** (out of ****)
Watching "Police Academy" (1984) for its 40th anniversary, I was struck by how relevant aspects of it felt. Without trying to give the movie too much credit, here is a story about changing times and smashing down the old guard. About Liberal ideology versus Conservative thinking. It's a shame however, after setting up these themes eventually "Police Academy" does nothing with them.
There is a new Mayor in this unspecified town - I assume it's New York - and as a result a new hiring practice put in place for the Police department. No longer will height, weight, sex, education or physical strength be a determining factor into who can apply to become a police officer.
The new Mayor is a woman and the current higher ups at the unspecified police department don't like the ideas of this new mayor. Chief Hurnst (George Robertson) seems particularly displeased with the sight of women at the training academy. He would like Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes) and his right hand man, Lt. Harris (G.W.Bailey) to apply extra pressure on the new recruits to deter them from becoming police officers.
We can see the parallels to today's times, in a world of defund the police and inclusivity. The world presented in "Police Academy" is one Dirty Harry feared. It's his nightmare come true. The Liberals have taken over and now anyone can become a cop. But than an unfortunate thing happens, the movie continues. Any social or political messaging is pushed aside to make way for infantile, sometimes vulgar humor.
In his Chicago Sun-Times movie review, the late critic Roger Ebert blasted the movie, suggesting it was the result of the financial success of "Airplane!" (1980) and is in some way a satire of police movies. "Police Academy" is definitely an attempt at a cash-in but I don't think "Airplane!" was its source of inspiration. I'd suggest "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) and "Porky's" (1981). "Police Academy" is a teenage sex comedy without the teenagers or high school/college setting.
While there is a basic concept of a plot - keep the weirdo, ill-equip police recruits from completing their training - the structure of the movie feels like vignettes drawn together. The movie doesn't feel well thought out, advancing a strong narrative.
Thirty minutes into the movie, once the training begins, the movie slips apart and the narrative breaks down. From this point on the movie's screenwriters - Neal Israel and Pat Proft among them - break the movie down into their idea of funny sequences. The sequences are "pay offs" but no real set-ups. The recruits are going on the first weekend leave. Lt. Harris suspects there will be a party and most likely bad behavior. He would like to trap them by sending two informants to the party. But the two are given the wrong location and end up at a gay bar. One of the recruits, we suddenly discover, doesn't know how to drive and gosh darn it, wouldn't you know tomorrow is the big driving test, so he needs a crash course lesson overnight. The only female commanding officer catches a male recruit sneaking into the female barracks at night. After she catches him, they have wild sex. Commandant Lassard is going to give a slide show presentation but doesn't realize a hooker is hiding in the podium. When the Commandant approaches the podium, she unzips his pants to perform fellatio. These are random scenes thrown together with no glue keeping everything in place.
Furthermore "Police Academy" makes the mistake of not giving us characters we can care about. No one is fleshed out. Just like the plot structure, these are a random assortment of individuals thrown together but given nothing to do. It is merely supposed to be the idea of them that is funny. That's the joke. They exist. There is no character development. Each character is given at least one trait, to create a distinction between them but there is never any sense these are real people. Hightower (Bubba Smith) is a tall and strong African-American male. Hooks (Marion Ramsey) is a short, soft spoken woman. Tackleberry (David Graf) is an over-zealot gun nut. Jones (Michael Winslow) is a human sound effects machine. Sgt. Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook) is a no-nonsense masculine female. Karen (Kim Cattrall) is the rich girl, and Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) is the lovable smart-ass. After their trait is revealed to us, very little is than added upon it. "Police Academy" wants to be a feel good story of the underdog but there is nothing here to cheer for because we have no emotional connection.
What a wasted opportunity to not take time and explain some of these characters. Why on earth would a young woman from a wealthy family want to become a police officer? What does she learn about herself and those around her? It could have provided a moment for "Police Academy" to make a commentary about class. How did Sgt. Callahan make her way up the ladder in this all-boys club? Is she really accepted as "one of the guys"? What purpose does the Jones character serve? Someone clearly thought Winslow's noise mimicry was funny but how do you capitalize on it in a movie? In Mel Brooks' "Spaceballs" (1987) he limited Winslow to one scene. Unless the man had amazing acting ability, it is difficult to build a character around this one talent Winslow had. The "character" didn't belong in this movie. Or any movie.
I would have liked to believe someone with Pat Proft's writing experience would have understood this. Proft may be best known for his involvement with the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams. Proft wrote two episodes of the unfortunately short lived comedy series "Police Squad!" (1982) and co-wrote the screenplays for the following "Naked Gun" movies. He collaborated with Abrahams on the "Hot Shot" movies before finally writing and directing his own spoof comedy, "Wrongfully Accused" (1998) starring Leslie Nielsen. All of which I find extremely funny. So how could the script for "Police Academy" go so wrong? Could it all be blamed on the movie's director, Hugh Wilson, who would go on to direct "Dudley Do-Right" (1999)?
From a critical standpoint, my view of "Police Academy" is in line with what other critics were saying at the time however audiences really seemed to enjoy the antics here because "Police Academy" would become one of the highest grossing movies of 1984, taking in more than 81 million at the domestic box-office. In addition to which six more sequels would follow as well as a short lived live action television series.
It is indeed a mystery as to why such a movie should resonate with audiences. Of course, making fun of authority figures has always been a crowd pleaser. Comedies about inept police officers go back to the early days of silent cinema with the Keystone Kops. But "Police Academy" isn't using veteran police officers as a punching bag. It is making fun of recruits. What is the ultimate message here besides with a little hard work even underdogs can achieve their dreams?
Although it is no longer the "year of me" - my year long celebration last year - I will share with you that as a child I was a big fan of the "Police Academy" movies with the exception of this first movie and the last one, "Mission to Moscow" (1994) which I have yet to see. Perhaps other children watched this movie and an unexpected kid following began. I had a friend growing up that also enjoyed "Police Academy" movies. This may explain why this was the only movie in the series to earn a "R" rating. In 1988 an animated series was created with a toy line following. The series and the toy line ended too quickly but it possibly helped draw in other children to watch the live action movies. The toy line was one of my all-time favorite lines on par with the Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and wrestling figures. It was largely because of the toys I began to watch the live action movies.
"Police Academy" is a scattershot comedy that had a real opportunity to be something more and become a social and political satire. Its characters are useless and aren't even plot devices used to further the story. They are meant to be punchlines to set-ups never explained. It all feels like a random assortment of half-baked ideas. I confess to having laughed once or twice but I'm an easy target. This movie is a mess. How did it manage to live on 40 years later?
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