Pump Up the Volume
Short description
Mark Hunter is a shy teenager who has just moved with his family from New York to a small town in Arizona, where he struggles to fit in at his new school. Using a shortwave transmitter his parents gave him, he starts broadcasting at night as a pirate DJ known as Hard Harry, playing music the school would not allow and speaking openly about the frustrations of young people. His show becomes popular with his classmates, who have no idea who is behind the microphone, while the school administration and local authorities want the broadcasts stopped. When one of his listeners takes his own life, the conflict between the students and the adults around them intensifies.
Allan Moyle directed and wrote the film, which followed his 1980 debut Times Square and came before Empire Records, Xchange and Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story. Christian Slater plays Mark, with Samantha Mathis as Nora, a student who becomes fascinated by Hard Harry and sets out to learn who he really is, alongside Annie Ross, Scott Paulin, Mimi Kennedy and Andy Romano. Produced by Sandy Stern and Rupert Harvey for New Line Cinema, the film took about 12 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.2 rating from roughly 33,000 votes, and on TMDB a 7.1 from about 424 votes; a critics' rating of 6.8 from 41 reviews places it slightly below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Due to constant smoking during filming, as required by the script, Christian Slater, who played the main character, felt unwell several times.
- Director and screenwriter Allan Moyle described the main character, played by Christian Slater, as a mix of Lenny Bruce (an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist who gained prominence in the 1950s and 1960s) and Holden Caulfield (the main character in J. D. Salinger's novel 'The Catcher in the Rye').
- The school shown in the film was based on a high school in Montreal, where the director and screenwriter Allan Moyle's sister once worked as a teacher.
- Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis were in a close relationship during the making of the film, so the feelings they displayed on screen were quite genuine.
- Inspired by George Lucas's comedy *American Graffiti* (1973), director and screenwriter Allan Moyle approached Lucas to be a consultant or even producer on the *Pump Up the Volume* project. Lucas read the script and noted its potential. However, he and Steven Spielberg had released the adventure film *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* (1989) a year earlier, and Lucas now wanted to focus on the *Radio Killers* project. He had begun working on *Radio Killers* as early as the 1970s. Ultimately, the film of the same name (1994) was directed by Mel Smith, but it flopped at the box office.
- Just before filming began, Christian Slater had his driver's license suspended for the second time in a relatively short period for driving under the influence, and Allan Moyle had to make corresponding changes to the script. Slater's character does not drive, preferring to walk. In the final scene, his girlfriend Nora, played by Samantha Mathis, is behind the wheel.
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