Police Academy
Police Academy movie poster
Directed by	Hugh Wilson
Produced by	Paul Maslansky
Written by	Neal Israel Pat Profit Hugh Wilson
Starring	Steve Guttenberg Kim Cattrall G.W. Bailey Bubba Smith Donovan Scott George Gaynes Andrew Rubin David Graf Leslie Easterbrook Michael Winslow Debralee Scott Bruce Mahler Ted Ross Scott Thomson Doug Lennox
Music by	Robert Folk
Cinematography	Michael D. Margulies
Editing by	Robert Brown Zach Staenberg
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 23, 1984
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United Sates
Language	English
Budget	$4,500,000
Followed by	Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Police Academy is a 1984 comedy crime film starring Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall and G.W. Bailey. It was directed by Hugh Wilson and written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Hugh Wilson. It was a hit film that grossed approximately $146 million worldwide, spawning six sequels.

Taglines

• The new police recruits. Call them slobs. Call them jerks. Call them gross. ...Just don't call them when you're in trouble.

• What an Institution!

• Be a police officer. All you do is join the farce.

• When THEY hit the streets, even the bad guys die laughing.

Plot

A new mayor has announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits. Not everyone in the police force is happy about the new changes. The main character, Carey Mahoney, is a repeat offender who is forced to join the police academy as an alternative to jail, a proposal by the officer who has been lenient on Mahoney due to knowing his father. Mahoney reluctantly agrees to this and decides that he will get himself thrown out. However, the chief of police, outraged by the mayor's lowered requirements decides that the new cadets should be forced to quit rather than being thrown out. Lieutenant Harris, who trains the cadets, agrees with the plan and employs tactics to make their lives as miserable as possible so that they do in fact quit. Mahoney tries many schemes to get thrown out but it never happens and he cannot quit because that would mean prison so he cannot get out of the academy.

While in the academy, Mahoney befriends fellow cadet Moses Hightower (played by former pro football great Bubba Smith), a quiet giant of a man, after helping him prepare for the critical driving test. After passing, Hightower is very thankful to Mahoney. Unfortunately, Hightower gets himself thrown out of the academy because of an incident, when a fellow cadet is racially insulted, in which he lifts and turns over a police car with the hated cadet Copeland inside.

Soon later, Mahoney gets involved in a lunchroom brawl caused by Copeland and Blankes, and takes the blame for throwing the first punch, which finally gives Lt. Harris the green light to expel his most despised cadet. Before Mahoney actually leaves the premises, however, a major riot breaks out downtown. The resulting police emergency forces the cadets into real action for the first time. During the riot, a tough outlaw manages to steal two cadet revolvers (one from Copeland and the other from Cadet Blankes). The outlaw grabs and disarms Lt. Harris by surprise, taking the officer to the roof of a nearby building as a hostage. Mahoney, despite his past troubles with Harris, dodges gunfire and climbs to the roof in a rescue attempt. This attempt fails and Mahoney is taken as a second hostage. Just as both hostages are about to be killed, it is none other than Hightower who suddenly appears on the rooftop in civilian clothes. The former cadet, who was working at a nearby florist just minutes earlier and left his shop due to the riot, rescues Mahoney and Harris just in time.

Mahoney and Hightower both graduate from the academy along with the other passing cadets, and both receive the academy's highest commendation ever bestowed upon a cadet for their rescue of Lt. Harris and capture of his kidnapper.

Cast

• Steve Guttenberg - Cadet Carey Mahoney
• Kim Cattrall - Cadet Karen Thompson
• G.W. Bailey - Lt. Thaddeus Harris
• Bubba Smith - Cadet Moses Hightower
• Donovan Scott - Cadet Leslie Barbara
• George Gaynes - Cmndt. Eric Lassard
• Michael Winslow - Cadet Larvell Jones
• Andrew Rubin - Cadet George Martin
• David Graf - Cadet Eugene Tackleberry
• Leslie Easterbrook - Sgt. Debbie Callahan
• Bruce Mahler - Cadet Douglas Fackler
• Ted Ross - Capt. Reed
• Scott Thomson - Cadet Chad Copeland
• Brant von Hoffman - Cadet Kyle Blankes

Reception

With a total of $81,198,894 in 1,587 theaters it was the sixth biggest grossing film in the US in 1984 only behind The Karate Kid, Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. The movie was also a financial success worldwide grossing approximately $146 million making it the 488/9 biggest grossing film of all time. Although it was a commercial success, it did get some criticism. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented that "It's really something. It's so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you're sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don't know what bad is" January 1st 1984.

VHS & DVD

• Police Academy [VHS](1984)The original theatrical version of the film released in 1984. An outrageously funny look at a group of misfits who sign up for training as lawmen at a place where the cops are so inept, crime's gotta pay! A riotous beat you won't want to miss! Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith, George Gaynes and Michael Winslow star; directed by Hugh Wilson. 96 mins. In Europe was released on VHS as Police Academy: What An Institution!

• Police Academy: 20th Anniversary Special Edition [DVD](1984) DVD was released around the world in 2004.An outrageously funny look at a group of misfits who sign up for training as lawmen at a place where the cops are so inept, crime's gotta pay! A riotous beat you won't want to miss! Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith, George Gaynes and Michael Winslow star; directed by Hugh Wilson. 96 mins. Special features include a "Making of" documentary, Audio Commentary by the cast and the original theatrical trailer.

• Police Academy: The Complete Collection [DVD][1984-1994]: This DVD collection is a seven disc boxset which included all seven Police Academy movies released between 1984 and 1994. All movies are in widescreen and have multi-language subtitles.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Bruce Willis auditioned for the role of Mahoney

• The "Blue Oyster" bar used in this movie is actually called the Silver Dollar Room, located on Spadina Avenue in Toronto.

• Cadets Leslie Barbara, Karen Thompson and George Martin make no further appereances.

• The only Police Academy movie to feature Eric Lassard's wife.

• Robert Conrad was offered the role of Commandant Eric Lassard, but turned down the part, which he regretted later on, to the point that he took the part of the Police Chief in Moving Violations (1985) which was co-written and directed by Neal Israel, who also co-wrote this film.

• Warner Bros tapped Hugh Wilson to write this film. Wilson agreed only after being offered the chance to direct it.

• Harris' trademark stick was not originally in the script. It was a prop brought onto the set by an extra, who gave it to G.W. Bailey to keep.

• As noted in the DVD commentary, while filming the obstacle course scene, the first man to scale the wall broke one of his lower limbs upon landing.

• The 'shoe polish on the megaphone' originated from a prank played on British director Michael Winner on the set of one of his movies. Hugh Wilson decided to use the gag after he heard the story from a crew member.

• G.W. Bailey's voice is noticeably lower than usual during the scene of the cadets' shooting exercise in the little western town, as G.W. was sick with the flu that day.

• The shot of George Martin leaving the women's dormitory at dawn was actually filmed at sunset.

• Was filmed in forty days.

• After Lassard and the cadets drive away from the rioting mob, they crash into the back of a meat truck which reads "Maslansky's Bologna". This is a reference to the film's producer Paul Maslansky.

• According to an interview in Entertainment Weekly Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, and Judge Reinhold were considered for the role of Mahoney.

• Due to being filmed out of sequence, the head shaving scene of Scott Thomson and Brant von Hoffman caused problems when it was later determined that they would need to be shown arriving at the academy beforehand, with their full heads of hair intact. Producers worked their way around this by issuing wigs for all of Scott and Brant's scenes that play prior to the head shaving.

See also

• Police academy
• Police Academy (film series)
• Police Academy (TV series)
• Police Academy: The Series

External links

• Police Academy at the Internet Movie Database

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