Home The San Diego high school class that inspired the 1982 film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, returned for a reunion with differing opinions on the film's realism.
The cult classic, directed by Amy Heckerling, was based on a book written by Cameron Crowe while he was undercover as a member of the class of 1979 at San Diego's Clairemont High School.
Robin Weaver, a Clairemont grad on whom Phoebe Cates' character in the film was based, told the San Diego Times-Union she recently watched and discussed the movie with her son.
"I looked at the movie and I realized we were young and stupid. There was no way around it. It was the essence of adolescence."
Mark Kenway - who during high school belonged to the surfer crowd - who was portrayed most prominently in the film by Sean Penn's character, Spicoli, said the character may have been a bit too much of a caricature:
"We could relate, but it was a little exaggerated as far as the stoner parts."
Exaggerations or no, Kenway said he could understand why many of his classmates have barred their children from seeing the movie:
"We don't want our children to know everything we did in high school."
