Spring Break (1983)

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Flack
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Spring Break (1983)

Post by Flack »



At the core of most classic stories you'll find character growth -- a protagonist who overcomes adversity and experiences growth by going on a journey of some sort. It is a plotting technique that has existed for literally thousands of years -- it was used in Beowulf (written around 1000 A.D.) and is used in most mainstream novels and films released today. It is a part of every single story-writing course and book on the market.

That being said, not every protagonist experiences growth. Stories featuring characters without growth (Indiana Jones is a commonly cited example) are typically story driven instead of character driven. To compensate for the lack of a memorable protagonist, the story itself must be amazing and exciting. In the end, not every film is a success, and ones that fail either do one of those two things poorly, or neither at all.

Spring Break, released in 1983, is one of those films.

The film revolves around two pairs of spring breaking dudes -- Nelson & Adam, and Stu & O.T. -- who, due to a clerical error, all end up being booked in the last available room in Fort Lauderdale during spring break. Of the four characters, only Nelson has a backstory -- his step-father left him in charge of his campaign while he attends a meeting in Miami, but the minute his parents split town, so did he. "Hey, it's not our fault they planned a trip during our spring break," shrugs Adam.

Like all Porky's rip-offs, the film follows our four spring breakers in their quest for beer and boobs. While Nelson's friends and roommates get little attention, the women they pursue get even less. Only one has a name ("Suzy"); the rest simply show up when summoned for bikini contests, wet t-shirt contests, and make out sessions.

The plot takes a backseat to all the partying. The ex-husband of the hotel's owner has hired an inspector to condemn the hotel. And, of all the luck, Nelson's step-father's convention has been moved from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. At times it seemed like the inspector was working with Nelson's dad, but I don't really know. It wasn't important. None of this is important. The spring break boys spend half their time chasing tail and the other half avoiding Nelson's stepdad.

Everything is wrapped up in the last five minutes. Nelson stands up to his stepdad ("I've gone too far? No, dad, you're the one who's gone too far!"), all the dudes end up with dudettes, Nelson's mom leaves the evil stepdad (who get arrested), and I think the hotel even got saved. Another successful spring break!

An arc of change has to be earned. Luke Skywalker refused to go with Obi-Wan to join the Rebel Alliance until he returned home and found his Aunt and Uncle served up as burnt shish kabobs in the Tatooine sand by Imperial Stormtroopers. He dedicates himself to the Force, and we watch him grow from innocent vapor farmer to galactic hero. Nelson stands up to his step-father without showing any signs of growth and only after his father had him kidnapped. So, yeah -- there's barely any character development, and what there is stinks.

If the adventures the guys had on spring break were exciting and unique like Indiana Jones' pursuit of the Ark, it might be enough to carry a film. Instead, most of the movie looks like it was actually filmed in Florida during spring break. Anyone who has ever visited a beach town has seen everything this film has to offer and probably more.

I'm fascinated by knock-off films and figuring out why they failed. It's not that Porky's was first -- it's because it's better. Spring Break feels like a film written by a guy who went on spring break, embellished a few things, and thought it would make a good movie.

It didn't.

PS: The most unintentionally funny scene in this movie involves a beautiful blonde playing Galaga in a bar while one of the guys gives her advice like "too much thrusters," "use your shields," and "avoid the photon blasts and gamma darts."
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Flack
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Flack »

A couple of random trivia facts:

- A significant portion of the film's budget was spent on the soundtrack, which included an original track by Cheap Trick ("Spring Break") and 38 Special's "So Caught Up In You."

- The film contains a blatantly obvious product placement for Coca-Cola. After Nelson arrives in Susie's hotel room, he claims to be thirsty and leaves the room to go to a Coke vending machine where he purchases six cans of Coke and carries them around the hotel, trying to find Susie's room.

- The film was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham. Prior to this film, Cunningham produced The Last House on the Left, and both produced and directed the original Friday the 13th film. He went on to produce several more Friday the 13th films, House 1/2/4, and many others.

- Tammy Lynn Leppert makes an uncredited appearance as a boxer on the beach, and also appears as the body model on the movie poster. A few months after the release of this film, Leppert disappeared and her body was never found. Her disappearance was covered on season five of Unsolved Mysteries.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Lynn_Leppert

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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by AArdvark »

Huh. Movie sounds like a pr0n film with no actual sex scenes. In short, a college cash grab.

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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Jizaboz »

I avoided this due to having the same opinion Aardvark did after seeing reviews, but now I’m gonna have to watch at least for the Galaga scene. The way sometimes these sort of scenes are ruined makes them more memorable. Like an episode of “The Hitchhiker” where dude is playing Williams “Blaster” while the show blasts centipede sounds. Why? Why do this?!
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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Tdarcos
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Tdarcos »

I had the exact opposite reaction to Spring Break. My brother and I both enjoyed the film. I thought it was a cute comedy. I would never have thought of Porky's and I don't believe it was a "ripoff" at all, unless you presume that every comedy about college students trying to get in each other's pants is.

I can think of a number of comedies of this genre (Wikipedia calls them "sex comedies,") and I don't think these movies are weak copies of anything. Let's see:
  • Spring Break, - "All right fella, into the car." (Cop to senator, arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.)
  • Where the Boys Are '84 - "You're telling me I told a cop to..."(swallows) "screw off?"
    "No. 'You told him to fuck, off." (The two girls in the police drunk tank.)
  • Hot Dog - "Next, we take off our clothes and fuck each other's brains out." (Shannon Tweed)
  • Hardbodies - "What's the name of your band?"
    "Diaper Rash." (Scotty to record promoter.)
Those are the ones I can remember.
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Flack
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Flack »

All of those movies were released after Porky's and were influenced by it.

Article: "‘Porkys’ Made Multiplexes Safe For Raunchy Teen Comedies (For Better And For Worse)"
https://uproxx.com/movies/porkys-comedy-revolution/
1983 brought a deluge of quickly would-be Porky’s: Spring Break, Private School… For Girls, Screwballs, Joysticks, and numerous under-the-radar efforts like Troma’s The First Turn-On. Even films with loftier aspirations felt Porky’s influence. Martha Coolidge recalls producers giving her a wide berth when making her winning Romeo and Juliet-inspired comedy Valley Girl so long as she included the requisite number of bare breasts.

Most of what followed lacked Porky’s winning qualities. Screwballs strips the Porky’s formula down to its essence, with scene after scene that mixes crude comedy and nudity with little connective tissue. Spring Break has a wet t-shirt contest scene that seems to take up a third of the movie. Critics rejected them when they wrote about them at all. (The Boston Globe on the video game-themed Joysticks: “witless cinematic trash.”) But they made money, sometimes a great deal of money.
Here was Siskel and Ebert's summary of teenage "horny teenage sex comedies," which they called "a menace to movie goers," tracking them all back to Porky's.

https://siskelebert.org/wp-content/uplo ... 64.mp4?_=1
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Tdarcos
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Tdarcos »

Flack wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 5:50 am All of those movies were released after Porky's and were influenced by it.
"Yeah,well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
- The Dude, The Big Lebowski
Flack wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 5:50 am Article: "‘Porkys’ Made Multiplexes Safe For Raunchy Teen Comedies (For Better And For Worse)"
I guess you zre saying "that every comedy about college students trying to get in each other's pants is" a clone (or ripoff) of Porkies.

I think a clone (or tipoff) would be as nearly idebrical to the originl material that they can legally get away with under coptright law. If they're clones or ripoffs. But why aren't of one or more porn flicks. Mosr hardcore films would be considered obscene, meaning they cnnot be copytighted, so any alleged plot in them is fair game for the taking.

I looked it up on Wiktionary, this is the closet related defination there is: "A copy or imitation of something already existing, especially when designed to simulate it." Okay, maybr I'm holding that word to be too literal. To ne, if you call B a clone of A, i'd ecpect it to be a mirror or very close copy. If you had said these other films are imitating Porkies or inspired by it, I might have agreed, The thing is, Porkies is not the same concept as any of these, and all of them are different from each other, so I felt "clone" was not the right word. The stories all have sexual themes, but the intention, motives, and obstacles they encounter and overcomeo are raducally different.

Go that route, and one could say that for every work having a particular conrpt, everything using the same concept is a clone of the original. So every movir in space is a clonr of the 1950s sciencr fiction films, or every "boy meets gitl ftom another caste, group, or religion" story is a clone of Romeo and Juliette,
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Tdarcos
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Tdarcos »

Since I canm't revoke a message, I apologize to Flack foe the above message. I'm sorry, Flacl. I was completely wrong.

You, in fact, never said all the things I thought you wrote, and what you said more-or-less tracled what I said. Tou never used clone or ripoff, and I don't knoe ehy I thought you did.

I vould blame oncoming senility,or old age, but I won't. I take full tesponsibility fot my statements.I apologize, and I'm sorry.

I offer no excuse.
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Tdarcos »

The errors in the previous mrssage were caused because I did not do as careful a job as I should have. I was in a hurry, as I wantef to post it before someone else posted a response, and to aplogize to flack as soon as it was possible.
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Flack
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Re: Spring Break (1983)

Post by Flack »

No offense taken, Captain. We're all friends here, just talking about movies!
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