a song by The English Beat
It was a twelve-inch dance remix
I'd been a big ska fan
in the 70's and early 80's
I found this song It was the right length
and the right feel
We just licensed it and used it here
I needed something
that was going to drive this scene
It wasn't a high-speed chase, no stunts,
so I needed something with drive to it
This was a really contrived moment
They both look right at each other
So it was vital that he, up to now,
played an oblivious suburban dad
This is a nice scene,
he actually ran through this house
A lot of this we made up as we went
along I knew I needed a chase
In the script, I probably just said
that he runs home
We added these bits as we went along
This is in Long Beach
I did this under
an overcranked shot, -
- so that I could really
time things precisely
If I had him hanging in the air, it
bought me a little time A cheap trick
I kind of liked that
he's gone so mad, he's hiding in the
bushes, waiting for him to come home
How would you feel
about another year of high school -
- under my
close, personal supervision?
Thank God you're all right
We've been worried sick about you
And the sister comes to rescue him,
which is the idea that
you can say what you want about
your brother, but no one else can
She's not going to let Rooney
walk off with her brother
And she's learned a few things
from Charlie Sheen
That was a nice camera-take This is
a great moment That little cough
Jeanie's learned something about
She probably will not go to school
after this, several times
She's certainly got the genes
And he's back to the dog again
The idea here was to do
a very heavy score, -
- as if it were the end
of some war movie -
- and the bridge is about to blow up,
and the train is coming
All he's doing is getting in bed What
happens if he gets caught? Nothing
We thought it was funny
to play it so hard
All these little parts had to match up
He's got to turn the music off The
baseball that he catches, the foul ball
I got that nice picture
of Bryan Ferry behind him
It worked very nicely for him,
the running and sweating
He appears to have a fever, so he may
not go to school tomorrow, either
Now he's slipping back
into being the little boy
There's a nice little thing he does here,
with the "blankie"
- How'd you get to be so sweet?
- Years of practice
The blankie
I mean, he's six there,
and it's just what they want
He bites his finger here
Matthew's very good at this
This might have been the last day,
or very close to it
When this played in the theatres
This was the point where people
That beautiful smile
Just as the fade began,
people started to stand up
And then this came on, and they
thought it was just a title sequence
Some would continue out,
some would stand
Then they realised it wasn't over yet
This sequence had actually come in
a little earlier
I thought it would be interesting -
- to really not end the picture
where you thought it would
And there's nothing worse
for a school administrator -
- than to have to ride the bus
with the kids, -
- and suffer the humiliations
that they have to suffer themselves
And what could be stranger
for a kid on the late bus -
- than to look up
and see the dean of students, -
- regardless of the condition
he's in here, get on your bus?
It was a wonderful moment of
They had this thing between them
They both were startled
that this was happening
That the teacher was on the bus,
humiliated to have to ride with them
I never rode a bus in high school
I was too terrified
I went four years without ever
getting in a bus Even field trips
These were all real kids
We shot the interiors
and it started to rain, -
- so we finished
two months later in Burbank
We had this girl's glasses made for her
They were so thick
They distorted her vision so badly -
- that I think she got sick
She was nauseous all the time
They weighed a lot, so she had to hold
her head