Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) is a low level crook, who gets offered the option of joining the police academy as part of a new initiative to increase diversity in the police force or going to jail instead. Whilst this sounds like the opening of a movie for 2024, its actually the basis for 1984’s Police Academy – the movie that spawned thousands, (well six at least) sequels, and features in the early careers of several well known actors including Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) and G. W. Bailey (The Closer, Major Crimes).
The plot of Police Academy is simple and straightforward. What happens when all the rules are abandoned and anyone – regardless of age, sex, race, or athletic ability – can join the police force in 1980s America, when sexism, racism and various “phobias” were openly accepted and deliberately systemic? In the opening scenes, the Chief of Police (George R Robinson) comments to Lieutenant Harris (played with grumpy gusto by G. W. Bailey), in euphemistic language, that he can now see women and it is the Lieutenant’s job to get rid of the new recruits. And so the stage is set for a series of showdowns between the old guard of officers and the new pack of misfits, led by Mahoney, who will do whatever he can to get thrown out of the Police Academy.
G. W. Bailey is cast as the grumpy training instructor tasked with shaping the disparate crew into a police force worthy of the badge. He growls, snarls and berates his way through the misfits, attempting to instil a sense of purpose and hopefully lose a few on the way. He’s set up as the main antagonist to Guttenberg’s Mahoney and in later movies in the series is much meaner. In this first movie though, he is often the butt of the jokes while trying to do his job with individuals who seem ill-equipped for the task at hand. Police Academy is definitely a movie of two halves. The first 45 minutes is very much played as a classic slapstick movie in the same vein as the St Trinian’s or National Lampoon’s Animal House.
There are attempts by the recruits to get one over on the senior staff, with one character dressing as a woman to sneak into the girls’ dorm to make as many conquests as possible, or sending the two bullying cadets to the local gay bar. Jokes are often sexist or in some cases downright creepy, such as Mahoney’s comments to Brooks (Kim Cattrall) asking to see her thighs. Many of these gags have not aged well, and watching them 40 years later leaves a distinctly unpleasant taste in the mouth.
While the first half of the movie is uncomfortable to watch in places, the second half actually has a plot and sees the cadets shine as they face the public for the first time. Characters who were bullied get to face down their tormentors (Donovan Scott looks like he genuinely enjoyed himself using the police baton with some kick arse action), and Hooks (Marion Ramsey) gets to find her big voice. There is a strong sense of farce to the second half, with lots of running, and jokes telegraphed before the final act which is oddly played totally straight with a gunfight not out of place in a more serious cop movie like Dirty Harry.
With a runtime of just over 90 minutes, Police Academy is not a particularly taxing watch. It is not the strongest in the series, though definitely not the weakest either (that accolade has to go to the final entry, Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow – the less said about that, the better). Whilst some of the jokes have not aged well, it holds its own against similar movies such as Airplane or Blazing Saddles, where much of the comedy is in the absurdity of the situation.
And of course Police Academy itself has been lampooned many times, most notably in Spaceballs with Michael Winslow, the man of many sounds, playing the radar technician who provides his own sonar ‘pings’. Hot Fuzz also manages to include an homage to an early scene when he dives over various fences in pursuit of an athletic criminal; in Police Academy it is the wife of one of the recruits trying to catch him by jumping fences while he drives to the Academy.
Director Hugh Wilson (Dudley Do-Right, Blast from the Past) manages to keep the pace relatively even, even if the comedy is largely set pieces until the second half, when the action moves to more sprawling locations. In spite of its flaws, Police Academy is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve.
Police Academy was released in the UK on 23rd March 1984.