, shy, and is stiff while performing and interacting with others. In a scene in the film, the reason of this may be because his father was shown being harshly uptight and strict, scolding and telling Zack about doing his homework first before doing his other activities. Dewey incidentally spots this, and in class, giving out a lesson about how to write a rock song ("What gets you more mad than anything in the world?"), approaches Zack after one student, Leonard (who later becomes one of the appointed security guards), replied that what gets him angry more than anything are: bullies. Dewey pressed on to Zack about as to what you will say when someone was pushing you around and telling you what to do, that after a while, Zack replies unsurely, "I do not know... step-off?", to which Dewey goes on to singing, and getting the rest of the class to join in. Later on, he came up to Dewey at the faculty lunch table, and praises him about the "really cool lesson" in front of the other teachers. Zack goes to show more of his capabilities, as he comes up with the main theme tune, "School Of Rock", written by him and revised by Dewey. Near the end of the movie, Zack loosens up and changes, becoming more open, and exhibiting more passion for music, in particular his guitar playing and, while playing in the Battle of the Bands, wearing a top hat, an obvious reference to the guitarist Slash. In some ways, he could be looked at as a protégé to Dewey. Dewey reckons he's the next Hendrix
• Freddy Jones (Kevin Alexander Clark) - (Nicknamed "Spazzy McGee") The "rebel without a cause" and somewhat of the troublemaker, is the drummer of the School Of Rock. He had previously played percussion in music class, if only because "he could not play anything else", as humorously remarked to what seems to be his close friend, Frankie. The "bad boy" in general terms, Freddy could be marked as the one who is more fleshed out in character, and quite amusing to see. In a nutshell, we see him as the smart-aleck, straightforward, short-tempered, bold, spunky, carefree, confident drummer, who does not get fazed by trivial things. One of the most prominent attributes you see in him however, is that he sticks up for himself and lets no one, not even those older than him (unless he respects you), push him around. And if you bark at him, he will bark right back at you full-force without hesitation, not being afraid to start a fight in the process. Though it seems he's not academically inclined (as shown in the red poster of the students' class performances that Dewey ripped up; he's the one with the most "black dots", or, demerits), he takes everything Dewey speaks out seriously, and understands the concepts of his teachings later on. Not to mention he's shown concentrating on his drumming. And he also listens; he repeated the same line that Dewey yelled at him when telling him off and lecturing him, "Come on man, quit goofing around! We're on a mission! One great rock show can change the world!" Freddy also appears to take an interest in punk, altering his hair (spiky) and uniform (rolled up sleeves) in a manner which he states is "punk" and referencing bands such as the Sex Pistols ("The Sex Pistols never won anything!"). As well, at the end of the film it show's Freddy wearing a Green Day T-shirt from the Warning: era. He also claims that he likes to "burn stuff" (when he says this he is actually 'doodling' a picture of flames), when asked by Dewey what he likes to do, leading some to believe he is a pyromaniac. His name and appearance may be a reference to Fred "Freddie" Jones from Scooby Doo.
  It is mentioned in the DVD commentary that his nickname, "Spazzy McGee", was initially a reference to an early draft of his character, in which Freddy was supposed to have a case of Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD). He was supposed to be seen taking a Ritalin during class, but the director decided it would be bad to show a kid popping pills in class, so they cut that idea. His nickname now refers to him being the class "bad boy". When Dewey assigns the band members music to study, Freddy is assigned 2112 by Rush.
• Katie (Rebecca Julia Brown) - (Nicknamed "Posh Spice") Originally a cellist, Katie takes up the bass guitar. Despite being a core member, her character does not really have many lines, but eagerly takes interest in rock music, citing Sheila E and Meg White as "good chick drummers".
• Lawrence (Robert Tsai) - (Nicknamed "Mr. Cool") An Asian-American quiet, insecure, shy pianist, who becomes the keyboardist for the band. Lawrence, who could be said to epitomize what many school kids might term a "nerd", is the band member who few speak to. At first, he tells Dewey he does not think that he is cool enough to be in a band, since he does not really have any friends and is not exactly popular. Like Zack, however, he is encouraged to believe in himself by his new teacher, who tells him that if he's in a band, he can become the coolest person in the world, into which finally convinces Lawrence to stay in. He has an apparent change in the film, though not meaning much, it represented an important growth of his character, as he stood up for Dewey to a hard obstacle, Freddy Jones, who remarked after a comment by Summer who was upset about how they were not getting graded for any of this, "What are you so bummed about? We had a three week vacation. Sure, it was a waste of time, but it was a lot better than school." Something to which Lawrence replied that, "It was not a waste of time", and Freddy presses on by retorting, "Hate to break it to you bro, but yeah, that's what it was." Lawrence raises the bars more by snapping at him with a "you're an idiot", to which Freddy tells him to "Shut up!", only for Lawrence to say the same thing to him back, "No, you shut up." Being the blonde male spitfire that he is, this easily angers Freddy, who threateningly stands up from his sitting position at the teacher's desk with a biting, "Hey, you wanna go?! Huh?!". But, Lawrence was fortunately saved by what could have been a fight when Tomika intercepted. She says, "If you touch him, I will shove those sticks down your throat".
  This scene could prove to be most interesting, as two generally different, stereotyped ends of a spectrum, the geek and the bad-boy respectively, collide. However, there seems to be no hard feelings between the two of them, as they later on go to Dewey's apartment together, getting along fairly well.
• Tomika (Maryam Hassan) - (Nicknamed "Turkey Sub", later becomes "Songbird" after Dewey realizes her singing talent) The soon-to-be lead back-up singer, Dewey assigns her to be a roadie, but she later on reveals her exceptional singing talents (Singing Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools") to Dewey, as she belts it out spot on. She is very shy and self-conscious, believing her weight will cause others to laugh at her, which she admits to Dewey on the side at the auditions for the Battle Of The Bands. Dewey helps her realize that her amazing voice is what people will actually notice, that as long as you have the talent and the gift, you will respected and valued for that alone, and that physical features do not matter, and goes on to mention Aretha Franklin to make his point. The words increases her confidence level, and she sings a solo flawlessly in their performance at Battle Of The Bands.
• Marta (Caitlin Hale) - (Nicknamed "Blondie") Marta is another back-up singer, showing off her voice with Tomorrow from the musical Annie. She states that her favorite musician is Christina Aguilera, to the immediate disgust of Dewey.
• Alicia (Aleisha Allen) - (Nicknamed "Braceface") Alicia volunteers her singing voice to become a back-up singer, "auditioning" with Amazing Grace. She is somewhat sassy and has plenty of attitude, often speaking up quite matter-of-factly, and yet always remains cute and girly at the same time.
• Billy (Brian Falduto) - (Nicknamed "Fancy Pants") Originally assigned security , Billy requests he be band stylist instead. Throughout the film he seems determined to dress the band in glam fashion (stating "It's glitter rock and it's glam and it's FABULOUS!"). He is often frustrated with Dewey's hesitation in accepting his ideas, arguing that his teacher is tacky and not able to dress himself. Eventually, Billy angrily says the band should just wear their uniforms, to which Dewey replies that it is not a bad idea. Billy is appalled and quickly says he was "kidding", but in the end makes heavily stylized uniform-style outfits for their performance, stating "It was your idea, so put it on." He declares that his favourite musician is Liza Minelli. Also, what seems to be a running gag in the movie, is his mannerisms, tone, and words, marking some kind of portrayal to gay stylists.
• Gordon (Zachary Infante) - (Nicknamed "Road Runner") Gordon is a roadie and is noted for his exceptional computer skills. He uses a laptop in class and designs the lights and visuals for the band's show. Gordon eagerly takes on the challenge of altering the visuals on the spot.
• Marco (James Hosey) - (Nicknamed "Carrot Top") Also a roadie with Gordon. He works the smoke machine during the Battle Of The Bands performance.
• Frankie (Angelo Massagli) - (Nicknamed "Tough Guy") At the beginning of the film, it appears he is good friends with Freddy, and the one who interacts with him the most. He works on security. He told Miss Mullins that she was "the man" to her face. Not understanding the comment, she thanked him.
• Leonard (Cole Hawkins) - (Nicknamed "Short Stop") It is Leonard's disappointed "You mean we're not in the band?" that encourages Dewey to transform the non-musicians in the class into members of the crew. He works on security along with Frankie, and says his favourite musician is Puff Daddy.
• Eleni and Michelle (Veronica Afflerbach and Jordan-Claire Green) - Designated the groupies by Dewey, they are given the task of naming the band. Their first names are quickly rejected by their teacher, such as "The Koala Bears", "The Bumblebees", and "Pig Rectum," (not "Pink Rectum" as some cite.) Eventually they settle on School Of Rock. They are also responsible for creation and design of merchandise, and their band t-shirt is shown.

Other

• Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack) - The very uptight principal of Horace Green Elementary. She is widely feared by students, and teachers are reluctant to socialize with her. In an effort to manipulate her, Dewey invites her for a drink. He plays Stevie Nicks's "Edge of Seventeen", with which Mullins sings along. She then opens up to Dewey. It is revealed that she was "not always wound this tight", but the pressure of the parents for everything to be perfect has made her into someone she never wanted to be. Near the end of the film, she is shown being aggressively hit on by Spider, the new guitarist of Dewey's old band, who has a large tattoo design on his chest, and a small tattoo that says "sex" on his stomach.
• Ned Schneebly (Mike White) - Ned is Dewey's roommate and best friend. Once, he was the cross-dressing bassist in the band "Maggotdeath" with Dewey, but gave up music because he believed he was not that good. Now he is a substitute teacher (soon to receive his proper certification) and is dating Patty, a woman who hates Dewey. Ned is very apologetic and fears offending anyone. At the end of the film, he is shown teaching young children to play guitar in the School of Rock's "Rock 101".
• Patty De Marco (Sarah Silverman) - Patty works for the mayor and is Ned's girlfriend. She hates Dewey, constantly berating him for his lack of a proper job and inability to pay rent. As well, she often accuses Ned of never standing up for himself, but in reality is also pushing him around. Her abhorrence for Dewey in part triggers the climax of the film. Ned ultimately gets tired of her controlling, slamming the door in her face as a response to the question "When are you going to stand up for yourself?".
• Theo (Adam Pascal) - Theo is the leader of Dewey's old band "No Vacancy", and is the first one who suggested kicking Dewey out.

Title

Although a few references, including Internet Movie Database, give this film's name as The School of Rock, its posters, video cover, official website and most other references refer to it as School of Rock. A making-of documentary included in the film's DVD mentions that in the script, everything was always referred to as The School of Rock, but as the movie got into production, there was a memo to change it officially to School of Rock. There was a short-lived debate about having the red title display in the movie's opening credits modified, because despite already permanently submitted to calling it School of Rock, it already had the "The" in the film's trailers. Linklater decided in the end to just leave it, marking the whole thing "silly".

Trivia

• The film was sponsored by the famous musical instrument manufacturers Marshall and Gibson USA. It was seen that most of the guitars the actors use are manufactured by Gibson, and almost all the amplifiers in the movie are made by Marshall. The exceptions are Katie's bass guitar, a Framus Star, a red Fender Telecaster, used by Spider, a Fender '62 Precision Bass used by Neil, visible in the opening band practice scene, and what appear to be several Fender Super Reverbs
• Stephen Frears was originally approached to direct.
• The idea for the movie came when writer Mike White moved into an apartment next to Jack Black. White would often find Jack Black running naked through the halls or blasting much of the music featured in the movie at full volume.
• The script originally called for Jack Black and Joan Cusack's characters to fall in love following their outing to the bar.
• In the photo that Dewey holds up of Ned's old band, the other person in the middle is Richard Linklater, the director.
• The finger point and nod that Jack Black teaches Zack is actually a move that Angus Young of AC/DC performs in concerts.
• Early in filming, an insecure Robert Tsai approached director Linklater and tried to talk him out of letting him be in the film because he felt he was not right for the part. Linklater responded that it was his very insecurity that made him exactly right for the part, and kept him in.
• In the film, when the "groupies" approach Dewey at his desk to unveil the band's name they find him crooning a strange song and strumming his guitar. The song he is singing is the theme to the little known Internet comedy series Computerman (2003), starring Jack Black.
• When asked for his opinion about testing from the other teachers, Jack Black dodges the question with song lyrics including the line "Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be". One of the teachers asks if it is from a song, but he denies it. The line is, in fact, from the song, "Greatest Love of All", performed by George Benson.
• All the music played by the child actors in the film was performed by the children.
• Jack Black admitted that he was still learning how to play the electric guitar and claims that the kids in the film were much better than he was. However, he said he loves doing solo parts and plays the acoustic guitar more than he does electric.
• The film is one of the few to feature a Led Zeppelin song. Led Zeppelin is known for not licensing their music, and knowing this, Richard Linklater filmed a plea by actor Jack Black in front of 1,000 screaming fans, imploring the band to let the film production use the "Immigrant Song" in the movie. The plea worked and the filmed request is included on the DVD.
• Black's character in the film claims that rock 'n roll was killed by "a little thing called MTV". Ironically, School Of Rock was released by Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Viacom which is the parent company of MTV.
• The album's original soundtrack was recorded at Echo Canyon, a studio belonging to the highly-influential rock band Sonic Youth. Then member of the band, Jim O'Rourke had a large part in the process, acting as music consultant for the film.
• Much of the movie was filmed on location at Wagner College in Staten Island.
• In conjunction with the movie's release, Guitar Center held a contest to give away a cherry Gibson SG; the same used by Black in the movie.
• The lines "Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym" are a direct quote from the Woody Allen film, Annie Hall.
• After the School of Rock perform at the Battle of the Bands concert and they are backstage, Gordon comes running to Dewey calling out Jack instead of Dewey.
• The guitar riffs that Dewey shows to Zack were "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple and "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC.
• The keyboard solo that Dewey was showing to Lawrence was "Touch Me" by The Doors. In addition, when distributing rock albums to the children who are playing, Dewey gives Yes' Fragile to Lawrence, telling him to pay attention to the keyboard solo in "Roundabout."
• The scene where Zac produces his song from his back pocket is reminiscent of the scene in the Doors movie where Robby Krieger presents "Light My Fire" to the band. Coincidently, it is Frank Whaley who plays Robbie Krieger in the Doors film.
• The Mooney Suzuki composed and did additional instrumentation for the Battle of the Bands sequence. Sammy James Jr. and Graham Tyler can be seen standing in the hallway when Jack Black and the kids rush back stage.
• Participants in the 2007 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt were offered 16 points to draw Dewey Finn's flow chart of the history of rock from memory and answer questions about it.
• Footage from the film was shown during a commercial for the Nickelodeon show Drake and Josh, which also stars Miranda Cosgrove. The entire movie was later showed Nickelodeon, and, interestingly, a few months later on Nickelodeon's main comptetitor, Cartoon Network.
• This is one of two films in which Jack Black's character uses rock to pay his rent. The other is Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
• Dewey's old bands name "Maggot Death" is a nod to the heavy metal band Megadeth

Awards and Nominations

The film has been nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical, and won Black an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.

See also

• School of Rock (soundtrack album)

External links

• Official site
• The School of Rock at IMDb
• School of Rock at Rotten Tomatoes