Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 18

14

Popular Culture Review

seen in typical representations of delinquents. When Wilson visits the principal's
office for the first time, he says to the principal’s middle-aged secretary, “Give me
a ring, doll.’’ When he goes into Arlene Williams’ class he wolf whistles at her and
tells her, “For a teacher, you’re pretty cool.” Wilson’s act is so convincing that
even a perceptive teacher like Williams never notices that his delinquent behavior
is an act and not the genuine article. Williams prides herself on believing what the
high school principal calls “progressive theory” entailing that “There is no such
thing as a bad boy or girl.” Williams tries rudimentary psychological tactics with
Wilson, trying to point out his fundamental insecurities, but, of course, these don't
work since he is not a delinquent teenager at all. Wilson’s successful passing as a
delinquent highlights the film’s idea that teenagers are conformist.
High School Confidential also takes up the issue of conformity with regard to
its portrayal of drug use. The film represents a continuation of a tradition of drug
use exploitation films, such as Reefer Madness (1936) and Assassin o f Youth (1937).
These films were characterized by scenarios involving “innocent kids manipu
lated by older drug pushers into a life of degradation, culminating in crime, mur
der, and occasionally suicide” (McGee and Robertson 10). In these earlier films
marijuana was typically portrayed as a dangerous drug itself. However, by the late
Forties, a stepping stone theory of drug use had begun to hold prominence. As Eric
Schaefer notes, the stepping stone theory entailed that marijuana was now “firmly
positioned as a gateway to hard narcotics” (243).
High School Confidential entwines the issue of teen drug use with issues of
conformity and the old bugbear of bad parenting. In the film, Joan represents the
marijuana addict well on the way to worse things. In order to get enough money to
buy marijuana, she turns to a scam involving a charge account at a local depart
ment store so that she can get the ready cash to buy reefers. Joan comes from an
upper-class family, but she speaks the lingo of the other teens in the school. Joan
tells Wilson that “I’m dying to blast but I’m clean.” Wilson, without breaking his
cover, begins to gradually warn her about the dangers of marijuana use, telling her
that “If you flake around with the weed, you’re going to end up using the hard
stuff.” Joan’s drug use stems both from a desire to conform with the other teenag
ers at the school (especially with the Wheelers and Dealers), and from having
absent, unconcerned parents. When Joan throws a party at her house, Wilson asks
where her parents are. When Police Commissioner Burroughs encourages all the
parents of kids at the high school to attend a lecture about drugs, Joan’s parents
dismiss the issue. Joan’s mother has a social event that she has to attend instead of
going to the meeting. Her father naively tells her mother that “The only problem
children I know are the ones who have problem parents.” They are oblivious to
what is going on in Joan’s everyday life, believing her when she tells them she
knows nothing about drugs, “Why, father, I haven’t even read about it.”