Celebrating back to school this August, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on AFI alum Amy Heckerling’s feature film directorial debut, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982), which was released 42 years ago this month and is included on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs list of the funniest American films of all time. Based on the book of the same name by Rolling Stone journalist Cameron Crowe, which he wrote while attending high school undercover to capture an authentic depiction of adolescence, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH marked Crowe’s first screenplay and launched the careers of actors who were just getting their start in movies, including other future Oscar® winners Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker and Nicholas Cage (who was billed as Nicholas Coppola). Diverging from standard coming-of-age films at a time when male fantasies were both endorsed and expected, FAST TIMES maintained strong female perspectives and represented young women as active participants in the evolution of their own sexual and intellectual maturity.[i] Heckerling ingeniously conjured, critiqued and ultimately undermined teen movie tropes in the film’s narrative and in its conscientious camerawork, but the results were not overtly conspicuous or judgmental; she managed “the extremely difficult feat of constructing a tenable position for the female spectator without threatening the male.”[ii] Instituting a teenage female gaze, as well as maintaining the outlook of their masculine-identified counterparts, was novel in films marketed to adolescents and opened doors of possibility for cinematic feminism in one of Hollywood’s most popular and often misogynistic genres.

Amy Heckerling got her start making short films, including her AFI thesis project, GETTING IT OVER WITH, which followed a 19-year-old woman wanting to lose her virginity before her next birthday. The picture was considered for an Oscar® nomination[iii] and drew the attention of Universal Pictures’ president Thom Mount, who had optioned Crowe’s book before it was published in 1981.[iv] Although Mount first considered another AFI alum, David Lynch, to direct, Lynch was reticent about the genre since it was such a marked departure from the experimental pictures he was closely associated with and the production was entrusted to Heckerling, a 27-year-old newcomer.[v] Heckerling was introduced to the script by producer Art Linson, and after meeting with Universal executives she began working on the story with Crowe on the premise of making the shopping mall a major character to center the performers in one location, aside from school.[vi] At the time, teen comedies rarely depicted this burgeoning center of youth consumer culture, but it inspired other films from the 1980s such as Martha Coolidge’s VALLEY GIRL (1984). The genre was also widely relegated to B-movie status and was not taken seriously by major studios, despite several classics produced in the 1950s including REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955), but the merits of FAST TIMES resulted in a transcendence of its rank and in 2005, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for being significant to American history and culture.

During production, however, Universal paid little attention to the low-budget ($4.5 million) comedy, and Crowe was warned that making a film nearly devoid of adults, for a teen audience, would be destined to fail because youths were not a large enough demographic to support ticket sales.[vii] The question of teen audience attendance became even more dire when the picture was initially rated X by the MPAA due to a love scene in which actor Robert Romanus is exposed naked. Heckerling argued that men and women received unequal treatment onscreen when it came to frontal nudity, and while it was common to see female bodies (as is true of FAST TIMES, where there are several scenes of bare chests), male genitalia were almost exclusively concealed.[viii] Although the shot was edited to ensure the film’s R-rating, Universal remained hesitant about releasing FAST TIMES and feared it posed a threat to the welfare and prestige of the studio, so the picture was given limited distribution at only 200 theaters. Word of mouth spread rapidly, according to Crowe, who noted the diffuse affection for Sean Penn’s iconic character, Jeff Spicoli, and told Variety that Universal was unable to catch up to the demand for prints in theaters.[ix] The box office gross of $27 million was moderate in comparison to what it could have been, but the film was included in the top 30 domestic releases of 1982 and was a huge success when it came out on VHS. It not only paved the way for filmmakers such as John Hughes at Universal, with his iconic and highly successful teen comedies, but it was adapted into a short-lived television series, written, directed and produced by Heckerling. FAST TIMES established a new “cottage industry” for Universal, celebrating teens’ lives through their unique points of view.[x]

Heckerling was able to maintain her career in Hollywood at a time in which few women were hired to direct features, going on to helm blockbusters such as LOOK WHO’S TALKING (1989) and its sequel, as well as the cult classic CLUELESS (1995). On the 40th anniversary of FAST TIMES’ release in 2022, Heckerling disputed claims from some critics that the film was exploitative, needlessly racy and even misogynistic. (Roger Ebert, for example, wrote in his 1982 review, “If this movie had been directed by a man, I’d call it sexist…and it’s sexist all the same,” but he later went on to champion Cameron Crowe’s career.)[xi] Heckerling told Hollywood Reporter that FAST TIMES was not intended to entirely condone its characters’ actions, stating, “The whole theme, of even the title, is things are going too fast for young people. They shouldn’t have to worry so much about sex at such an early age.”[xii] In the wake of the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Heckerling doubted that her exploration of youths losing their virginity and resorting to abortion as a fact of life in FAST TIMES would get traction at studios now, noting, “We’re going backwards in so many ways.”[xiii]

Critics today contend that FAST TIMES was far ahead of its time in its refusal to shame female protagonists for their curiosity about sex and their decisions about how to cope with unwanted pregnancy, with writer Grace Neave stating that the film played “a huge role in battling the stigma surrounding reproductive health care,” and its “honest depiction of women discussing sex was groundbreaking.”[xiv]  In 2023, Time Magazine included FAST TIMES on its list of “The 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades,” reflecting that Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character would not have the same opportunities to decide what to do with her pregnancy today as she did in 1982.[xv] Despite its comedic approach, FAST TIMES remains a remarkably serious film as well, with its empathetic treatment of adolescent struggles and its refusal to sensationalize their predicaments. Hailed as a time capsule of early 1980s aesthetics, FAST TIMES continues to be relevant and amusing to modern day audiences, who are never weary of identifying with compelling characters and engaging storylines. Heckerling’s vision resonates over the changing tides of American popular culture.