Cast and Crew:  Mark L. Lester (Director); Tom Holland (Writer); Lalo Schifrin (Original Music); Alice Cooper (Main Theme)

What It’s About: Andrew Norris (Perry King) is new to the urban teaching environment and completely unprepared for a school that’s more of a prison for young hoodlums, but is unwilling to bow down to vaguely Neo-Nazi punk Stegman (a horribly miscast Timothy Van Patten) and his gang, leading to an ever escalating series of confrontations.

Why Watch it Today?: This is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and all of you teachers out there are surely more appreciated than the ones in this film, who are betrayed by the principal, the cops, and the students, and have to take matters into their own hands.  A fairly nasty revenge film cloaked in “idealistic teacher vs. hooligan students” clothing, The Class of 1984 is worth watching for those interested in how Hollywood depicted early 1980s paranoia about punks, those who want to see Roddy McDowall holding a class hostage at gunpoint and attempting to run down gang members, a Van Patten playing the least intimidating J.D. gang leader ever, or Michael J. Fox in an early role as a goody two-shoes student.

Where to Get It: Netflix, or Amazon