Fame (1980)

Talent will get you through the door, but only hard work, heart and a little heartbreak will take you where you want to go. Alan Parker's energetic musical drama "Fame," written by Christopher Gore, follows a group of students at New York City's High School of Performing Arts over four years, from nerve-racking auditions to graduation day. These teenage musicians, actors and dancers dream of stardom, and the film celebrates the process of growing up, sharpening their skills, facing hard realities, finding love and living life. Parker brings a lively style to the intertwining stories of its young cast, including Irene Cara as a driven, ambitious singer; Maureen Teefy as a painfully shy girl who slowly steps out from the shadow of her overbearing mother; Paul McCrane as a sensitive young actor; and Barry Miller as a brash would-be comedian from a troubled home who idolizes Freddie Prinze. Gene Anthony Ray plays a gifted, defiant dancer who can barely read and clashes with his demanding English teacher (Anne Meara), and Lee Curreri is a keyboard whiz who battles his old-school music teacher (Albert Hague) over his love of electronic music; Ray and Curreri went on to repeat their roles in the TV series. The highlight is a joyous musical number in which students pour into the streets, dancing on the hoods of taxicabs, and it closes with a soaring graduation performance of "I Sing the Body Electric." Nominated for six Oscars, it won for Michael Gore's score and the title song, sung by Cara, who also performs the tender ballad "Out Here on My Own." It was remade in 2009.