School of Rock

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Movie
German title School of Rock
Original title School of Rock
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 0
Rod
Director Richard Linklater
script Mike White
production Scott Rudin
music Craig Wedren
camera Rogier Stoffers
cut Sandra Adair
occupation

School of Rock is a 2003 comedy film starring Jack Black . The script was tailored for Black by his friend Mike White , who is also involved as an actor. The director was Richard Linklater . The film was only released in Germany in 2004.

action

Dewey Finn is kicked out of his own band shortly before the biggest local rock festival, the “Battle of the Bands”. His colleagues were annoyed by Dewey's self-absorbed stage performances. His second problem: Patty, the girlfriend of his friend and landlord Ned Schneebly, increases the pressure on Dewey because he has only paid his rents very irregularly for years. Ned had once played in a metal band with Dewey. Patty gives Ned a choice: Either he'll get Dewey to pay for the rent or she'll leave him. So it will be tight for Dewey, especially since physical work is out of the question for him and he has no special qualifications. For him there is only one important thing in his life and that is rock. In his view, "he fights on the front lines and frees people with his music".

But rescue is approaching in the form of a phone call. One day when he answers a call for Ned, he is offered a job as a substitute teacher at a private school. Since Ned is not there at the moment and the job promises quick money, which Dewey urgently needs for his back payment of the rent, he pretends to be Ned and accepts the job.

At the beginning of his unofficial activity, Dewey's strategy is to just sit down and collect the money. But when he happened to overhear how the students were taking music lessons, he noticed that they had perfect command of their instruments. Now he has a vision: Dewey wants to form a band out of the children and join them in the Battle of the Bands. This would mean revenge on his old band. To do this, he creates a new, secret subject: rock music!

Dewey begins to divide the children into roles according to their talent. In addition to musicians, he recruits security people, lighting designers , costume tailors and finally the initially very skeptical class representative Summer as a band manager.

To bring rock 'n' roll to the kids , Dewey digs deep into the history of rock 'n' roll. Behavior on stage is trained using music videos , for example Pete Townshend's famous windmill arm . Using a family tree drawn in chalk on the school blackboard , Dewey explains epochal bands such as the Ramones , Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as well as finely branched sub-genres of rock 'n' roll. As a homework assignment, the unconventional teacher gives the young musicians old, style-defining rock CDs to take home with them so that they can better understand the intricacies of their instruments.

Dewey also instructs the children in rebellious thinking by depicting all authority figures as bosses (in the original "The Man") against whom they must rebel. The school band gives itself the name "School of Rock" and wants to wear their school uniforms for their first appearance - a reference to the legendary stage outfit of Angus Young . However, there are some setbacks caused by the conservative parents. Even an excursion to the Battle of the Bands disguised as an educational outcome fails due to the strict rules of the director (although Dewey had already persuaded her when she was drunk).

Shortly before the final event of the competition, the matter begins to be exposed: The paycheck is of course made out to Ned Schneebly, when he wants to ask the school, Dewey has to confess the truth to him. Escalation occurs on parents' evening. Patty calls the police. Dewey confesses everything and escapes from school. Of course there is a riot among the parents.

The next day the kids sum up the past three weeks and decide to take part in the Battle of the Bands. Summer, who is discovering more and more her qualities as a manager, organizes the "training exit", Dewey is picked up from home and the performance takes place. The parents who find out about all of this (while making hell for the headmistress) also rush to the show to save their children and witness what they have accomplished. The parents' faces light up and the achievement is accepted. Unfortunately, School of Rock doesn't win the competition, and neither does the $ 20,000. The award goes to “No Vacancy” (Dewey's old band), but at least the audience wants an encore. Dewey and the kids did it - they put on the best rock show possible.

The film finally ends with the certainty that Dewey can continue the School of Rock as a school project in the afternoon classes. As a project, even the smallest rock 'n' roll is brought closer here. Ned also finds his way back to his roots as a rock musician and helps with the school project.

criticism

"The naive story of an outsider who introduces his romantic idea of ​​rebellious life to inexperienced students is above all a one-man show for the agile main actor who, in the form of a classic story of a newcomer, has the function of nostalgic transfiguration."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

The film was nominated for the Golden Globe for best representation of a comedy or music film. Black earned the MTV Movie Award for best acting in a comedy film.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “particularly valuable”.

Gross profit

With a production cost of approximately $ 35 million, the worldwide box office was just over $ 131 million.

Trivia

  • All children play their own instruments and are musicians in real life.
  • Director Richard Linklater has a small guest appearance in the film: In the scene in which Dewey, Ned and his tyrannical girlfriend Patty are sitting in the shared kitchen, Dewey pulls out an old photo of his former heavy metal band , showing him together seen with Ned and a third man. All three have pale faces and eyes rimmed with black. The man in the middle in the photo is Richard Linklater, he represents the drummer.
  • In one scene, Dewey Finn gives an angry lecture in front of the school class, in which he denigrates the music station MTV for allegedly ruining rock 'n' roll. The shooting team was very concerned that this position could fall victim to censorship because the production company Paramount Pictures , which is responsible for the feature film, belongs to the media company Viacom , just like MTV . Regardless, Jack Black received the MTV Movie Award.
  • Actor Frank Whaley , who played guitarist Robby Krieger in the 1991 film The Doors , made a small appearance in School of Rock as a senior jury member at the Battle of the Bands.
  • When Dewey and Mrs. Mullins drive back to school after their little pub tour, the school principal starts to complain about her dissatisfaction with her gray life in the van . Originally, Mrs. Mullins kissed Dewey at the end of that conversation. This scene was cut out later, however, since otherwise difficult problems would have arisen in the flow of the plot: A deep kiss would have indicated a developing love between Mrs. Mullins and Dewey, which the film staff wanted to do without.
  • The Mooney Suzuki wrote the theme song for School of Rock, which is passed off in the film as a composition by the shy student Zack Mooneyham. The Mooney Suzuki itself can be seen in a cameo .
  • The film was sponsored by both the well-known guitar manufacturer Gibson and the amplifier manufacturer Marshall . Almost all of the instruments or amplifiers used by the actors come from these two companies. Only the bass Katie uses is a Framus 5/149 Star Bass.
  • School of Rock is one of the few feature films that is allowed to use a song by Led Zeppelin , namely the Immigrant Song .
  • The participants recorded the soundtrack in the recording studio "Echo Canyon", owned by the band Sonic Youth , in New York City. Jim O'Rourke , who has since left the band , was intensively involved in the film as a music advisor.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was produced by Jack Black , Richard Linklater , Randall Poster and Scott Rudin and released on September 30, 2003 on the Atlantic Records label. It was nominated at the Grammy Awards 2004 in the category "Best Compiled Soundtrack Album for Film, Television or Visual Media", but was subject to the soundtrack for the film Chicago in the award .

  1. School of Rock - School of Rock - 4:14
  2. Jack Black - Your Head and Your Mind and Your Brain (Dialogue) - 0:36
  3. The Who - Substitutes - 3:47
  4. No Vacancy - Fight - 2:35
  5. The Doors - Touch Me - 3:10
  6. Jack Black - I Pledge Allegiance to the Band… (dialogue) - 0:49
  7. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love - 4:10
  8. Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song - 2:23
  9. The Black Keys - Set You Free - 2:44
  10. Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen - 5:26
  11. No Vacancy - Heal Me, I'm Heartsick - 4:46
  12. The Darkness - Growing on Me - 3:29
  13. T. Rex - Ballrooms of Mars - 4:08
  14. Jack Black - Those Who Can't Do ... (dialogue) - 0:41
  15. Ramones - My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) - 3:53
  16. Wylda Rattz - TV Eye ( Stooges Cover) - 5:22
  17. School of Rock - It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll) ( AC / DC Cover) - 5:51

Continuation and adaptations

In July 2008, Jack Black announced the intention to shoot a sequel to the surprise hit. Richard Linklater was supposed to direct again . Dewey Finn (Black) was supposed to bring the roots of blues , rap , country and rock closer to a group of problem young people during the holidays . Screenwriter Mike White wrote the script, which was titled School of Rock 2: America Rocks, but in an interview in 2012, Black said that this project will not be implemented for the time being. According to him, he didn't want to do the film without the original writer White and director Linklater, but couldn't agree on a script with them.

Andrew Lloyd Webber produced a musical version of the film , which premiered on Broadway in 2015 at the Winter Garden Theater on New York City .

In 2014, the American children's television channel Nickelodeon commissioned a series adaptation of the film of the same name . Even before production began, the broadcaster ordered an entire season with 13 episodes. After the series began broadcasting in March 2016, the broadcaster extended the series to include a second, also 13-part, season after only four episodes had been broadcast.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for School of Rock . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2003 (PDF; test number: 96 236 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for School of Rock . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ School of Rock. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ^ School of Rock. Retrieved February 23, 2020 .
  5. ^ School of Rock (2003) - Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 7, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Tatiana Siegel: Paramount goes back to 'School'. In: Variety . July 13, 2008, accessed July 27, 2016 .
  7. ↑ 'School' dreams. In: New York Post . October 3, 2012, accessed July 27, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Ben Brantley: Review: 'School of Rock' Teaches the ABCs of Power Chords. In: The New York Times . December 6, 2015, accessed July 27, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Nellie Andreeva: Nickelodeon Orders 'School Of Rock' Series From Paramount TV. In: Deadline.com. August 4, 2014, accessed July 27, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Nellie Andreeva: 'School Of Rock' Renewed For Season 2 By Nickelodeon. In: Deadline.com. April 5, 2016, accessed July 27, 2016 .