Pump Up the Volume (1990)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie, directed Alan Moyle, who would later go on to direct Empire Records, deals with the lives of teenagers in a small American Country Town. This movie grasps the pointlessness and meaninglessness of their lives at the turn of the 90's. It is not that they have no direction, but rather they are seeking an identity that is not forced upon them by their parents.I guess the main theme of this movie is the nature of one's identity, and the reality of freedom of speech. Both of these come together to help us understand the struggle that teenagers face today. Happy Harry Hardon, through a pirate radio station, is the voice of the teenagers in this town, and has enlightened them and given them a direction to go. Through his radio station, he simply speaks his mind and tries to relate to all in this town, whether they be a jock or a nerd. It is not the typical struggle between the teenagers here, but rather a united front as they struggle against their parent's rule.What we see here are not people who want to be fiercely independent but rather they want a voice. In years past, there was no such thing as a teenager. You were a child and then you were an adult, and the time in life between 12 and 18 was a time when you became an adult. Now, with the marketing ploy invented in the fifties, we have a group of people who feel grown up yet treated like children. They have their own problems, not just fitting in with each other, but fitting into a society that treats them like children, while they believe that they are no longer are children.The life of a teenager was not always as bad as it is these days. This movie does address the idea of youth suicide where one character kills himself simply because he has been isolated. Harry feels responsible because he was the last person to talk to him, and this was the beginning of what can be seen as his epiphany. The entire movie is him not only coming to terms with who he is, but more so what he has become. He is torn between closing down his pirate radio station and getting out while he still can, or continuing and leading the teenagers of the town in a united front against the oppression that the community puts on them.At one stage he attacks guidance councillors, and in fact is constantly slagging guidance councillors. Now, I actually agree with him to a point because I remember my guidance councillor from my school, and it was simply somebody who seemed to force people to do things that she wanted us to do. The thing that he is attacking here is the adults' habit of mapping out their children's lives. This is more so the case with the councillors because they will pick a job for the students and then force them to do it. In some cases, at that age, we really do not know what we want to do. We are being bombarded by images everywhere, being told what to think and do and not being allowed to think or act for ourselves. They claim that it is for our own protection because we don't understand, but sometimes it is good for people to grow through having their fingers burnt.I think this movie is important as it not only tries to open our eyes to the state that teenagers, and youths, are in, but also it tries to tell us that we have things to say, and as human beings, we have a right to have a voice. That is the essence of the end of the movie. The state is trying to shut out our voice, but we want to continue to speak because we have issues that we want to discuss. It is not that Harry was shut down at the end, but rather because before he was taken away, his message went out to all of the youth in America, and as he was taken away, he was taken as a martyr whose message touched the hearts and minds of all the youth around the nation who went off and followed him. It is not that we find out what happened to him, but rather than in the end the message got out. He went down a martyr, but martyrs live on and leave a legacy behind them.

Christian Slater plays Mark Hunter, a shy teenager who has just moved from the East coast to Arizona. His parents give him a short wave radio set that he turns into a pirate radio station where his shyness evaporates, and instead he uses the handle "Hard Harry", where he vents his frustrations and confusions to his fellow teenagers, who it turns out are very receptive to this message, and "Hard Harry" finds himself the most popular and influential person in town, much to his high school principal's consternation. Things take a dark turn when a troubled teenage listener commits suicide, and the authorities become eager to shut down his illegal broadcasts.Smart and appealing film has a fine performance from Christian Slater, that really speaks to the hearts and minds of teenagers, and still rings true. Dramatically uneven, but will resonate strongly with people who like to listen to talk radio.

In an unknown area of Clearwater Fl There is a real life "Pump up the volume" Middle and High School kids on air from 7:30pm EST to ? 7 days a week! Sometimes the shows are really funny and sometimes there really boring, but the letters and phone calls make up for it. Heard them calling teachers the other night and it was pretty funny. They were very polite and professional but caught a lot of them off guard with questions. It's always fun to stump a teacher with a question about there subject that they teach. Anyways tune in sometime at 96.7 FM in a small area of Clearwater or they also stream the net at www.wkid967fm.com Nice website and studio also! I listen in on there website but you can also search for them at many web radio sites like audiorealm.com, v-tuner.com, or shoutcast.com just search wkid. I've also seen stories on them by yahoo searching wkid 96.7

I first saw this film around 1996, when I was 13 and just going into that 'I hate the world and everything about it' phase that most teenagers go through. I fell in love with it there and then and over the years I've owned 5 separate copies.Not just because of the unbelievably brilliant soundtrack, not just because of the real and relate-able characters, not just because of the engaging and original plot, but because I still feel now, what I first felt when I saw the film. Sometimes everyone feels that they're alone and it takes another voice, one coming from a someone you might not even ever have met reminding you that everyone feels that crushing loneliness and only you can change that.Even now that I'm nearing my mid-twenties and every time I watch this film I want to 'Rise up in the cafeteria' and 'stab my teachers with a plastic fork.' Being a teenager sucks, its probably the most free time of your life, but everything from parents, to homework, to hormones prevents most from truly enjoying the experience.I want every teenager to watch this film, I want every person who looks back on their teen years with regret to watch this film, I want every person who's forgotten what its like to be a teenager to watch this film. I think there's room in just about everyone's heart for it.