School of Rock
We Love School of Rock
| School of Rock | |
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 School of Rock official movie poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Linklater |
| Produced by | Scott Aversano Steve Nicolaides Scott Rudin |
| Written by | Mike White |
| Starring | Jack Black |
| Music by | Craig Wedren |
| Cinematography | Rogier Stoffers |
| Editing by | Sandra Adair |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 3, 2003 |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35,000,000 (estimated)[1] |
| Box office | $131,282,949 |
School of Rock (also called The School of Rock) is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, and starring Jack Black. The main plot follows starving rock singer and guitarist, Dewey Finn (portrayed by Black), who is unanimously kicked out of his band and subsequently disguises himself as a substitute teacher at a prestigiousprep school. After witnessing the musical talent in his students, Dewey forms a band of fifth-graders to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands and pay off his rent.
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[edit]Plot
Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is a rock singer and guitarist in the fictional rock band No Vacancy. Annoyed by Dewey’s arrogance and hyperactive stage antics during the opening credits, his bandmates unexpectedly kick Dewey out from the band and replace him with guitarist Spider (Lucas Babin). Furthermore, Dewey’s submissive roommate and lifelong friend, Ned Schneebly (writer Mike White), a substitute teacher, is pressured by his girlfriend, Patty Di Marco (Sarah Silverman) to evict Dewey unless he “gets a real job” to pay off his growing rent debt. Dewey feels forced to give up his passion as a rock musician until he receives an urgent phone call intended for Ned from Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack), the principal of a prestigious prep school, Horace Green, asking Ned to fill in for a teacher who broke her leg. Desperate for income to avoid getting evicted, Dewey impersonates Ned and takes the job as a substitute teacher for a fifth-grade class.
Incompetent as a teacher, Dewey resorts to granting his students large amounts of free time and recess. He requests that they simply call him “Mr. S.” after failing to spell the name “Schneebly” on the board. When Dewey overhears his students playing in music class, he realizes that the children of his class are musically talented. Dewey decides to turn his temporary job into what he tells them is a “special class project”, but is actually a personal one: to turn his class into a rock band and crew to serve as a vehicle to stardom by winning the upcoming Battle of the Bands, where he is out to avenge his eviction from his old band and win the $20,000 prize. He says that the project will test “your head and your mind and your brain.” After realizing that the kids are mostly interested in pop and hip hop music, Dewey turns the school days into lessons of rock history and music playing, exposing his students to those artists he regards as rock legends. Many rock legends are featured in classic photos and footage during a montage scene, including Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Iggy Pop, The Who, Rush, The Clash,Nirvana, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Yes, and David Bowie.
Dewey narrowly escapes detection when Ms. Mullins decides to attend one of his class’s lessons to check on their progress, forcing him to attempt to teach the actual course material. Dewey attempts to befriend her through Rock music, by playing her favorite song “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks on a jukebox while visiting a bar. The two develop a close friendship after this. Meanwhile, the class audition for the Battle of the Bands, which Dewey told them was their “school project”. They are rejected because they show up too late. With the help of class factotum and band manager Summer Hathaway (Miranda Cosgrove), Dewey persuades the Battle’s managers to let the students perform in the Battle of the Bands by lying that the students are all terminally ill with “stick-it-to-da-man-ni-osis”. However, later that day, Dewey is exposed when Ned receives a paycheck from Horace Green in the mail, despite not working there. During the parent-teacher night later on, Dewey meets the students’ parents, who initially scrutinize Dewey’s teaching abilities. Dewey succeeds in convincing them that he is a competent teacher, but Ned appears with the police and confronts Dewey under pressure from Patty. His real identity is revealed, and he is sacked. Considering himself a failure, he falls into depression, and Ned sadly informs him that it may be time he moved out. The next day, at Horace Green, the class decide that even if Dewey and the project was fake, they have still put too much work in to not do the final show at Battle of the Bands, and so they leave for the concert, first stopping at Dewey’s apartment to persuade him to join them. After finding out that the class’s performance was back, Ned finally stands up to his girlfriend and leaves her to watch the concert.
At the competition, the band plays “School of Rock”, a song written by their lead guitarist Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos), instead of Dewey’s “The Legend of The Rent”. Despite the strong reception from the audience, including Ms. Mullins and the students’ parents, the class loses to No Vacancy, but accept their defeat due to Dewey’s proclamation that they were not here to win and that they were going to play “one great show”. The audience, however, becomes angered by No Vacancy’s victory and shout for School of Rock to come back on stage. The band goes for an encore, playing a cover of “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” by AC/DC with an altered ending. During the closing credits, Summer is seen arguing a deal over her cell phone as she enters the “School of Rock”, a newly opened after-school program where Dewey continues to coach the class and Ned teaches beginning music students, and the credits roll as the class, breaking the fourth wall, sings “The movie is over, but we’re still on screen”.
[edit]Cast
- Dewey Finn (Jack Black) – Dewey is a down-on-his-luck, energetic, 30-year-old, wannabe rock superstar.
- Rosalie “Roz” Mullins (Joan Cusack) – The reluctantly uptight principal of Horace Green Elementary.
- Ned Schneebly (Mike White) – Ned is Dewey’s roommate and best friend. He is described as a pushover by his girlfriend, Patty.
- Patty Di Marco (Sarah Silverman) – Ned’s mean girlfriend who works for the mayor. She hates rock music and controls what Ned does, ensuring that he does not go back to being a rock fanatic. She makes no secret of her disapproval for Dewey, constantly berating him for his lack of a proper job and inability to pay rent.
- Summer Hathaway (Miranda Cosgrove) – The class factotum and band manager, Summer is determined to please and succeed, even if it means using somewhat unethical means. Dewey’s nickname for her is “Tinker Bell”.
- Zack Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos Jr.) – The talented but shy lead guitarist of the School of Rock. His overbearing father has a large and domineering influence on him. Dewey’s nickname for him is “Zack-Attack”.
- Freddy Jones (Kevin Clark) – The punk rock, delinquent drummer of the School of Rock. He evidently has made a hobby out of pyromania. Dewey’s nickname for him is “Spazzy McGee”.
- Katie (Rebecca Brown) – Originally a cellist, Katie takes up the bass guitar. She is portrayed as a quiet girl, but eagerly takes interest in rock music. In the commentary, it is revealed during the credits she was supposed to have a solo, but it was cut out. Dewey’s nickname for her is “Posh Spice”.
- Lawrence (Robert Tsai) – A quiet, awkward “boffin” who becomes the keyboardist for the band. Dewey’s nickname for him is “Mr. Cool”.
- Tomika (Maryam Hassan) – An insecure girl who is originally a roadie nicknamed “Turkey Sub” but after discovering her amazing voice, is nicknamed “Songbird” and sings back up.
- Marta (Caitlin Hale) – Marta is another back-up singer, seemingly more lively than other classmates, showing off her voice with “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie. Dewey’s nickname for her is “Blondie”.
- Alicia (Aleisha Allen) – Alicia volunteers her singing voice to become a back-up singer, “auditioning” with Amazing Grace. Dewey’s nickname for her is “Brace Face”.
- Billy (Brian Falduto)- Originally assigned security, the effeminate Billy requests he be band stylist instead. Dewey’s nickname for him is “Fancy Pants”.
- Gordon (Zachary Infante) – Gordon is a roadie and is noted for his exceptional computer skills. He tends to get stressed easily when his plans do not work out, but Dewey inspires confidence in him. Nicknamed “Roadrunner”.
- Marco (James Hosey) – A red-head who is also a roadie with Gordon. Nicknamed “Carrot Top”.
- Frankie (Angelo Massagli) – At the beginning of the film, he is good friends with Freddy, and the one who interacts/jokes with him the most. He works on security. Nicknamed “Tough Guy”.
- Leonard (Cole Hawkins) – He works on security along with Frankie. Nicknamed “Short Stop”.
- Eleni and Michelle (Veronica Afflerbach and Jordan-Claire Green respectively) – Designated the groupies by Dewey.
- Theo (Adam Pascal) – Theo is the leader of Dewey’s old band No Vacancy.
- Spider (Lucas Babin) – Spider is the guitarist who replaces Dewey in No Vacancy.
- Neil (Lucas Papaelias) – Neil is the bass guitarist of No Vacancy.
- Pete DuCard (Kevin Clifford) – Pete is the garbage man.
[edit]Production
A stage dive gone wrong incident involving Ian Astbury of rock band The Cult was witnessed by Jack Black, and was used as inspiration for a scene in School of Rock, in which the character Dewey Finn, stage dives and hits the floor; “I went to see a reunion, in Los Angeles, of The Cult; they were playing and Ian Astbury, the lead singer, took a dive. It was at The Viper Room, and it was just a bunch of jaded Los Angelinos out there, and they didn’t catch him and he plummeted straight to the ground. Later I thought it was so hilarious. So that was put into the script”.[2]
Many scenes from the movie were shot around the New York City area. The school portrayed in School of Rock is actually Main Hall at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York.[3] In the commentary, the kids say that every hallway scene in the movie was shot in exactly the same hallway. The tag lines are references to famous rock songs: “We Don’t Need No Education” is a famous line from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” by Pink Floyd and “Come On Feel the Noize” is taken from “Cum On Feel the Noize” bySlade.
[edit]Music
[edit]Soundtrack
A soundtrack album of the same name was released on September 30, 2003. The film’s director, Richard Linklater, scouted the country for talented 13-year-old musicians to play the rock-and-roll music that features on the soundtrack and in the film.
The soundtrack includes “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, a band that historically has not allowed their songs to be used for commercial purposes, and rarely give permission for anyone to use their songs, the only exception being filmmaker Cameron Crowe, who was the only person to write about them favorably while he was a writer forRolling Stone magazine. To get permission, Richard Linklater came up with the idea to shoot a video on the stage used at the end of the film, with Jack Black begging the band for permission and the crowd cheering and chanting behind him. The video was sent directly to Led Zeppelin, and permission was granted for the song. The video can be seen on the DVD extras.
[edit]Music featured within the film
* Featured on the Soundtrack album
[edit]Reception
School of Rock earned overwhelmingly positive reviews, with Black’s performance being praised by many critics. It received a “Certified Fresh” rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 186 reviews with an average rating of 7.7/10, and it fared even better with their selected top critics; out of 36 reviews, all but one were positive, which left the film with a rating of 97% with an average rating of 8.2/10. On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 82 out of 100 which indicates “universal acclaim”.
[edit]Box office performance
According to Box Office Mojo, School of Rock opened at #1 with a weekend gross of $19,622,714 from 2,614 theaters for an average of $7,507 per venue. In its second weekend, the film declined just 21 percent, earning another $15,487,832 after expanding to 2,929 theaters, averaging $5,288 per venue, and bringing the 10 day gross to $39,671,396. In its third weekend, it dropped only 28 percent, making another $11,006,233 after expanding once again to 2,951 theaters, averaging $3,730 per venue, and bringing the 17-day gross to $54,898,025. It spent a total of six weeks among the Top 10 films and eventually grossed $81,261,177 in the United States and Canada and another $50,015,772 in international territories for a total gross of $131,282,949 worldwide, almost four times its budget of $35 million.
[edit]Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for several awards, including Black receiving Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical (which he lost to Bill Murray for Lost in Translation), and winning an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.
[edit]Sequel
On May 23, 2008, Jack Black revealed a sequel was in the works: “I’d really like to do it, the last one was great. We are seriously thinking about it; there’s already a script. In a few weeks we have to decide if we go through with the project or not.”[4]
Variety reported on July 13, 2008 that Richard Linklater is attached to direct again, and Scott Rudin is returning as producer.[5] Mike White, who penned the first, is writing the screenplay, titled “School of Rock 2: America Rocks,” which picks up with Finn leading a group of summer school students on a cross-country field trip that delves into the history of rock ‘n’ roll and explores the roots of blues, rap, country and other genres.[6]
School of Rock 2: America Rocks was confirmed by Paramount on July 14, 2008.[7] However, on September 5, 2008, director Richard Linklater said the film “might not” happen at all and that Paramount just jumped the gun on the news.[8]
On June 16, 2009, while promoting his new film Year One, Black commented on the development of the film, saying, “Yeah, there’s development. We’ll see. I don’t know. I’m a little hesitant about doing a sequel. I had fun doing the first one, just don’t want to do something because it’s there. I want to do it because it’s going to be really funny or better than the first one.”[9]
