Thursday

I saw Porky's on Monday night. I've seen it before, but I think this was the first time I saw it. In other words, I watched it for more than the jokes. It's a disturbing film, in many ways. First you have to try to distance yourself from the period in which it was made (early 80s) to connect with when it is ostensibly set (50s). At times this is very hard to do, you think you're in the 80s, but then you're suddenly snapped back to the 50s by an anachronism. It's very odd, and I think this is a fault of the filmmaker. The movie came out when I was but a child, so I don't know much about its popular effect at the time, or, since I don't live in America, its current reception. Although people will say Animal House came first, this movie does seem like a ground-breaker. It is also like American Graffiti, but somehow funnier and more serious. It deals, however crudely, with anti-semitism and with parental abuse, but seems to ignore racism and sexism. It's remarkable how these themes are able to interact with the ostensible plot - some high school kids trying to get into a strip club (Porky's) - and it's sad that today's frat boy comedies don't even attempt anything as brave as this. What's more, the comedy when it happens is far more daring and more crude than anything America produces nowadays, which is refreshing. I can't believe how the two gym teachers managed to laugh on camera for five minutes, in one cut, and how the two actors in front of them kept seriously to their dialogue. Incredible.