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Revenge of the Nerds
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Once an ’80s classic, Revenge of the Nerds doesn’t quite hold up under the bright lights of 2019 — a fact that not even its cast, director, and writer can ignore. In GQ’s oral history for the comedy’s 35th anniversary, director Jeff Kanew and writer Steve Zacharias discussed the film’s controversial rape scene, in which one of the nerds has “sex under false pretenses” with a sorority girl. Zacharias told GQ’s Steve Knopper that he “regrets” including the rape scene in the film, while Kanew added that “it’s not excusable.” Said Kanew, “If it were my daughter, I probably wouldn’t like it.”
Towards the end of Revenge of the Nerds, lead nerd Lewis (Robert Carradine) sees his crush, Betty (Julia Montgomery), fighting with her boyfriend Stan and decides to take advantage of the opening. Lewis steals Stan’s Darth Vader mask and follows Betty into a funhouse (they’re at a carnival), where they proceed to have sex. When Betty asks him to take off the mask, he declines — until afterwards, when he reveals that he’s not Stan, after all. “You’re that nerd!” says Betty, momentarily surprised. “God, you were wonderful. Are all nerds as good as you?” she asks. “Yes. Because all jocks think about is sports,” says Lewis. “All we ever think about is sex.” At the end of the film, Lewis and Betty start dating, effectively rewarding his horrible behavior.
In recent years, this scene has come under fire for its depiction of rape and its consequences. “I’ve heard [criticism] a lot this year because of the #MeToo movement — that’s considered a form of rape because it’s sex under false pretenses,” Kanew told GQ. “At the time, it was considered sort of a switch.” He added that Betty saying Lewis was “wonderful” doesn’t excuse his behavior. “In a way, it’s not excusable,” he said. “If it were my daughter, I probably wouldn’t like it.”
Zacharias feels similarly. “I regret that,” he said, adding that he’s “written a play for the musical and I eliminated the rape scene.” In that version, right “before the rape scene [Lewis] reveals who he is and she wants to have sex with him.” The Revenge of the Nerds writer went on to say that he “also regret[s] the video scene,” in which the nerds install cameras in girls’ dorm rooms and watch them as they change. “It would be goofy enough if they just did a panty raid and played it really nerdy,” Zacharias told GQ.
Interestingly, Montgomery wasn’t as harsh as the film’s director and writer. “In the ’80s, we didn’t see it as a rape scene, exactly,” she said. “I thought about it as, ‘What a surprise, Stan’s got some new moves — but oh my God, it’s not Stan, it’s Lewis!’ He just wanted to date me. There’s something charming about that.” But that being said, Montgomery told GQ that she the “blame” for the scene should be placed on Kanew. “There should’ve been one more beat in this scene,” she said. “Something else, something added, even if Betty had pushed him or slapped him or something.”
Read Steve Knopper’s oral history of Revenge of the Nerds on GQ. For more on the controversial aspects of the 1984 comedy, check out Glenn Kenny’s column, “The Problematics: Revenge of the Nerds, a Comedy That Actually Recommends Rape.”
