It is hard to give bad comments on old films. They are all lessons on how life was in the past. The makers of this film reveal a great deal of intelligence behind a rather dull plot. For example, John Ashley's anti-hero is not your stereotypical bully. He is of average build. The hero is blond and much more powerfully built. Ashley's character is not physically threatening. He is just very manipulative in maintaining his position as head of the school gang. In addition, the anti-hero is rich. Usually, the gang leaders are poor. There is a great deal of substance to the characters. The real focus of the movie is the coin. The valuable coin represents all the self-esteem that the anti-hero got from his father. His father was completely absent from his life, and the only momento he has that his father even knows he exists is the coin his father once gave him. The anti-hero (Ashley) is clearly the victim of absent parents. This turned him spoiled and into the bully. The only actor I recognize vaguely is the younger student who is his right-hand man. The main qualities that he has is slavish loyalty and awe for the gang leader. He never questions anything the gang leader does. This makes him valued. For most of the movie, you think that the young follower is really a sap with no agenda. However, during the movie you discover that "the sap" has an agenda. He turns almost on his beloved leader when he doesn't deliver the girl he prizes as a date to him. Up until that point, the follower seems to just be a virtual slave. You realize that "the sap" has an agenda, too, and believes that by following his leader he will get to date the beautiful blond girl. The last fifteen minutes of the movie are most powerful. The anti-hero drags the blond girl he longs for into his car, and brings her to a park. She runs away. He follows. By that time, every in the gang and those who are not in the gang discover that the anti-hero drove a guy off the road and took back his coin that he lost squarely in a drag race. Ashley probably delivers his finest performance of his career as someone who is really messed up. You feel sorry for the rich bully, who is obviously very lonely and has had parents who never raised him. It is really the parents whom caused him to be what he was. They were obviously too busy making money, and totally left him on his own. The principal of the high school is a real flake. He unknowingly enlists the bully to look into why there is bullying going on at the school. Not very bright.
Review of High School Caesar
