In this basic but likable Canadian comedy, Kevin Hicks gives a great performance as Andy Cooper, a College freshman who has lived a rather sheltered existence in a small country town and finds it hard to adapt to the discrimination, aggressiveness, drugs, and sexual freedom associated with life in a big city art college. The acting support from the rest of the cast is also of a fairly high standard. Although this is an overworked comedy theme, it is played out quite effectively here, and this film has much more appeal for a mature audience than many other college life comedies, which too often fall into the generic class of 'skinflicks'. Since VHS copies of HE are becoming hard to find and cable TV showings are quite infrequent, the distributors responsible must be considering releasing a DVD version. The film is far from faultless but it provides some quite stimulating viewing and would make a better DVD than many other comedies from the same era which have already been so released.
I have rated HE at 6 stars, but with some reservations. The audio reproduction from my VHS tape (which was distributed through Norstar) is very poor, and being a little deaf I found difficulty in keeping up with the nuances of the story. A disk copy should cure this, but unfortunately might be found to provide little or no real improvement. Should a DVD release of HE appear I would probably buy it; but when DVD's of older films may be no better than tape copies, consumers like myself now replace sub-standard tapes only if they can be sure their replacement DVD has been re-mastered to provide the higher standards (both video and audio) which they expect. The marketing of unedited and unimproved disk copies of distributors master tapes as DVD's has seriously discredited the DVD format and, with these comments on HE, I am begging all DVD distributors to introduce some sort of guide from which the artistic, video and audio quality of all newly released DVD's can be assessed. Rating information is part of this as MPAA mandated changes often lead to the contents of a film varying significantly from the Director's intentions (encouraging consumers to look for an unrated or "Directors cut" version). But a technical quality rating is also required to provide potential buyers with other critically important information. A purchaser is responsible for selecting his movie on its artistic and other merits, but he cannot be asked to be responsible for its technical quality as well. This remains the responsibility of the distributor; and, particularly when an old classic is first being offered in DVD format, there is a real need to let the purchaser know exactly what quality product the distributor can offer.
HE was a well made and enjoyable comedy which I believe still has a significant appeal, although the inclusion of the sequences relating to the gangster seemed to me to be not only out of place but quite unnecessary. In fairness however this was one minor aspect of the story that I found particularly difficult to follow on my tape. Whilst I believe this is a film which would justify continued availability for home viewing, the videotape which is currently listed is of such poor quality that I cannot recommend its purchase. A reworked copy of this film, offering much better quality audio, should be made available in DVD format.
