Everyone has to start their professional career somewhere, and 1983’s Class would be that somewhere for Virginia Madsen.
Her first role would be small but for most of the intended audience, an unforgettable one but one she has expressed regret at, or at least an “Oh. Ew. I don’t want to talk about that.” when asked about the movie in a 2013 interview with AV Club. She wouldnt go into much detail but she’ would say “Those guys were assholes. They were really shitty to me. It was bad. Bad memories.”
A few years later in 2017 AV Club would ask one of her co-stars, Rob Lowe, about the quote and he would back her up with “Her big part in that movie required her shirt to get ripped off, and looking back, it couldn’t be a more egregious, vintage, lowbrow, 1980s Porky’s-esque, shoehorned-in moment.”
Certainly not hard to imagine that the movie wouldn’t hold fond memories.
And, that’s fair enough. This kind of scene was common in 80’s Teen Movies, and It’s a scene that has clearly stayed with her over the years, a reminder of how the Hollywood machine sometimes capitalises on young talent without giving much thought to respect or boundaries.
Billed as a comedy-drama Class, is a weird kind of film. At least by today’s standards. It never quite knows what it is trying to be. When it’s funny, it’s. Well, actually not that funny but you can see the humour that they were trying to go for. And when it’s serious, it’s jarring at best.
The cast wasn’t anything to be sniffed at, or at least it wouldn’t be today. Joining Virginia Madsen and the aforementioned Rob Lowe in the credits are John Cusack, Andrew McCarthy, Jacqueline Bisset and Alan Ruck to name but a few.
It could be argued that if Class was made later in most of its cast’s career it would be written about as an ensemble piece.
The plot of the film follows the story of new to the school student, Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy), who is shown the way of the school, and world, by Squire Franklin Burroughs, the Forth (Rob Lowe), or “Skip” for short. Skip encourages Jonathan to come out of his shell, takes him to bars, encourages him to meet women and that kind of thing. Problem being that the first woman who comes across happens to be an older woman, and, rather predictably that older woman, Ellen (Jaqueline Bisset) turns out to be – Skips Mother.
Drama ensues, hi-jinks happen, other things kick off in the School and, you know the rest if you’ve ever seen an eighties American school film. And if you’ve not, you’ve not missed much.
Still, as I said – Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
This might not have been the dream or ideal start to a career for Virginia, but it was a learning experience in it’s own right, and thankfully one that wouldn’t define her career.
Availability:
Class isn’t hard to track down, heck I can’t tell you the amount of bargain bins and second hand shops I’ve seen the DVD in over the years. As for Blu-Ray, as far as I can tell it’s only ever had an American release but seems to be freely available at the time of writing.
Based on your location (or, use of VPN) you’ll probably be able to find it available on streaming services somewhere. Again, at the time or writing it’s available on both Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
Trailer:
| Home | Next > |
