Pump Up the Volume

Pump Up the Volume, written and directed by Allan Moyle. Starring Christian Slater. Originally released August 1990, Rated R. 102 minutes.

"Talk Hard. Steal the Air."

This review is a departure from the usual for this blog. I normally only review or write annotations for books. Movies have always been a big part of my life and after re-watching Pump Up the Volume recently (after at least 5 years and 20 years after the first time I saw it), I felt a brief review here was necessary.

Mark is a shy new kid in a small town Arizona high school. At night he becomes Hard Harry, an uncensored DJ on a pirate radio station. He starts to gain loyal listeners amongst the teens in the town who have been waiting for someone to jolt them out of their stupor. When Hard Harry begins to expose the hypocrisy and corruption of the school principal, the FCC is called in to end the show.

This movie was in theatres in 1990. Here was the teen experience of suburbia--the boredom, the pressures, the loneliness. Slater's portrayal of Mark/Hard Harry was so meaningful and honest to me then and when I watched it again, all of the same emotions came back to me. There are some moments when it feels a little dated and almost corny, but this cannot really be avoided with a film 20 years old.

What struck me the most watching it now (as basically an adult) was really a question. Could this movie speak to teenagers today like it did to me when I was young? Teenagers who seem to enjoy being conformists and are so connected to one another almost all of the time? Could they even relate to a pirate radio DJ in these days of Facebook, cell phones, etc.?

Uglies

Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publication date: 2005
Number of Pages: 425
Genre: Young Adult fiction (grade 6 and up)
Geographical Setting: United States, location is unclear, near a large city Time Period: future
Series: yes, first in trilogy

Plot: In the future, people have learned ways to avoid war and destruction of the earth by the wastefulness of human beings. Their cities care take care of them, every need can be fulfilled. At the age of sixteen, each citizen gets an operation to turn them from an Ugly to a Pretty. But Tally, soon to be turned pretty, begins to question if the equality of the pretty world comes at too high of a price.

Subject Headings: science fiction, authoritarianism, individuality, conformity, free will

Appeal: futuristic society including “hoverboards” and “hovercars,” operation that re-sculpts the body and face/features to create “ideal” of beauty including light skin and symmetry of the face, dystopian image of the future, disquieting vision of our current society (known as the “Rusties” in the future): the wastefulness of the Rusties with their natural resources compounded by a virus that destroys all petroleum leads to their demise, fast-moving first book of a trilogy and cliffhanger ending.

If you liked Uglies, you might enjoy: Lois Lowry’s The Giver, M.T. Anderson’s Feed, Rodman Philbrick’s The Last Book of the Universe, Ned Vizzini’s Be More Chill, Ellen Dee Davidson’s Stolen Voices, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Word

The Catcher in the Rye

Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Publication date: 1951
Number of pages: 288
Genre: fiction

Geographical Setting: New York City, Agerstown, PA, a sanatorium in California

Time Period: shortly after WWII, late 1940s/early 1950s
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Holden Caulfield narrates his experiences in New York City following his expulsion from a prep school. Holden tells his story a year later from a mental facility in Hollywood. He criticizes the other students and faculty of his school as “phony” and describes leaving in the middle of the night to take a train to New York. Instead of returning to his family right away, he checks into a derelict hotel. His days in the city involve loneliness and drunkenness and beatings. He loathes the hypocrisy of the world around him but idealizes the innocence and purity of children like his sister.

Subject Headings: conformity, growing up, cynicism, idealism, brother/sister relationships, individualism, mental breakdown, prostitute

Appeal: often on banned books lists, coming of age, first person narrative, slang and obscene language, self-reflection after mental breakdown, sexual experiences

If you liked The Catcher in the Rye, you might enjoy: Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.