Law of the Fist - Terror in High School

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Movie
German title Law of the Fist - Terror in High School
Original title Three O'Clock High
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Phil Joanou
script Richard Christian Matheson ,
Thomas E. Szollosi
production David E. Vogel
music Tangerine Dream
camera Barry Sonnenfeld
cut Joe Ann Fogle
occupation

My Darling - Terror in high school (original: Three O'Clock High ) is an American comedy film of Phil Joanou from the year 1987 .

action

Jerry Mitchell is a slightly clumsy, dreamy, but always honest and ambitious high school student. Buddy Revell, on the other hand, is legendary for his enormous aggressiveness. Even before he even comes to Jerry's school, there are stories and legends surrounding him about how aggressive he is and that he was first released from prison and now in the open prison. And so that he should feel well received at his new school, Jerry is assigned to write a welcome article about him. But when he first met him in the men's room, he made the big mistake of touching Buddy. Buddy just doesn't like touch. He really hates her, so he promises Jerry to beat him up at three in the afternoon after school.

After the word got around quickly, Jerry received some tips on how to behave and how to get rid of Buddy. Jerry's best friend cracks Vince Buddy's closet in order to have him expelled from school with some prohibited items. Franny, Jerry's supposed friend, offers to let him connect with her so that her guardian angel can protect him too. But Jerry takes the advice of his sister Brei, who says that he should just skip. During the subsequent attempt to leave the premises, however, he is picked up by Duke Herman, so that Jerry has to stay on the school premises.

After Jerry learns that all bets are against him, he comes up with the idea to let someone else fight for him, so he asks the athlete Craig. He accepts, for a fee of $ 450, and tries to beat up Buddy in the school library. Buddy, on the other hand, just smiles tiredly and beats Craig up again. Jerry, who has watched all of this, not only fears his own beating all the more, he also finds the courage to misbehave in class so much that he hopes to have to detain for it. He gives such an intense lecture on love and honor to the assembled class and his teacher that he ultimately kisses them and faints. When he later woke up, instead of the detention he had hoped for, he only received the phone number of his teacher.

Now that all the escape attempts and aggression against Buddy have not helped, Jerry finally tries on the friendly tour. When he finds his place next to Buddy in math class, he lets him copy his math test. But for fraud, both are summoned to the director, where it turns out that Buddy did not need Jerry's help. Jerry is surprised and asks again that a fight is not necessary and that they can get along, if not even become friends. Buddy refuses, and Jerry offers him in return to forget about the whole thing for $ 350. Buddy accepts the money and waives the upcoming fight, but at the same time he expresses all his contempt for Jerry and his cowardice. But that's exactly what Jerry can't stand up to, so he demands that the fight take place on time.

The whole school, including several teachers, gathers on time to watch the fight. And at first it also looks like the favorite, Buddy Revell, will quickly prevail against his victim. But Jerry collects himself after several hard blows, takes heart and not only beats Buddy, he also beats him to the run. Then he receives from all his classmates and, surprisingly, from Buddy as well, expressions of respect for his courage in facing the danger.

criticism

The film received mixed reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website scored 5 positive out of 8 professional reviews, which corresponds to a value of 63%. The film was also received with above-average reactions from the general public, because at the same time 70% of 5587 users rated the film positively. This in turn is confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , another platform on which normal users can submit their film reviews, because there 4713 users gave the film an above-average 6.9 out of 10 possible points. (As of December 18, 2011)

“[...] is as good as you can expect a film about a schoolyard showdown. It's even better than that, and that's exactly his problem. […] The director, Phil Joanou, has turned every scene into a meaningful marvel. "

- Janet Maslin in the New York Times

“I was never interested in getting into a fight with the toughest boy in high school. And now that I'm out of high school, I'm even less interested in a movie on the subject, especially if it's a bad one. […] There are a million ways to avoid the fight, but not in Rambo's Hollywood. [...] The plot of the film is pretty stupid, but that's only because the filmmakers are counting on the upcoming battle to add tension. "

- Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times

“Naive fairy tale about the questionable message that violence can only be defeated by force. Formally an equally headstrong and delightful mixture of high school clothes, action film and twelve noon "motifs, which the talented director uses as a 'playground' for ideas that are sophisticated in terms of both camera technology and aesthetics; in this respect, a quite remarkable finger exercise in terms of cinema and cinematic storytelling."

- Lexicon of international film

background

In the original version, Jerry asks his teacher Miss Farmer what her favorite book is. She then replies The Turn of the Screw . In the book, a student kisses his teacher.

Steven Spielberg, who worked as an executive producer but didn't want to be named later, thought Joanou was going to make a teen film like Karate Kid and wondered when he first saw the film what happened to the Karate Kid unless he made a Scorsese film (what happened to Karate Kid? You made a Scorsese film!) .

The plot of My Darling - Terror in high school served a result bosom enemies (Breast Cancer Show Ever, the ninth episode of the 12th season) from the animated series South Park as a template. In the episode Bully for Steve from the animated series American Dad , the fight in which Stan takes on his former tormentor Stelio Kontos is based on the final fight of the film. More often, the series only mentions the times when you will face your tormentor. It's always three in the afternoon.

publication

After the film had its theatrical release in the United States on October 9, 1987, it grossed a total of 3.6 million US dollars. In Germany the film was released directly on VHS in September 1988 and on DVD on June 10, 2010, with a misleading cover that has nothing to do with the film .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Three O'Clock High (1987). rottentomatoes.com, accessed December 18, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Janet Maslin : Three O'Clock High (1987) on nytimes.com, October 9, 1987 (English), accessed December 18, 2011
  3. ↑ Roger Ebert : Three O'Clock High (PG-13) in suntimes.com of October 9, 1987 (English), accessed on December 18, 2011
  4. Jump up ↑ Law of the Fist - Terror in High School. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Three O'Clock High Behind The Scenes on fast-rewind.com , accessed December 18, 2011
  6. ↑ Three O 'Clock High (1987) on boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed December 18, 2011