Fast Times at Ridgemont High was one of the most influential movies of its era. It was one of those movies, like American Graffiti, that perfectly captured the zeitgeist with a young cast of unknowns who all went on to become stars — even though the studio had next to no faith in it early on. While there was no sequel, there was a follow-up TV show that didn’t last long, but many may not be aware that there was a film follow-up as well that served as a kind of spiritual sequel. Now, it’s become terribly obscure, mainly due to the fact that it was — for the longest time — hard to find on video and is one of the least-known comedies of the eighties. That movie is called The Wild Life, and this is its story!
Flashback to 1982, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High was the kind of success studios dreamed of having. Made for only five million, it made close to six times its budget back and would have done better had the studio marketed it more aggressively. On home video and cable, it became a sensation, with the Phoebe Cates pool scene being the most rewound and paused scene of the decade. But no one involved with Fast Times was that interested in a sequel. The director, Amy Heckerling, as well as the writer, Cameron Crowe, would return for the Fast Times series, but that would be much later. Instead, Heckerling became in demand as a director and made a point of avoiding another high school movie, not wanting to be pigeonholed.
But the studio wanted some kind of follow-up, and so Cameron Crowe was hired to write one. Fast Times had been about what he actually observed when he returned to high school, undercover, as an adult, with it based on his book.
The Wild Life would be a little different, in that it was about a group of kids a shade older than those in Fast Times. With Heckerling not on board as a director, Art Linson, who had produced the first film, took the reins himself in what would later be considered a mistake, as he did not have the empathy for the characters Heckerling did. As such, what he and Crowe came up with was like a typical teen sex comedy of the era.
Yet, for what it is — it’s not bad.
The film centres around Eric Stoltz’s Bill, who’s just graduated high school and wants to experience adulthood rather than attend college. As such, he breaks up with his high school girlfriend and moves into his first apartment, thinking he’ll be some kind of playboy, but it doesn’t quite work out that way.
The other characters include his demented kid brother, Jim, played by future Weird Science star Ilan Mitchell-Smith, who is obsessed with the Vietnam War, heavy metal, and his nunchucks. Then there’s Lea Thompson as Anita, Bill’s gorgeous ex, who works at a donut shop and is carrying on a torrid affair with a cop played by Hart Bochner, best known to audiences as Ellis in Die Hard — and yeah, he plays a scumbag here too. Then there’s Anita’s best friend, Ellen, played by the great Jenny Wright, who works in retail and is dating Bill’s best friend, Tom, played by Chris Penn.
Now, Penn playing Tom is the most intriguing aspect of The Wild Life. While Crowe says they wanted to make The Wild Life different from Fast Times, one must look at that notion with an eyebrow raised, as Tom is CLEARLY meant to be the new Spicoli, who was famously played by Chris’ brother, Sean Penn.
Like Spicoli, he’s a stoner dude and the wild card of the group, with him even having a catchphrase, “It’s casual,” that they REALLY try to make a thing in the movie. I’m sure they hoped or expected it to become the thing the movie was known for. No dice.
While famous siblings often take a lot of shit, it’s worth noting that Penn was a good actor who, despite dying tragically young, had a good career in his own right — but as a character actor. He wasn’t a guy who was a natural in “wacky” roles, and while he does his best, it feels like he’s imitating his brother. From then on, he would kind of follow his own path, and of course, he went on to have classic roles in movies like Best of the Best, Reservoir Dogs, Short Cuts, and many more.
Unlike Fast Times, The Wild Life is more of a romp, with it taking place over the course of one evening and being more about everyone trying to get laid and party than Fast Times, which tackled real issues like abortion, first love, financial strain, and more with sensitivity — while also having groovy stoner moments and big laughs.
The Wild Life is more of a good-time movie, but the characters aren’t as memorable or relatable as they were in Fast Times. They feel like caricatures. Even Eric Stoltz, who was usually someone who brought a lot of gravitas to his parts, comes off as a douche in this one, with him pretty undeserving of his happy ending.
Ironically, he would once again be paired up with Lea Thompson in Back to the Future, which began shooting right after The Wild Life, and for the same studio, before he was infamously replaced by Michael J. Fox. He and Thompson would reteam for another high school movie both were way too old for later in the decade with Some Kind of Wonderful.
While not a great movie, The Wild Life is fairly underrated if you like eighties sex comedies. There are some funny, un-PC moments, as well as a surprisingly good sequence involving Randy Quaid as a Vietnam vet who dispels Jim of his child-like notions of the war.
The Wild Life was a box office bomb, earning dreadful reviews and only making $11 million. It came out the same year as Sixteen Candles, which kicked off the John Hughes era, and belonged more to the sex comedy era that immediately predated it, like Porky’s, than the more sensitive Hughes era. Yet, what’s odd is how The Wild Life completely vanished from pop culture.
Here’s what happened — when The Wild Life came out on video, it was different than it had been in theaters. Universal had a bad reputation in the eighties because they would make teen movies chock-full of hit songs, but only license them for theatrical use. When the movies would come out on VHS — and this was the early era of the format — many songs on the soundtracks would be different, which would also often be true of the TV versions.
Every big eighties movie of the era had this issue, including Fast Times and Sixteen Candles, but it was especially bad with The Wild Life, whose soundtrack was loaded with tracks by the biggest acts of the era, including Madonna, Prince, and Billy Idol, plus classic rock tracks and even Eddie Van Halen composing the soundtrack! I suppose because the movie bombed, Universal was cheaper than usual when it came time to license the songs for home video and cable, and they changed so much of the music they had to actually change the end credits.
When it came time to issue the movie on DVD, fans hoped Universal would pony up, as they did for all their other teen movies, and even TV’s Miami Vice, but they never gave it a mainstream release, with it only available as a manufactured-on-demand disc, and they used the revised — cheaper — soundtrack.
Even the Kino Lorber Blu-ray is missing a lot of songs — although more are intact than on previous releases. Apparently, the version that is sometimes broadcast in HD has the original soundtrack, so an intact version of the movie is floating around out there. But it’s a shame the rights have never been cleared up, as music licensing has become problematic, with several other Blu-ray releases, including Blown Away and Fatal Instinct, also having soundtrack substitutions.
While, again, not one of the better eighties teen sex comedies, The Wild Life does have its own kind of charm, and if you like movies from that era, go ahead and give it a watch — but try to find a version with the right music.