Class of 1984 tells the story of Andy Norris, an idealistic and naïve music teacher at a tough Los Angeles high school who tries to put together an orchestra with his more advanced students only to find a gang of sadistic punk rockers actively dissuading new members from joining the orchestra.
The title suggests an Orwellian nightmare, but this extremely efficient and gleefully alarmist exploitation hit owes less to Big Brother than to 'Blackboard Jungle.'
Director-coscripter Mark Lester films this for maximum cathartic impact, tapping into viewers' thirst for justice and revenge against these disreputable brats as thoroughly as the filmmakers behind such eye-for-an-eye yarns as Death Wish and The Crow.
There's no point in decrying the film's risible politics, especially when it's just an enjoyable relic of Reagan-era paranoia and generational hostility.
