Back in 1981, a little-known writer for Rolling Stone Magazine delivered a script based on his book about his undercover observations of teenagers at a San Diego-area high school. The rights had been purchased before the book was even published.
All that was needed now were a director and a cast and a modest little budget for a quick summer of 1982 release. It wasn’t going to be anything more than a “programmer” … a late-summer filler. The big pictures from Universal that summer would be E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (June), John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (also in June) and the musical teaming of Dolly Parton with Burt Reynolds, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (July) … all that was needed was some “filler” for mid-August.
The studio tapped a first-time director and a cast of largely unknowns for the film, and while E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial did the box office that was expected (and more) and both The Thing and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas lived up to expectations, the BIG surprise that summer was director Amy Heckerling’s film adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
The Criterion Collection has a new 4K film restoration (supervised by Heckerling) ready for both Blu-ray and double-disc DVD release on May 11.
Heckerling would go on to write and direct a series of comedy hits, including Clueless and the Look Who's Talking trilogy and Crowe would turn his Rolling Stone Magazine experience into a Best Writing Oscar for Almost Famous, plus direct his own films as well, including Jerry Maguire, Elizabethtown, Vanilla Sky, Say Anything, Singles and Aloha.
As to the cast, how about future Oscar-winner Sean Penn as stoner Jeff Spicoli, plus Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female, Dolores Claiborne, The Hateful Eight), Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop, Vice Versa, The Santa Clause), Phoebe Cates (Gremlins, Drop Dead Fred), Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Bird, Phenomenon) … and smaller parts for the likes of Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards.
Bonus features include commentary with Heckerling and Crowe, a newly prepared video session with Heckerling and Crowe hosted by Olivia Wilde and the documentary titled Reliving Our Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
There is also the re-cut television broadcast version of the film included here as well.
Also on the film restoration calendar from Criterion for release as both DVD and Blu-ray editions during the month of May are: Trances (May 4), Merrily We Go to Hell (May 11), Flowers to Shanghai (May 18) and Nightmare Alley (May 25).
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