Movie: High School Musical 3: Senior Year

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Break a Leg!

Plot Overview

HSM3 takes place in the waning senior days of East High School in New Mexico. The Wild­cats finish their last game, the seniors put on a musical play, there's the senior prom, and then gradu­ation. Fare­wells come all too soon (“High school wasn't meant to last forever”,) and then it's off to college or wherever.

Cracker Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) has been friends with black Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) forever. In their child­hood scenes, Chad was played by a white boy; children don't notice color. In high school Chad is ambiguously black but his parents are negro through and through. His blackness is a work in progress, indicated by his position as basket­ball co-captain under Troy and his red cape in their tree house. A New Mexico school though integrated is mostly white. In Sonia Maasik & Jack Solomon, Signs of Life in the USA, Stuart Buck “explains how the well-intentioned policies of desegregation eventually led to … a reversal of intention” (Maasik 637),

because desegregation undermined one of the traditional centers of the black community: the school. In the segregated schools, black children had consistently seen other blacks succeeding in the academic worlds. The authority figures and role models—that is, the teachers and principals—were virtually always black. And the best students in black schools were black as well. ¶This ended with desegregation. (Maasik 639)

As John McWhorter points out, the “demise of segregation” helped “pave the way for the ‘acting white’ charge. With the closing of the black schools after desegrega­tion orders, black students began going to school with white ones in larger numbers than ever before, which meant that whites were available for black students to model them­selves against” (McWhorter 64–65).

In integrated schools if a black kid started getting good grades, his peers would accuse him of “acting white.” With such a disincentive to achieve, that kid would go back home on the bus under­­educated. Chad is headed to U of A for its basket­ball, while Troy has bigger plans.

An enthus­iastic teacher Mrs. Darbus (Alyson Reed) pushed Troy into a star­ring role in the senior musical and also applied on his behalf to a dramatic arts school with a basket­ball program. He looks comfort­able on a stage as well as on the court; his friend just looks comfy on the court. Now he has more options to stay close by his girl­friend Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) who is presented with a major oppor­tunity, but she'd have to move far away—again.

President of the Drama Club Shar­pay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) has grandiose ambitions that get thwarted in the short term, but she's nothing if not persistent. She'll make it happen if she can, her ego-trip notwithstanding.

Ideology

The apostle Paul enjoins (1Tim. 2:9-10) “that women adorn them­selves in modest apparel, with shame­faced­ness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but … with good works.” “Shame­faced­ness” has to do with being easily embarrassed, as, I suppose, in having to wear hand-me-downs. The relevant note in my Franklin Electronic Bible reads, “Early printer's error for ‘shame­fast­ness’, which means modesty of character.” The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible restores the original ‘shame­fast­ness’, and the ASV retains it, too. Gabriella is so dressed and so deports her­self as we'd expect in a Disney lead (“I always do the right thing.”) She wears posies in her hair. She's the last to leave the building and she refrains from broad­casting a coveted scholar­ship she won.

Bible translators being mostly men diddle around with clothing epithets not necessarily under­standing what they write; their goal is enough variegation to make their translation unique, a requirement to acquire a copyright necessary to sell their product. An example is “modest” as updated by the NKJV. The modernized New King James Version (NKJV) opts for a simplified vocabulary, (1 Tim. 2:9) “that women adorn them­selves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation.” I'll use as a model an expression from author John Sandford:

A small but pleasant swimming pool hung off a second floor deck, and LuEllen put on a modest black bikini and went out to sun her­self before the gathering insurance sales­men and lawyerly deal-makers. (129)

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LuEllen came back, carrying a Coke, looking for her sun­tan cream. The pool was getting crowded, and she was moving from display to exhibition mode. (131)

We'll concede Sharpay's miniskirt & go-go boots modest, as befits a Disney G film character. She has a lot of bling in her locker, but she doesn't wear it all at once. She is not modest of character, though, hankering for a “one woman show.” She instructs her exchange student, side-kick Tiara Gold (Jemma McKenzie-Brown) to check Sharpay's wardrobe first thing in the morning so she doesn't clash. That puts Tiara in display mode of moderately modest to Sharpay's exhibition mode, her “best dress” more than moderate. Negress Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) the student body president & Chad's prom date is the one to dress “with propriety” in short, squat neckties or bow ties. The wardrobes get mixed between Bible versions, the KJV being the word of God and the others money speaking.

Production Values

“” is a sequel to the TV movies “High School Musical” and “High School Musical 2” that were set in New York. It was directed by Kenny Ortega. It was written by Peter Bar­soc­chini. It stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley French. Also featured are Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen, Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor, Bart Johnson as Coach Jack Bolton and Alyson Reed as Mrs. Darbus. They played high school students (and a teacher & coach) well enough.

MPA rated it G. The songs are catchy, the colors resplendent, and the choreography superlative. Except for some last half excerpts—it was the end of the season—and some one-on-one practice we didn't see Efron in action on the court, and his screen girlfriend had to teach him to waltz—but he was a quick study.

I actually worked the sound at a high school whose musical was touted as “nearly professional,” … and that isn't this one. Never­the­less, they did a good job for a high school production; it just strains credulity to see the scouts creaming them­selves over it. Like­wise, the scholar­ships dropping out of the blue. But you can't have everything. Runtime is 1 hour 52 minutes (There's also a slightly longer version.)

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

There are a lot better musicals one can go to, especially from the old days. This one is Walt Disney and it's G rated, which should count for some­thing to certain audiences. It was good but not a must-see.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for children: Suitable for all ages. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.

Works Cited

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

Scripture quotation marked NKJV is from the New King James Version, Copyright © 1979 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Print.

Franklin note is from “The Bible Word Book,” R. Bridges and L. Weigle, Thomas Nelson 1960.

Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the U.S.A.. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.

McWhorter, John. Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America. (New York: Gotham, 2006), As quoted in Maasik.

Sandford, John. The Hanged Man's Song. Copyright © 2003 by John Sandford. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003. Print.