Pump Up The Volume (1990)
Cast: Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Annie Ross
Director: Allan Moyle
Country: USA | Canada
Genre: Drama | Music
Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage for TIFF’s Back to the 90s. For more information on upcoming TIFF film series visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.
To portray suitably cool teen angst these days protagonists are required to be one of two things; they must either be a supernatural or mythical being such as a werewolf or glow-in-the-dark vampire racked with guilt and regret, or a hero in waiting, called upon to fight against an oppressive regime in a dystopian future. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was all so much easier; all you needed was a pack of cigarettes and a pile of rebellious music no-on else in your generic small town had heard of. That was cool. That was dangerous. Two films perfectly summed up this enviable style and both starred a young Christian Slater, at the time the new pretender to Jack Nicholson’s edgy outsider crown. One was Heathers, a dark drama of revenge and subversion. The other was Pump Up The Volume.
In the same way that Heathers and Footloose exist in slightly exaggerated, extreme versions of repressed small towns, Pump Up The Volume is simple in its premise.
With a career on the rise, and one that within a few years would include roles in True Romance and Murder In The First, Slater’s performance as school outsider / pirate DJ Mark Hunter in Pump Up The Volume is one of his most edgily subtle, and also one of his best. Recently relocated to small town America, Mark’s alter ego of Happy Harry Hard-on quickly becomes a cult hit among the spiritually lost students of the dysfunctional Hubert Humphrey High School. Extolling moral guidance through witty monologues and anti-establishment music Hard Harry draws unexpected attention from the government as he seeks to expose the elitist practices of the dictatorial headmistress through non-conformity, ultimately inciting outright rebellion.
In the same way that Heathers and Footloose exist in slightly exaggerated, extreme versions of repressed small towns, Pump Up The Volume is simple in its premise. Old is bad and young is good, a generational battle that goes back through cinematic history encompassing everything from Rebel Without A Cause to The Breakfast Club. As with all similarly motivated characters, Mark is one that girls want to be with and boys want to be. A cliché that may be, but it is one that resonates through the heart of Allan Moyle’s film. As a viewer you may be unfamiliar with much of the music played, will possibly find some of the more extreme personalities on display unrelatable. But none of that actually matters. This is film that shares a message with the more earnest Dead Poets Society; life is for living, whatever the consequences. Carpe Diem indeed.
There is little doubt Slater fully inhabits the role and with credible support from Samantha Mathis and Seth Green this is an ensemble cast that encapsulates the era superbly.
In casting his own screenplay that he was persuaded to direct, Moyle was searching for an actor that was “ineffably sweet and at the same time demonic.” There is little doubt Slater fully inhabits the role and with credible support from Samantha Mathis and Seth Green this is an ensemble cast that encapsulates the era superbly.
As with most films interested in teenage hormonal angst, there are blunt messages to be found; love yourself, everyone is equal and so on but focussing too heavily on this reduces the enjoyment of a film that deserves a place alongside its illustrious peers. There is also a soundtrack you will struggle to get out of your head, and one that includes Ice-T, Ivan Neville with a main theme of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” performed by Concrete Blonde. Pump Up The Volume exudes effortless cool, typified by the superbly designed amateur studio, and oozes atmospheric envy from anyone who remembers the era. Nobody was ever this cool, we just wish we were.
Pump Up The Volume exudes effortless cool, typified by the superbly designed amateur studio, and oozes atmospheric envy from anyone who remembers the era. Nobody was ever this cool, we just wish we were.
