The Wild Life is a fantastic teen movie from 1984. I thought of the movie shortly after reviewing Weird Science and remembering Mitchell Smith, who plays the raspy voiced Wyatt. In The Wild Life, Smith portrays Jim Conrad a teen loner who easily identifies with a misunderstood Vietnam Veteran (Randy Quaid). In 1984, I was a teenager myself and remembered how cool Conrad’s character had seemed. He smoked, drank and cussed, all before his 16th birthday and wasn’t accountable to anyone.
Eric Stolz (Mask, Some Kind of Wonderful) plays Bill Conrad a high school grad on the way to college man. As he transitions to the collegiate life, he breaks of with his girlfriend Anita (Leah Thomson of Back to the Future, Red Dawn), gets a new apartment, and becomes interested in his younger brother Jim’s well being; all in the name of responsibility.
However, he just can’t quit best friend Tom Drake (Chris Penn of Footloose, All the Right Moves). When they rent an apartment together, it’s anything but responsible.
After remembering the movie, I tried hard to find it online, in video stores and among friends. The Wild Life is available in VHS, Laser Disk and Beta from some online sources. I found a copy to review and discovered an enjoyable flick. The reason that it is not widely available on DVD is the similar reason facing many movies being converted to DVD; licensing. So, in the name of awesomeness, Eddie Van Halen, composer of the soundtrack, please release the rights and make this movie available. If not… “it’s casual”.
Great lines include:
"It's casual"
"As soon as they see you're afraid, you're dead."
Warning: This movie may lead to more headbutting. Many learned to do so the first time it came out.
This movie is rated R for everything.
Great lines include:
"It's casual"
"As soon as they see you're afraid, you're dead."
Warning: This movie may lead to more headbutting. Many learned to do so the first time it came out.
This movie is rated R for everything.
