Up the Academy

Four rebellious teenagers are packed off to Sheldon R. Wienberg Military Academy for a year of strict discipline, each for his own reasons. Among them are a boy who dreams of following his father into organised crime, a habitual thief, a preacher's son with other things on his mind, and the son of a presidential candidate. The four cadets chafe at the rules and the routines imposed on them, and they find ways to enjoy themselves despite the regimentation. A hard-nosed sergeant tries to turn them into proper soldiers.

The comedy was directed by Robert Downey Sr., his second feature after Putney Swope in 1969. Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses wrote the screenplay, and Marvin Worth and Danton Rissner produced it for Warner Bros. Pictures. Ralph Macchio plays Chooch Bombalazzi, with Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera and Hutch Parker as the other three cadets; Harry Teinowitz appears as Rodney Ververgaert and Tom Poston as Sgt. Skip Sisson.

Made in the United States and running eighty-seven minutes, the film opened in June 1980. It does not appear to have found much of an audience since: on IMDb it holds a rating of 4.7 from around two thousand votes, and on TMDB it stands at 4.7 from a few dozen votes.