Perry King plays Andrew Norris, a new music teacher at an urban school where the walls are covered in graffiti, students have to enter through metal detectors and some of the teachers are armed. He quickly comes up against a very nasty gang of school bullies, led by Stegman (Timothy Van Patten), culminating in the rape of his wife. We have Clockwork Orange gang violence meets revenge in the manner of Death Wish, this is a very violent movie that was subjected to a great deal of censorship. I have the original British Thorn EMI VHS, this was a popular choice to teens such as myself back in the 1980's, but was very heavily cut. My 7/10 reflects this. As was the case with many movies we have minors being played by actors who were in their 20's but one notable name amongst the cast is Michael J Fox. The late, great Roddy McDowell is great as a somewhat camp science teacher who ends up losing the plot and conducting his class at gunpoint. Brilliant! Class of 1984 is an excellent example of 1980's violent exploitation, I do need to seek out an uncut - or at least more complete - version. Alice Cooper sings the "I am the future" on the soundtrack, not one of his better songs in my opinion.
Review of Class of 1984
