Distribution: A/V Geeks
Featured on: Temptations of a Christian Teenager
Running time: 09m 32s
Source film: 16mm; color; sound
Year: 1981
Director: Fred Carpenter
Production: Mars Hill Productions; Campus Life; Sterling Educational Films
Writer: Fred Carpenter
Photography/Camera: John Snavely
Location Sound: Lloyd Poe
Post Production Mix: Tim Himes
Editor: Fred Carpenter
Cast: Greg Guy, Steve Herrington, Nancy Houston, Brent Johnson, et al.
A cursory reading of the 1979 song, “Head Games,” by the rock band Foreigner, reveals vague relationship troubles between its narrator and a lover, expressed through the sort of tedious lyrics favored by the commercial rock radio of the era. The “answer” to these problems, the song states, is “nowhere in sight,” and the narrator’s daydreams are “haunting” and possibly “warning” him. Perhaps these specific allusions convinced director Fred Carpenter to use the song as a musical refrain in his 1981 moral behavior short, Face Value, but it’s an odd fit for a film that attempts to lecture teenagers about the futility of unscrupulous social behaviors. Did Carpenter have any idea about how many teenagers in the 1970s and 80s made out (and more) while ballads by Foreigner played in the background?
The Archival Eye 