"Fast Cars, Fast Girls, Fast Carrots ...Fast Carrots?"- The perfect tagline for Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). I suppose it would have been more practical to watch this film before Clueless, seeing that it was Clueless's predecessor, but either way, Amy Heckerling really did an outstanding job with this movie. I liked it so much because it was the perfect amount of stereotyping, mixed with more realistic situations, and much more funny humor. The difference between this film and Clueless is that this film was made for everyone. I think Clueless really cuts off half the audience when it comes to men. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a movie that everyone can enjoy because there is a role reversal of who plays the main character, and for whatever reason it is more enjoyable for women to watch stoners than it is for men to watch bubblegum girls.
This sort of role reversal is what caught my attention, and made me think of the character connections between the two films we've watched so far. I found the most similarities between Spicoli, played by Sean Penn, the lead role in Fast Times, and Travis, the stoner (a more background character in Clueless). They both advocate the use of marijuana (discretely...kind of haha). They both are absolutely horrendous students in school, and just sort of play dumb most of the time, though I would say that they both have a smart-guy line here and there. Heckerling decided to try something new by moving the stoners to the background in Clueless and moving the girly girls up to front plate, and it didn't work so well. There are many many more similarities between characters in both films and overall I think that Fast Times at Ridgemont High did a much better job of reaching a wider audience, and is definitely considered a classic. Nice Work Heckerling =)
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