Dropout, The

About

A warning to would-be slackers, The Dropout shows the loneliness and frustration that develop in Robert, who drops out of school and tries to find a job before he is qualified to compete in the highly competitive world of modern work. Told in Davis' inimitable voiceover style, this film retells the classic "downward spiral" tale.

"More than ever before, competition is keen," says the narrator. "The work force is made up of skilled personnel." Attracted by the world of work and eager to leave the regulated society of high school behind, Robert begins to pound the Santa Monica pavement. But no one wants to hire a dropout. And, what's worse, his schoolmates seem to be getting along just fine without him. "There used to be an order in your life. You belonged. You had an anchor in a social institution. Now you feel adrift. You're on the outside, looking in," comments the narrator, who throughout the film addresses his words to Robert.

And that's not the end of it. Alice, Robert's girlfriend, has to meet him in secret, as her parents don't want her seeing a dropout. In an attempt to keep her, "you downgrade your image one more step and take a job as busboy." This improves things, but not for long, and one night Alice shows up at the restaurant with another date.

Robert begins to crash and burn. He cannot even get an unskilled job, as employers want an older, more reliable hand. "You begin to drift in earnest...much of your day is spent wandering aimlessly in the less desirable sections of town." He begins to frequent a pool hall, where men of all ages with "no competition, no drive, no illusion" hang out. When his friend Jake, an obvious lowlife, is arrested, he wonders how much unlike Jake he has become. "You wish you knew."

Rare among teenage transgression films in that there is no successful adult intervention to head off disaster, The Dropout seems to stress the devastating effects of shame and downward class mobility. Robert doesn't just leave the bustling, productive environment of high school for "the less desirable sections of town," he's also a traitor to the very ideas of industriousness and self-improvement. Perhaps this is one of the reasons his father "throws him out of bed before he leaves for work."

Film about high school dropout searching for employment in 1950s Santa Monica, California.

02:29:13:26 Santa Monica High School baseball game; man thrown out at first base; 1950s audience of teens behind fence applauds.

02:30:18:01 CU neon sign of hot dog with words “Charcoal-Broiled” and sign beneath the neon sign for “The Hot Dog Show” hot dog stand, camera zooms out as man exits doors beneath sign.

02:31:06:15 VS young man at dinner table with father and mother; father gets upset throws napkin on table and walks out of dining room.

02:31:55:00 Two teenage couples holding hands running on a Southern California beach toward camera; LS young couple running on beach scares a flock of seagulls; teenage couple sits down on beach blanket together; MS young couple sitting on beach, Santa Monica pier in background.

02:33:50:21 Father with crew cut opens door and pokes head into teenage son’s room; father shakes son’s shoulder, boy doesn’t wake up, 8 mph street sign on wall above young man’s head; young man gets up, then lies back down putting his pillow over his head.

02:34:28:28 VS CU 1950s men with stern faces saying “no” and “I’m sorry”; extreme CU man’s mouth.

Archive

Internet Archive, in Prelinger Archives

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

Davis (Sid) Productions

Subtitles

Automatic captions

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed