Themes: Body Image and Self-Esteem, High School Life, Inner City Blues
Main Cast: Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Barry Miller, Gene Anthony Ray, Lee Curreri
Release Year: 1980
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Fame is set at New York's High School of Performing Arts, where talented teens train for show-business careers. The film concentrates on five of the most gifted students: singer Irene Cara, actors Paul McCrane and Barry Miller, dancer Gene Anthony Ray, and musician Lee Currieri. More so than the subsequent TV series Fame, the film emphasizes the importance of keeping up one's academic achievements in this specialized school. The faculty includes no-nonsense English teacher Ann Meara, erudite musical instructor Albert Hague, and martinet dance teacher Debbie Allen. Of the film's cast, Ray, Currieri, Allen and Hague were carried over to the TV version of Fame, which premiered in 1981. The score for the film version of Fame was honored with an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Preceded by Saturday Night Fever and followed by Footloose and Dirty Dancing, Fame is one of the best films focused on dance as a metaphor for success and maturation. Director Alan Parker, showing unusual restraint, shepherds a heartwarming story of rough New York teenagers who grow up while attending a performing arts high school. Their talent at dance enables them to transcend their backgrounds, their sometimes terrifying social milieu, and their own shortcomings. It's a vision of ethnic and social harmony achieved through effort at a craft that in some ways parallels youth sports movies. Dancer-singer Irene Cara is the star, and the film launched her (short-lived) singing career. The music and the dancing are spectacular, helping to overcome a story that, despite a few directorial risks, is fairly predictable. Fame is a well-made feel-good movie. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Anne Meara - Mrs. Sherwood; Debbie Allen - Lydia; Eddie Barth - Angelo; Albert Hague - Shorofsky; Boyd Gaines - Michael; Joanna Merlin - Miss Berg; Laura Dean - Liza Monroe; Jim Moody - Mr. Farrell; Antonia Franceschi - Hilary; Steve Inwood - Francois Lafete; Teresa Hughes - Mrs. Finsecker; Richard Belzer - Conferencier; Michael de Lorenzo - Dancer; Laura Delano - Dancer; Aaron Dugger - Dancer; Billy Hufsey; Nancy Lee - Asian Student; James Manis - Bruno's Uncle; Isaac Mizrahi - Touchstone; Alba Oms - Ralph's Mother; Maureen Teefy - Doris Finsecker; Meg Tilly - Dancer; Anthony Evans - Musician; Louis Venosta - Dancer; Ray Ramirez - Pater Morales; F.X. Vitolo; Nancy Gianzero - Nancie; Frank Bongiorno - Truck driver; Steve Hollander
Credit
Ed Wittstein - Art Director, Louis Falco - Choreography, Ellen Mirojnick - Costume Designer, Kristi Zea - Costume Designer, Robert F. Colesberry - First Assistant Director, Alan Parker - Director, Gerry Hambling - Editor, Paul McCrane - Composer (Music Score), Dominic Bugatti - Composer (Music Score), Michael Gore - Composer (Music Score), Frank Musker - Composer (Music Score), Lesley Gore - Songwriter, Paul McCrane - Songwriter, Dominic Bugatti - Songwriter, Robert F. Colesberry - Songwriter, Frank Musker - Songwriter, Dean Pitchford - Songwriter, Geoffrey Kirkland - Production Designer, Michael Seresin - Cinematographer, Alan Marshall - Producer, David de Silva - Producer, Alan Parker - Screenwriter, Christopher Gore - Screenwriter
Students learn on the first day of classes that academics are weighted equally with performance. Leroy clashes with Mrs. Sherwood in English class. Doris is overwhelmed by the energy and spontaneity in the lunchroom and flees, meeting Montgomery.
As the year progresses, Coco tries to convince Bruno to book performing gigs with her. Doris and Montgomery become friends, and Doris worries that she's too ordinary against the colorful personalities of the other students. Leroy and Mrs. Sherwood continue to clash over Leroy's refusal to do homework (Leroy is illiterate and ashamed to admit it). Bruno and his father argue over Bruno's reluctance to play his music publicly. Coco tells Bruno of her belief that she's "doing my last dance on this dark little planet" so it has to be spectacular. Miss Berg warns Lisa she is not working hard enough. Graduating senior Michael (Boyd Gaines) wins a prestigious scholarship and tells Doris that the William Morris Agency wants to send him out for auditions for television pilots.
Sophomore year
New student Hilary van Doren (Antonia Franceschi) joins the school, and she and Coco clash over Leroy. Hilary seduces him. Bruno and Mr. Shorofsky debate the merits of traditional orchestras versus synthesized instruments. As an acting exercise, students have to divulge a painful memory. Ralph tells of learning about the death of Freddie Prinze. Doris relates her humiliation at being forced by her stage mother to sing at a child's birthday party. Montgomery discusses discovering his homosexuality, in the process coming out to the school, for which he is teased by Ralph wearing The Rocky Horror Picture Show-style drag. Bruno's father plays Bruno's music (the title song Fame) outside the school, inspiring the student body to dance in the streets. Miss Berg drops Lisa from the dance program, and Lisa, after initially apparently considering suicide, instead drops her dance clothes on the subway tracks and declares "Fuck it, if I can't dance I'll change to the drama department."
Junior year
Ralph and Doris discover their mutual attraction, but their growing intimacy leaves Montgomery feeling excluded. Hilary brings Leroy home to shock her father and stepmother. Ralph's young sister is attacked by a junkie and Ralph lashes out at his mother's attempts to comfort the child by taking her to the local Catholic church. Doris also begins to question her Jewish upbringing, changing her name to "Dominique DuPont." She and Ralph attend a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the 8th Street Playhouse, and during the "Time Warp" Doris rips off her blouse and joins the stage show. She becomes giddy the next day as she realizes that as an actress she can put on any personality she wants, but is sobered upon running into Michael, struggling as an actor and waiting tables.
Senior year
Ralph follows in the footsteps of his idol Freddie Prinze and performs stand-up comedy at Catch a Rising Star and garners some initial success. He falls into a hard-party lifestyle and strains his relationship with Doris. Given a prime spot at a comedy club, he bombs, but Montgomery comforts him by telling him that bombing is part of the entertainment business. Hilary is offered a spot with the San Francisco ballet and, to take it, has an abortion. Coco is approached in a diner by a sleazy guy claiming to be a director. She goes to his apartment for a "screen test" and he manipulates her into undressing. Leroy is offered a spot in Alvin Ailey's dance company, but to be accepted he must graduate. He finds Mrs. Sherwood outside her husband's hospital room and lashes out at her. She lashes back and, chagrined, he comforts her.
Fame spawned a television series of the same name and a Musical that ran on London's West End for ten years. A non-musical play featuring the title song from the film as its lone musical number was also created. MGM/UA has since produced a remake of this film for release in 2009.
MGM owns the Fame franchise due to the series being made before and after the studio sold its pre-1986 backlog to Turner Entertainment (now part of Time Warner, with Warner Bros. handing distribution), thus the original film is the only portion of the franchise not currently owned by MGM (Turner/Warner Bros. now owns this film, and Warner Home Video has since re-issued this on DVD).
