The Water Is Wide

This is a remake of the 1974 film "Conrack", starring John Voight as Pat Conroy. Both films were based on Conroy's autobiographical novel "The Water Is Wide". The 1974 film won a special UN award from the British Actors & Film Technicians Association and the screenplay was nominated for an award by the Writers' Guild of America. The new version, "The Water Is Wide", shows no improvement over the original.

The story is simple and pleasant. A new, young, white, male teacher gets a job teaching the upper grades in a all-black elementary school on an island off the coast of South Carolina. The principal, who teaches the junior grades, is black. She maintains discipline by beating the children. Pat Conroy does not believe in the effectiveness of corporal punishment; instead, he wins over the class with a combination of openness, honesty, humour and tough love.

If you have not seen Conrack, then I could recommend this film, if you do not mind predictable films. One could probably predict the main developments from what I have already said, so I will say no more.

John Kent Harrison, who directed The Water is Wide, based on the novel written by Pat Conroy, does a wonderful job recreating Conroy's assignment at Beaumont County South Carolina's school (teaching the all-black kids of the pauper fishery community on Yamacraw Island).

Yamacraw Island (now Daufuskie Island, an upscale resort with practically no original inhabitants) is a poor, nearly all African-American coastal region with a two-room schoolhouse. The island's whites manage the store, the library (only opened if someone needs a book), the post office, and a ferry that connects residents to the mainland.

When the school is combined with the county school district, the superintendent (Frank Langella) tires to deliver a well-intended "better education" for the island's children. But, he soon takes note of Conroy's take on the ineffectiveness of a rigid "chain of command" style of management.

Conroy's "principal," (played by the wonderful Alfre Woodard), is a tough love proponent having little else to offer. Students in grades 5-8 can't read, write, or even cite which nation they live in. Worse, they don't know what the ocean (which surrounds them) is called. They have no grasp of history or simple arithmetic.

I won't deliver any more details other than to note Jeff Hephner's flawless, heartfelt, terrific performance where he's touching, moving, very funny, and inspirational. When he decides to move on he says, "I don't know who changed more, me or them" which was a perfect ending.

The Water is Wide is based on Pat Conroy's book of the same title. It recounts a year he spent teaching African-American children on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast in the late 1960s. Mr. Conroy was young, naive, idealistic, and controversial. There are people still living in the South Carolina Lowcountry who regret the outcome of the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, who will tell you that this work is fictional and unfair to the school superintendent and the black teacher. From my own experience working in Georgia schools during the same period, I know that Conroy's observations are right on target.

It is interesting to contrast this Hallmark Hall of Fame movie with the earlier Conrack. While Conrack was contemporary reporting, this movie is more historical. Daufauskie Island (called Yamacraw in the book and both films) is fast becoming an exclusive resort community. Several generations of teachers have passed through the school and it has come under public scrutiny.

This film makes a genuine effort to look at the situation of the black teacher trying to satisfy a white administration. Alfre Woodard states that Mrs. Brown is a very unique sort of black woman that existed during that period. She plays the character with more subtlety than Madge Sinclair did. Jeff Hephner does a fine job as the idealist novice teacher in unfamiliar surroundings. He plays Conroy with less anger than Jon Voight did, but is more believable.

In this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation based on the real-life experiences of Pat Conroy, the fictional Conroy gets an opportunity to teach poor black children on Yamacraw Island in Beaumont County, South Carolina. Dr. Piedmont (Frank Langella), the county school superintendent, has recently been put in charge of the island school, once supervised by Mr. Bennington (James Murtaugh). His attitude intimidates Conroy, who imagines he is being criticized by his demanding marine father. Still, Conroy gets the job.

Despite the fact that he is engaged to Barbara (Julianne Nicholson), who has a daughter Jenny, Conroy will have to live on the island accessible only by boat. And only Zeke runs a boat to Yamacraw; no one else dares try to navigate these waters. Once on the island, Conroy meets Ted Stone, a war veteran who is police chief, fire marshal and pretty much everything else. His wife Lou drives the school bus and also serves as the postmistress and, for lack of a better word, librarian (the only books are about war, donated by Stone).

The year is 1969, but the isolated Yamacraw School lags far behind mainland schools, despite the best efforts of Mrs. Brown, the principal, who serves as the other teacher. Mrs. Brown commands respect and expects everyone to follow the rules, but Conroy soon realizes that while they are intelligent enough, the children don't seem to be learning very much. For a black woman, Mrs. Brown doesn't seem to have a much higher opinion of the black children's potential than the whites on the mainland.

Mrs. Brown insists on following the state curriculum and will not tolerate letting the children have fun. But Conroy gets the best results with the children when he does what we now call 'going outside the box'. Bennington, who is now deputy superintendent, is willing to let Conroy get away with some things, but Mrs. Brown and Dr. Piedmont do not approve, and the children's parents have their doubts as well. Conroy discovers audio-visual equipment that has been stored and never used (incredibly, there is electric power here), and since he was fired from his last job as a teacher and basketball coach for favoring the black players, he knows basketball and teaches the boys to play.

One cultural element that don't get much screen time was the Gullah dialect and culture. These days, a lot of attention is being paid to preserving this mix of African and English. Mrs. Brown wants to discourage this, but the kids do well in a brief scene speaking Gullah, from what I could tell.

Jeff Hephner does quite a good job and is easy to like as Conroy. Alfre Woodard gives her usual fine performance. The children also do quite well. It is amazing that in a place like this the kids are so smart, but they have demanding parents and guardians. LaTanya Richardson stands out as Edna, who is raising Saul (Cole Hawkins). Among the children who impress are Ivana Grace as Ethel and Rodney Reid as Prophet.

This is a family film with a minimum of offensive content. Conroy went to military school and his marine father used bad language, but what is heard here won't likely offend. Parents opposed to corporal punishment won't be happy, and kids won't like seeing other children paddled, but that's about it.

The scenery around Yamacraw Island is beautiful. The setting of the real-life Conroy's experiences is Daufuskie Island, though the filming was actually done around Wilmington, North Carolina.

I never saw 'Conrack', which was also based on Conroy's novel about his real experiences, but I would like to now. This was a fine effort, if overly idealistic.

Inspirational true story, And yes it is very good. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/20/2021.