Storyline
Mark Hunter is an intelligent but shy teenager who has just moved to suburban Arizona from New York. Unbeknownst to his parents and peers, at 10pm each school night Mark takes to the shortwave radio in his basement and transforms into pirate DJ "Hard Harry". Mark's show, at once thoughtful and profane, becomes an underground hit with students at his high school, inspiring the wrath of his principal and the Federal Communications Commission [FCC].
Directors
Cast
Trailer
Reviews
100
Chicago Reader
A clarion call for freedom and collective action both hopeful and energizing, it qualifies as a generational statement as Rebel Without a Cause did in the 50s, but without the defeatism and masochism. Not to be missed.
88
Pump Up the Volume, in addition to presenting an engaging story, has tapped into a universal truth about rebels with causes.
88
Boston Globe
It's a celebration of free expression that treats youth like a fierce and beautiful animal, and never attempts to tame it. In Pump Up the Volume, the "why-bother" generation finds a voice, and begins to bother. [22 Aug 1990, p.47]
80
The New York Times
Working within the confines of the teen-age genre film, Pump Up the Volume succeeds in sounding a surprising number of honest, heartfelt notes.
80
Variety
Writer-director Allan Moyle's story about a shy high school student who galvanizes an Arizona suburb with a rebellious pirate radio show has rambunctious energy and defiant attitude.
