Varsity Blues glamorizes substance abuse. It showcases obscene language. And in it, hormones rule and authority figures take a beating.The story examines the sanctity of high school football in a small West Texas town. Before waging a climactic mutiny against their scurrilous, win-at-all-costs coach, these young characters party with abandon and drink to excess. Worse yet is how this release (from MTV Films) gratuitously parades nudity and sexual themes across the screen. Students are shown engaged in intercourse. A cheerleader appears in a whipped-cream bikini. When football players patronize a strip club, the camera leers at topless dancers, including the boys’ moonlighting sex-ed teacher who, elsewhere in the film, conducts an entire lesson on male arousal.
A diploma from Hollywood High will only prepare teens for careers in sex, drugs, alcohol, profanity and rebellion against authority-tired, exploitative conventions. The classroom is a darkened theater. Any note-taking is purely mental and probably subconscious. Don’t let your teens be miseducated.
