Fast Times at Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe

Fast Times at Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe

This will be an attempt to look at Fast Times at Ridgemont High using a Positive Psychology lens…

Therefore, it should be a take…

Through a Glass…Brightly

Cameron Crowe has awed me with his Almost Famous, a motion picture for which he wrote the script and directed

He wrote the screenplay for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Maguire and the less astounding…We Bought a Zoo

The stars of Fast Times contribute as well to the success of this comedy that has been included on some Best Humor lists…

Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whitaker, Ray Walston and the rest of the cast are very good in this film

Sean Penn is the main character, although he does not have much more screen time than the others do.

Jeff Spicoli is smoking marijuana or some other drug for most of the narrative and this makes him rather slow.

Humor is very important in Positive Psychology and in fact, it is a Character Strength, figured in

The Martin Seligman chart, available on the internet

Spicoli is one of the main funny elements in the story, with his confused apparitions and relaxed attitude…

Well, too relaxed approach.

In school, he is always late and this annoys his history teacher, Mr. Hand who insists that Spicoli is wasting his time…

-          Well, we are here, you are here

-          Yes…

-          This means it is…our time!

Jeff Spicoli has a point there, although his Persistence is not one of the Character Strengths, not in the way he uses it.

This naughty student comes to history class without a shirt on and he pushes his Creativity to invent wrong events.

At one point, during the same history class, a man comes to the door of the room to knock and disturb…

-          Who are you?

-          I am the pizza guy

-          Who ordered the salami with cheese

-          It’s over here…says Spicoli

Only the history teacher also has Open Mindedness and Perspective in this occasion and invites the class to eat the slices.

Outside class, Jeff Spicoli gets involved in other incidents, one of which is dangerous as it involves driving.

The young man is driving recklessly, while under the influence of drugs, and at one turn he provokes an accident.

Stacy Hamilton is another one of the main personages and she in the process of discovering her sexuality.

As she has sex with an arrogant teenager, the girl becomes pregnant and decides to have an abortion.

The cost is $ 150, which was the equivalent of a few thousand dollars in today’s money…I guess.

Mike Damone, the pretentious, selfish male does not contribute to the sum and does not even show up.

Notwithstanding the fact that he promised both to pay half the cost and to drive Stacy, he does neither.

The comedy is good.

However, I would not include it among the very best.