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Fast Times at Richmont High
With Sean Penn
Directed by
Amy Heckerling *
Written by
Cameron Crowe (also novel) *
Plot: A story of a group of California teenagers enjoy malls, sex and rock n' roll.
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Cast:
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Sean Penn .... Jeff Spicoli
Jennifer Jason Leigh .... Stacy Hamilton
Judge Reinhold .... Brad Hamilton
Robert Romanus .... Mike Damone
Brian Backer .... Mark 'Rat' Ratner
Phoebe Cates .... Linda Barrett
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Scott Thomson (I) .... Arnold
Vincent Schiavelli .... Mr. Vargas
Amanda Wyss .... Lisa
D.W. Brown .... Ron Johnson
Forest Whitaker .... Charles Jefferson
Kelli Maroney .... Cindy
Tom Nolan .... Dennis Taylor
Blair Ashleigh .... Pat Bernardo
Ray Walston .... Mr. Hand
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The Mall Movie
Greetings fullosians and thank you for your continued support of my study of Mallology. I feel we are cutting new fresh ice with this important study. It is noteworthy that the Rockaway Park Philosophical Society which would instruct philosophers in how to act in the dime store takes such an interest in my favorite place: the mall.
The mall is not only a place but an experience as I have explained in my previous writing on the subject. Mallology
Yet while the mall is an experience, none have dared attempt to write the mall epic as say Hotel. did for the hotel industry.
Malls have been used as a backdrop in two significant movies:
Fast Times at Richmont High and Dawn of the Dead.
"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" defined the life of a teenager in the eighties. All the usual teenage problems are vividly satirized and detailed with honesty and realism: teenage pregnancy, sex, drugs, first love, teenage breakup, etc...The cast infused the characters seamlessly and with believability in the story of one school year in the life of several teens. This was nothing especially extraordinary it was just...High School and the mall.
The film transcended the typical teen movie, music, nerdy teachers, dope, nudity in a burst of the energy and fun of American teen commercialism. The movies' charm lies in its evocation of an environment, the very mall culture I speak off. While the film depicts the happiness, frustration, ugliness, and joy of being a teen during the 80's within a veneer of sophomoric humor, it portrays the ritual rite of passage in the assumption of adult responsibilities, owning cars, working, getting fired, trying to grow up too fast. This is not presented without sugar but in a rather stark, realistic way. The excitement of working at the coolest place in the mall is balanced against responsibility: getting fired and danger: getting robbed.
A TV version briefly aired with some of the cast, but the movie's popularity was not strong enough to draw an audience to it.
The Galleria which served as the backdrop for the film regrettably is no more. The film was shot in the Sherman Oaks Galleria Mall in Van Nuys California. The mall failed to survive the 1980s and has been demolished.
Yet in High Times, the mall itself is not the story; it is the stage, the setting the prop. The people not the backdrop are the story
The Mall Genre
Could there be such a thing as a mall movie, one like hotel principally about the place?
I have debated this thoroughly with my collegues in Mallology and I have concluded the mall could only be a stage not a story in itself.
The mall never assumed as with the old first class hotels or department store a personality of its own. The mall swayed with the times and the demands of the market. Thus there never was an internal conflict such as alluded to in A Christmas Carol of a business operation bucking the times to preserve an ideal manner of doing business.
The old five star hotels and the family owned department stores which struggled to preserve quality service against the tides of changing, competetive times might be capable of telling such a story as the book and movie Hotel eloquently depicts.
The mall as much as I love the excitement of it never grew such firm roots that it itself could be the center of controversy over direction. The mall's sight never transcended nor passed the very next sale.
Professor Gary Teach
 Professor Gary Teach is a keen student of American culture and history. His studies of contemporary American culture sadly tracked the decline of the family owned pizzera and its disappearance from the Mall. Professor Teach's Magnum Opus, the first class original work on Mall-ology was wrought from years of first hand investigation into the subject. The incisive study won him the designation: RPPS Lord of Commerce.
Other writings of Professor Teach include:
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