---
title: "Fame"
year: 1980
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/fame"
fi1m_id: "fame"
imdb_id: "tt0080716"
tmdb_id: 3537
wikidata_id: "Q1351911"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-10-04T17:02:53.228743+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-04T17:02:53.737028+00:00"
region: "TR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Fame (1980)

Directed by Alan Parker · 2h 14m · Drama, Music

## Identity

Fame

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/fame
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** fame
- **IMDb ID:** tt0080716
- **TMDB ID:** 3537
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1351911
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080716/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/3537, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1351911

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 66 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* The whole street dances on a taxi for four minutes, then everybody goes back to class for two hours

> Alan Parker’s four years at New York’s High School of Performing Arts is loud, sweaty and often moving, and it never settles on which of its eight students it is about. Worth the evening for the numbers and for Irene Cara.

## Synopsis

New York, audition day at the High School of Performing Arts. Hundreds of teenagers queue to be judged in music, drama and dance. Coco Hernandez (Irene Cara) tries out for all three. Doris Finsecker (Maureen Teefy) sings while her mother (Tresa Hughes) mouths the words from the back row. Leroy Johnson (Gene Anthony Ray) comes along only to partner a friend in her dance audition and ends up with a place himself, and a reading problem he would rather nobody knew about. Bruno Martelli (Lee Curreri) arrives with his taxi-driver father and a van full of keyboards; Ralph Garci (Barry Miller) wants to be the next Freddie Prinze. Once term begins they want the same thing, to be noticed, and the school, with its scuffed corridors and strict teachers, has four years to sort out who will be.

## Review

After *Bugsy Malone* (1976) and [*Midnight Express*](https://film.one/film/midnight-express) (1978), Alan Parker went to New York to follow a class of hopefuls through four years at the High School of Performing Arts, from audition day to graduation. Christopher Gore’s script gives us eight students and no main one. The result is a loose, loud, episodic film that is at its best when the school breaks into noise and at its weakest when it sits a character down to talk about their feelings. We liked it, and we can tell you exactly where it is thin.

The opening half hour is the auditions, and Gerry Hambling cuts them as a mosaic: a bar of a song here, a wrong note there, a girl doing Shakespeare at a wall. Leroy Johnson (Gene Anthony Ray) has only come to partner a friend, dances in jeans and a vest and takes the attention off her. Coco Hernandez (Irene Cara) tries every department going. Doris Finsecker (Maureen Teefy) sings with her mother (Tresa Hughes) conducting from the seats, and Bruno Martelli (Lee Curreri) wheels in more keyboards than the music department owns. By the time the first bell rings we know these people, which is more than most ensemble films manage in two hours.

Michael Seresin shoots the building in what looks like the light that was there, grey winter mornings through chicken-wire glass, strip lights buzzing over the lunch tables, so the place feels like a school and not a set. Geoffrey Kirkland’s corridors are scuffed to the height of a shoulder bag and the radiators look like they have never worked. Kristi Zea puts the dancers in cut-off sweatshirts and leg warmers that are plainly their own and the rich girl, Hilary Van Doren (Antonia Franceschi), in things that have been ironed. The whole film has the smell of a gym.

Then the numbers. In the cafeteria, Bruno’s tape starts, somebody drums on a tray, Cara climbs onto a table and within a minute the entire lunch room is a rhythm section. Michael Gore’s songs do a lot of the work, and the title song does the most: Bruno’s father plays it from his cab outside the school and the street fills with students dancing on the bonnet, on the roof, on the pavement, while the traffic sits and honks. We grinned at it like idiots and did not stop until the cab drove off. Cara also gets a quiet one, alone at a piano, and Parker has the sense to leave the camera where it is.

The trouble is arithmetic. Eight stories in 134 minutes means some get a paragraph. Hilary’s strand is handled in two scenes and a taxi. Lisa Monroe (Laura Dean) gets one. Montgomery MacNeil (Paul McCrane) says one brave and honest thing about himself early on, and the script then has almost nothing for him to do for three years. The teachers fare better: Mrs. Sherwood (Anne Meara) refusing to let Leroy hide the fact that he cannot read is the one strand with a proper argument in it, and Mr. Shorofsky (Albert Hague) telling Bruno that a synthesiser is not an orchestra is a quarrel the film has the decency to lose on both sides.

Barry Miller’s Ralph Garci gets the longest arc and the most speeches, and Miller is good enough that the speeches nearly work. There is a scene late on with Coco, a stranger and a camera that we will not describe. It is the one time Parker holds a shot and lets a face do everything, and Cara is so exposed in it that we wanted him to cut away and were glad he did not.

*Bugsy Malone* had one idea and ran it to the end; this has eight and finishes about four of them. It is still a good evening, with the sound up, and if the genre is yours you will forgive the stretches where everyone is in a classroom. It runs 134 minutes and carries a 15, for the language and for that scene.

*Fi1m score 70, published 4 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Fame without loving it. The reviews lean mixed to positive, and the praise clusters around one thing: the energy. The song-and-dance numbers, the bustle of the New York school setting and a cast of young performers who look as if they are working rather than posing are what people remember. Den of Geek credits the film with rich characters and a willingness to take on difficult subjects without softening them, and Collider picks out Irene Cara’s uncomfortable audition scene as the strongest thing in it.

The reservations are about shape rather than spirit. Empire finds the dramatic storylines left dangling, and Den of Geek calls the film uneven and dated in places. Radio Times rates it thoroughly entertaining but less fun than Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone. The spread is narrow, with nobody dismissing it and nobody rapturous, though several of the older reviews survive only in fragments, so the picture is thinner than seven reviews suggests.

## Straight answers

**Is Fame worth watching?**

*Fame* is worth an evening for anyone who likes a musical with the sound up, and we scored it 70. The audition sequence and the cafeteria and street numbers are the reason to watch, and Irene Cara is the reason to stay. Be ready for long stretches of classroom talk between the songs, and for several of the eight students to get barely a scene each.

**How long is Fame, and what is it rated?**

*Fame* runs 2h 14m. It is a drama and music film.

**Where can I watch Fame in Türkiye?**

*Fame* is not on any streaming or rental service in Türkiye at the moment. It is available in 21 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Fame, and is it suitable for children?**

*Fame* carries a 15 certificate in the UK and an R in the US, chiefly for strong language and for one late scene in which Coco is alone with a stranger and a camera, which is uncomfortable rather than violent. There is no fighting or horror to speak of. It is fine for older teenagers, but younger children would be bored by the drama and should be kept from that scene.

**How does Fame compare to The Red Shoes?**

*Fame* and [*The Red Shoes*](https://film.one/film/the-red-shoes) both ask what a performer gives up for the work, but Powell and Pressburger ask it of one dancer and Parker spreads it across eight teenagers, so his film is looser and warmer and the earlier one is tighter and crueller. *The Red Shoes* is the better film and the one we would recommend to anyone; *Fame* suits viewers who want noise, sweat and a street dancing on a taxi.

**What should I watch after Fame?**

After *Fame*, try [*The Red Shoes*](https://film.one/film/the-red-shoes) (1948, Fi1m 92): Powell and Pressburger on what the work costs, in Technicolor and without mercy. Then [*Saturday Night Fever*](https://film.one/film/saturday-night-fever) (1977, Fi1m 78): The same New York, two years earlier, and a dance floor as the only way out; and [*The Commitments*](https://film.one/film/the-commitments) (1991, Fi1m 82): Parker does it again in Dublin with a band, and finishes more of his stories.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **The New York Times** (72/100, inferred): The headline suggests a positive verdict, but the review text is unavailable. It singles out the film’s bubbling vitality; further praise or criticism cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1980/05/16/archives/film-fame-opens-bubbling-with-lifethe-long-long-road.html)
- **Empire**, Anna Smith (65/100, inferred): The review finds the film energetic and engaging, though its dramatic storylines leave loose ends. It particularly praises the song-and-dance scenes for their energy and atmosphere. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fame-review/)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies this as a review of the 1980 film, but the page content is blocked. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fame-1980)
- **Time Out**, HM (64/100, inferred): The page identifies itself as a film review, but no critical verdict is visible. The available description only notes the musical’s New York setting and young performers. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/fame-2)
- **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (3/5): Parkinson calls the film thoroughly entertaining, though less fun than Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone. He praises its look at life at New York’s High School for the Performing Arts and notes that its score and title song won Oscars. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-5ccge1/fame/)
- **Den of Geek**, Simon Brew (3 out of 5): Brew considers the film still good, though uneven and showing its age. He praises its rich characters and its willingness to handle difficult subject matter without gloss. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/fame-blu-ray-review/)
- **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the original imperfect but effective, while judging the remake a watered-down and less interesting version. They single out Irene Cara’s uncomfortable audition scene as the original’s strongest moment. [Read](https://collider.com/fame-1980-and-fame-2009-blu-ray-reviews/)

## Details

- **Director:** Alan Parker
- **Director:** Alan Parker
- **Writer:** Christopher Gore
- **Cinematography:** Michael Seresin
- **Editor:** Gerry Hambling
- **Music:** Michael Gore
- **Production design:** Geoffrey Kirkland
- **Costume design:** Kristi Zea
- **Producer:** David De Silva, Alan Marshall
- **Cast:** Irene Cara as Coco Hernandez; Barry Miller as Ralph Garci/Raul Garcia; Maureen Teefy as Doris Finsecker; Paul McCrane as Montgomery MacNeil; Lee Curreri as Bruno Martelli; Gene Anthony Ray as Leroy Johnson; Antonia Franceschi as Hilary Van Doren; Laura Dean as Lisa Monroe
- **Runtime:** 2h 14m
- **First release (the US):** 16 May 1980
- **Genres:** Drama, Music
- **Also in:** [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Nominee, 1980)
- **Budget:** $8 million
- **Box office:** $42 million

## Where to watch in Türkiye

Not streaming, renting or buying in Türkiye at the last check.

Also available in: AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CZ, DK, ES, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, LT, NL, NO, NZ, PL, RO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 1981: Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated); Best Original Score (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Red Shoes* (1948), Fi1m 92: Powell and Pressburger on what the work costs, in Technicolor and without mercy. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-red-shoes.md)
- *Saturday Night Fever* (1977), Fi1m 78: The same New York, two years earlier, and a dance floor as the only way out. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/saturday-night-fever.md)
- *The Commitments* (1991), Fi1m 82: Parker does it again in Dublin with a band, and finishes more of his stories. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-commitments.md)
- *Billy Elliot* (2000), Fi1m 81: A County Durham boy, a ballet class and a father who does not understand. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/billy-elliot.md)
- *Whiplash* (2014), Fi1m 84: What Mr. Shorofsky would be with the kindness removed; a drum kit as a weapon. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/whiplash.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/fame