My List of Best Movies about Teachers
1)
Stand and Deliver
Edward James
Olmos portrays the real-life Jaime Escalante, a no-nonsense mathematic teacher
in a tough East LA high school. Handed a classroom full of "losers"
and "unteachables," Escalante is determined to turn his young
charges' lives around. Drawing from his own cultural heritage, Escalante forms
a bond with his largely Hispanic student body, evoking the names of famous
Spaniards and Latin Americans whose great accomplishments were predicated on
their ability to learn. The students gradually come to realize that the only
way they'll escape their own poverty-stricken barrio is to improve themselves
intellectually. As a result, the class' academic achievements soar dramatically
-- too dramatically for the Educational Testing Service, which is convinced
that the class' high test scores are the results of cheating. The triumphant
exoneration of Escalante's students provides Stand and Deliver with its
rousingly upbeat conclusion
2)To Be
and To Have
A true piece of
art for the viewer not seeking spectacular eye-openers through means of stunts
and a plot, but seeking a both simple and intellectual eye-opener on
contemporary sociology. This idyllic setting awakens own memories of childhood,
own regrets on lesser teaching, and reflects what is missing in the hectic
everyday life of most children.
3) Dead Poet’s Society
Robin Williams
toned down his usually manic comic approach in this successful period drama. In
1959, the Welton Academy is a staid but well-respected prep school where
education is a pragmatic and rather dull affair. Several of the students,
however, have their thoughts on the learning process (and life itself) changed
when a new teacher comes to the school. John Keating (Williams) is an
unconventional educator who tears chapters of his textbooks and asks his
students to stand on their desks to see the world from a new angle. Keating
introduces his students to poetry, and his free-thinking attitude and the
liberating philosophies of the authors.
4)Mr.
Holand’s Opus
A teacher belatedly discovers
just how important his job really is in this emotional drama. Glenn Holland
(Richard Dreyfuss) is a man with a deep love of music and a desire to write at
least one piece of lasting significance. However, playing piano in cocktail
lounges while he works on his own compositions doesn't pay the bills, so in
1965 he reluctantly accepts a job as a high school music teacher. Over the next
30 years, Holland is able to teach a great deal about both music and life to
thousands of kids who pass through the various classes he leads and school
bands he directs.
5)Lean on
Me
After earning rave notices
for powerful supporting turns as a pimp in Street Smart (1987) and an alcohol
abuse counselor in Clean and Sober (1988), actor Morgan Freeman began his
ascent to stardom with this, his first lead role in a major motion picture. Freeman
is real-life high school principal Joe Clark, a tough, harsh educator and
administrator who in 1987 is given a nearly impossible task by his old friend,
school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume). Clark is asked to
reform inner city Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, a hotbed of delinquent
kids and drug dealers. Considered the worst school in New Jersey, the state is
threatening to take control of Eastside away from the local school board. If
Clark can straighten out Eastside in time to get the school's basic-skills test
scores up, he can have the job permanently. Although Clark's tyrannical
approach and hard-line policies alienate many members of the staff and the
community, his uncompromising campaign gets results and even makes him famous,
much to the chagrin of his powerful enemies.
6)The
Great Debaters
Drawing inspiration from the
true story of a temperamental debate coach who molded the students of a small
East Texas college into a formidable team that gave even Harvard's elite squad
a run for their money, Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters features the
director himself as the ambitious educator, and Forest Whitaker as the
resentful father of a student whose loyalties now lie almost exclusively with
his coach. Melvin B. Tolson (Washington) is the kind of educator who truly
recognizes the remarkable power of knowledge. An outspoken Wiley College
professor who boldly challenged the discriminatory Jim Crow laws of the 1930s,
Tolson's recognizes that his young debate students possess the spark of a new
generation.
7)Good
Will Hunting
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
co-scripted and star in this drama, set in Boston and Cambridge, about
rebellious 20-year-old MIT janitor Will Hunting (Damon), gifted with a
photographic memory, who hangs out with his South Boston bar buddies, his best
friend Chuckie (Affleck), and his affluent British girlfriend Skylar (Minnie
Driver). After MIT professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) stumps students with a
challenging math formula on a hallway blackboard, Will anonymously leaves the
correct solution, prompting Lambeau to track the elusive young genius. As
Will's problems with the police escalate, Lambeau offers an out, but with two
conditions -- visits to a therapist and weekly math sessions. Will agrees to
the latter but refuses to cooperate with a succession of therapists. Lambeau
then contacts his former classmate, therapist Sean McGuire (Robin Williams), an
instructor at Bunker Hill Community College. Both are equally stubborn, but
Will is finally forced to deal with both his past and his future.
8)The
Class
François is a tough but fair teacher
working in one of France's toughest schools, and his honest demeanor in the
classroom has made him a great success with the students. But this year things
are different, because when the students begin to challenge his methods
François will find his classroom ethics put to the ultimate test. François
Bégaudeau stars in director Laurent Cantet's entry into the 2008 Cannes Film
Festival.
9)Finding
Forrester
In the spirit of his Oscar-winning
Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant directs this tale of the unlikely bond that
develops between an aging, reclusive novelist named Forrester (Sean Connery) --
who hasn't written anything since winning a Pulitzer Prize decades earlier --
and Jamal (Rob Brown), a 16-year-old with a hidden desire to be a writer. When
Jamal is cited for his athleticism in basketball by an elite Manhattan prep
school, he is forced to adapt to an environment far from his South Bronx
upbringing, and a small mishap leads him to the eccentric, uneasy Forrester. After
their initial apprehension of each other, they begin to fuel each other's fire
for writing, and become unlikely friends despite their ages and backgrounds.
Forrester's devotion to Jamal becomes enhanced when he must defend allegations
of plagiarism enforced by Professor Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), jeopardizing
Jamal's future. The film also features Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, and Zane
Copeland, Jr..
10)A
Beautiful Mind
The true story of prominent
mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of this biographical drama
from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant and
conceited professor Nash. The prof seems guaranteed a rosy future in the early
'50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and makes a
remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game theory," which
carries him to the brink of international acclaim. Soon after, John is visited
by Agent William Parcher (Ed Harris), from the CIA, who wants to recruit him
for code-breaking activities. But evidence suggests that Nash's perceptions of
reality are cloudy at best; he is struggling to maintain his tenuous hold on
sanity, and Alicia suspects a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Battling
decades of illness with the loyal Alicia by his side, Nash is ultimately able
to gain some control over his mental state, and eventually goes on to
triumphantly win the Nobel Prize. Based loosely on the book of the same name by
Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind (2001) co-stars Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Anthony
Rapp, Christopher Plummer, and Judd Hirsch.
No comments:
Post a Comment