Underclassmen is a coming of age film of 2 poor boys in California''s Central Valley: one, shot in black and white, takes place in a small town in the 60s. The second is in color and its main character lives in the barrio of Central Fresno. It brackets five years around 9/11. The two stories are told together and parallel each other in many ways: both boys have limited assets, only have a single parent and they try hard to make a plan that will give each of them the promise of a better life.The stories are both complete within themselves and the audience never knows why they are told together.........until the final scene.—Anonymous
The "Underclassmen" is a parallel story of two California boys during their rites of passage years. "Lee Roy Soames" is a son of a small town cemetery custodian in Fresno County during the mid-1960's. "Anthony Garza" lives in the Fresno barrio in the years spanning 9/11. These two characters' stories are mixed at first within a loose chronology of their comparative beginning years of high school and the few years that follow. The plot shifts back and forth in period as Lee and Anthony grow toward school graduation and a future that must be addressed. There is humor, bittersweet lessons, wisdom, action, gentleness and surprises, the final one being what defines the screenplay.
Other commonalities are gender, their valley environment, their general goodness and the hugeness of things that they must face alone. Their differences, race, period, family and luck offer perspective and variety.
Lee Roy is the "class clown". Always in need of attention, he is the "A.D.D. Boy" before the term was ever invented. Living with a taciturn and mysterious father, Lee raises his two younger brothers. His small town world is school, newspaper routes, cleaning the butcher shop, last string J.V. football, and volunteering to help a frantic teacher get everyone a cat for biology dissection.
Lee's senior year, an adult comments on how serious Lee has become. Another offers that it's not maturity, "He just has no plan and doesn't know where to get one". Lee tries junior college to protect himself from the draft for Viet Nam. He flunks out but on a whim tries barber school. He is surprised to find it the only thing he has ever been truly good at his whole life. He has a plan, and hope.
Intermixed is Anthony's story: his former Marine uncles that are always working on a "beater" Chevy in his back yard, a younger sister intent on growing up too fast, his trying to stay out of gangs and trouble, and a serious, misstep that has him on house arrest his sophomore year.
He approaches that same bookmark of graduation and must also come up with a plan. "9/11" happens in his junior year and he is both attracted and fearful of going into the Marines. He is capable of college and wants it but the military is the only way he can get there. He has a falling out with his best friend, Chris, and the service will be his only escape. He joins; he trains; he is a model Marine.
Why these 2 valley stories are told together is not answered until the final scene.
