ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979) **** Even Brando couldn't have imagined the Ramones. Yes Santa, there is a Ramonesmobile. I was 16 when I first saw this film in a wooden dive of a movie theater towards some edge of Seattle . There was an opening band (for the movie!), and they let kids drink. It was heaven. There was the sense of possibility, nobility and endowment that was so common at that time, that's been somehow banished to esoteric and enlightened circles. There was that sense that you really can do what you want, and that doing is good. In the years between, far too many have settled for making someone else's dreams come true, and those dreams have too often been limited to minor league commerce and McDonaldland aesthetics. But for a brief shining moment, the Ramones showed us the way; and they'll show you, too, if you just push play. Don't tell me about borrowed plots and hacked lines and how sophistication is a virtue: don't analyze so much: you can analyze the spirit right out of everything, because you always miss something: because of the inherent limitations of reason (see Kierkegaard, Jaspers, et al .) Just sit back and let the exuberance and innocent ignorance wash you clean. Fall madly in love with P.J. Soles or Dey Young or Marla Rosenfield, or just turn into Vincent Van Patten and decide you'll take any of 'em. Do that with the worthy pleasures of life, and defy the lightthievers! Go forth and be robbed no more! Shine in the bonfire of the destruction of that which sought to destroy you. Snails and slugs are after us? Indeed. Burn, principal's office, burn!
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