The idea behind "Three O'Clock High" is an amusing one: "High Noon" in high school. And for the first 30 minutes or so, it has the makings of a great '80s teen movie. The character archetypes are there, there's a great score, and the lead actor is up to the task. But eventually, the humor in Jerry's attempts to get out of the fight (making out with the teacher to get detention, trying to break open the cash register to steal a payoff) wears off. By the time he's caught cheating on a test, the attempts become self-destructive to the point that I just wanted Jerry to flat-out tell someone there's a fight at three. Any adult that happens upon this melee on school grounds won't believe for a second that Jerry egged the hulking bully into a fistfight, and he'll finally get an adult to listen to him.
There is a climactic fight, and it's surprising that it actually goes down, given the tone of the preceding 90 minutes. But the unlikely happy ending for Jerry comes off extremely far-fetched, which honestly spoiled the entire thing for me. When that fight happens, the tone changes and it feels like a completely different movie. It's such a disjointed shift, that it runs counter to the movie that was the lead-up to afternoon throwdown. The main character goes through such hell all day, that you're constantly trying to figure out how he'll think his way out of this (or fate will deal him some kind of forfeit with a lesson involved). But he winds up chancing into a set of brass knuckles and magically wins the fight and the (entire) school's adoration. Seriously, it's like the ending to a different movie.
To Siemaszko's credit, he wears the look of tortured desperation well. And the movie features a terrifically atmospheric score by Tangerine Dream that's still in my head. But "Three O'Clock High" just has "what could've been" written all over it.
5/10
There is a climactic fight, and it's surprising that it actually goes down, given the tone of the preceding 90 minutes. But the unlikely happy ending for Jerry comes off extremely far-fetched, which honestly spoiled the entire thing for me. When that fight happens, the tone changes and it feels like a completely different movie. It's such a disjointed shift, that it runs counter to the movie that was the lead-up to afternoon throwdown. The main character goes through such hell all day, that you're constantly trying to figure out how he'll think his way out of this (or fate will deal him some kind of forfeit with a lesson involved). But he winds up chancing into a set of brass knuckles and magically wins the fight and the (entire) school's adoration. Seriously, it's like the ending to a different movie.
To Siemaszko's credit, he wears the look of tortured desperation well. And the movie features a terrifically atmospheric score by Tangerine Dream that's still in my head. But "Three O'Clock High" just has "what could've been" written all over it.
5/10