Randall Batinkoff: A Brief look back at School Ties

I was about 16 or 17, still in high school when I went to the theatre to see 1992's School Ties.  I went to the movie on a date and the girl I was taking picked the film for us to see.  At the time, I knew nothing about what the film was about and had never heard of Matt Damon, Brendan Fraser, Randall Batinkoff or any of the other male actors that made up the cast.

The film was sort of a dream come true for the still in the closet guy on the date back then. Each male cast member more adorable than the next, chiseled jaws, great hair, and incredible bodies, showed off in the famous shower scene.  At the time, I crushed mostly over Randall and Brendan Fraser, although also thought Chris O'Donnell, Cole Hauser, Andrew Lowery and Anthony Rapp were hot.

Ben Affleck's role was quite minor and he didn't really peak my interest at the time.  Due to his fame after the release of School Ties, Affleck was placed more prominently in promotional and advertising, and covers for the film's release, but his role really wasn't that big.  I thought Matt Damon was adorable, especially his butt in the shower scene, but at the time was so turned off by his character's actions, wasn't a huge fan of the actor until seeing him in later projects.

Besides the brimming box of eye candy that School Ties was, I was also impacted by the subject matter.  Although very aware of the history of Jewish persecution, I hadn't really thought as  much about it as an ongoing issue that continued long after the end of the war.  The film helped me understand the systemic prejudice that continued, and even continues today, on full display of course by some of the actions and words of the current resident of The White House.

Although Batinkoff wasn't naked in that second shower scene, he was shirtless in an earlier scene.  Batinkoff also received a friendly squeeze from a shirtless, and buffed up Ben Affleck in the film's well remembered Smokey Joe's Cafe scene, which first introduced most of the male characters in a scene all together.

So.. that shower scene.  It was hard to sit still when I first saw it watching in the theatre, thank goodness it was dark and that my date as focused on the screen as I think I turned (or felt like I turned...) a bright red during the scene.

At the time, my focus was on Damon's cute butt, and a little distracted by the bubbles strategically place on Chris O'Donnell's butt, clearly at the actor's request to ensure his butt was not fully visible. Re-watching it again from Batinkoff' character's viewpoint, I got an entirely differen't, but equally enjoyable view.

Batinkoff's Rip got one of the best views of the shower, right there as Damon entered, dropped his towel and headed into the shower.  As the scene continued, Rip chatted with the naked Damon and Fraser, and the soapy O'Donnell and had a front row seat to the wet naked shower fight.  Rip also had the difficult (or enjoyable...) of grabbing the wet, naked Damon and holding back in his fight with Fraser.  Oh, if only there were some behind the scenes, or outtakes from this scene...