Teachers

I'm finishing up my 7th year as a an 8th grade teacher at a typical rural public junior high/high school, and I watch this movie at the end of each school year. It does a few things for me: 1. Helps me realize just how f'd up the people I work with/for really are. 2. Gives me something to laugh about to take the edge off of a long school year. 3. Motivates me to keep teaching year after year even when I've just finished teaching some rough classes.

As for the movie itself, it's up and down. Nolte is his typical mid-80's drunken self. Laura Dern was outstanding as the slutty student, and the rest of the cast fills in the gaps. What I like about the movie is that the teachers, even as stereotypical as they are portrayed, are so real. I can name a fellow faculty member for each role, as most teachers probably could.

The movie itself shows nothing really new, but the acting is pretty good and everyone is well cast. Especially Ralph Macchio, who gives a great performance as a troubled youth, and doesn't give one of those annoying ones like he did in THE KARATE KID III. Nick Nolte is also enjoyable as the teacher who doesn't want to follow the school's standard procedure. Too bad the movie didn't get the notice it deserved.

I saw this movie again recently and even though it was exaggerated a little, I thought it was pretty good. I went to both public and private schools in the 70s-80s and saw many of the same sort of teachers and administration in both types of school. I had teachers who didn't care, who just couldn't teach, and those who actually did try to engage the students and do a good job, and all of those types, although exaggerated a little, are portrayed here. I've also seen clueless principals who just hid out in their offices all day and were in their car driving away 5 minutes before the final bell rang.

Around the time the movie was released, I read a news story about a girl who was valedictorian of her school, in the National Honors Society, but flunked out of college due to being unable to read because of dyslexia and she ended up suing her school.

This wasn't clearly the case in the film, but should a student who can't perform to a minimum academic standard or doesn't even show up for class and turn in work still pass and get a diploma?

The fact the school was more concerned with with its image than with addressing the issue is something I also saw in school growing up and even now. In my area recently, a local doctor sued his son's former school over unrefunded tuition money. He claimed his son was bullied there for a couple of years and complaints and meetings with school officials didn't help, so he enrolled his son elsewhere. When he unenrolled his son, the school would only refund the unused portion of tuition if the father signed a confidentiality agreement stating he wouldn't discuss what went on there. Sound familiar?

Although a bit over the top, Teachers is an example of what went on, and probably still goes on, in schools and is worth seeing.

When I first saw this movie shortly after it came out I thought it was a little over-the-top, despite the many memorable comic moments. Having had a chance to see it again many years later on cable I find it has more depth than I had seen in it originally. It is definitely a critique of public education, but it does not set up any easy enemies. Everyone here is complicit in a failing system - the unions, the school board, the lawyers, parents, complacent teachers, go-along- to-get-along administrators, &c &c. It is also touching to see how many of these people are not bad people, but are just trying to make a flawed system work (in this respect I find Judd Hirsch, as the put-upon assistant principal, the hidden gem of the movie). Having seen it again after all these years I find it provocative and, surprisingly, touching, especially Nolte's final peroration. And the best part,after all these years, is still Richard Mulligan, as the certifiable lunatic who turns out to be the best teacher in the whole damn school (a brilliant touch on the part of the writers) !!!!!

"Teachers" really doesn't do justice to show us the real world of teaching in a school. But I found it to be a funny and touching movie anyway. An excellent cast came together to create this satire about the lives surrounding teachers, students, and faculty members of an Ohio high school. The main plot of "Teachers" is about a former student (who's never seen) who plans to sue his alma mater, and the pressures the faculty is forced to take. Nick Nolte is very good here as a popular social studies instructor who doesn't play by the rules; Judd Hirsch is also good as the Vice Principal who's a longtime friend of Nolte's. Other cast members include Jobeth Williams as a lawyer (and former student of Nolte's) who's firm is defending the person suing the school; Ralph Macchio ("The Karate Kid") as a troubled student who develops a friendship with Nolte; Oscar winner Lee Grant as the school's superintendent; and the late Emmy winner Richard Mulligan (TV's "Soap" and "Empty Nest") as a mental patient who passes himself off as a subsitute teacher for a history class and acts out all of the historical events by dressing up in costume. Even Morgan Freeman, Laura Dern, and Crispin Glover are featured in small roles before going on to bigger projects (Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Shawshank Redemption"; Dern in "Jurassic Park" and "Rambling Rose"; and Glover in "Back to the Future"). All these actors are well cast. "Teachers" isn't a great film, but a good one. I was entertained by most of it, although there are a few preposterous moments. For one thing, I don't buy for one second that a teacher can win three consecutive teaching awards for the most orderly taught class, and then spends every class session everyday reading the newspaper and falling asleep while his students do their school work in class. That's not teaching. This character should not have been included in the script, or at least make him teach. This is absolute nonsense. But I loved the early scene when this instuctor (using some kind of paper machine in the school offices) gets blue ink squirted in the face by the school psychologist who wants to use that same machine (this comes because of his refusal to let her use the machine and as a result the woman flips out). Also, the scene where a woman walks naked down a school hallway is ridiculous. "Teachers" is nonsensical at times, but nevertheless I found it entertaining as I watched it.

*** (out of four)