reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/18/84)
<is anyone still eating this line?>
"Teachers" is very much in the mold of "The Hospital", a
film from about ten years ago. Both are irreverent, slightly
surrealistic views of American institutions which are notoriously
out of control, and both were directed by Arthur Hiller. "Teach-
ers" certainly isn't up to the standards of the earlier film, but
it's not too bad.
The plot is a series of semi-related vignettes about life in
an extremely large big city high school, particularly from the
point of view of the teachers in that school. As the school week
starts, the usual chaos grips John F. Kennedy High. The school
psychologist goes wacko, a kid bites one of the teachers, a men-
tal patient with a tenuous grip on reality pretends to be a sub-
stitute teacher, and a lawyer shows up to take depositions for
her client, a former student who is suing the school because he
graduated without the ability to read. What's worst is that this
doesn't seem to phase Judd Hirsch, playing the Vice Principal,
who regards this as a fairly typical way to start the week.
Nick Nolte is Hirsch's best friend, a social studies teacher
on the point of burnout. He has difficulties getting in on Mon-
day mornings, and is sometimes more interested in teaching his
students how to fix his classroom's faulty radiators than the ap-
proved syllabus, but clearly he is a good teacher, and the hero
of the film. He's quickly set up with three problems. Will he
lie about the school's treatment of the illiterate who's suing
the school, or will he stand up for his principles? Will he fall
in love with the beautiful attorney (JoBeth Williams), a former
student who still has a crush on him? Will he be able to help a
bright kid who's getting into trouble because of his parents'
problems? If you can't guess the resolutions to these questions,
you aren't seeing enough movies.
"Teachers" is one of those films which says "Gee, aren't
these problems terrible and hard to solve?", and then goes on to
say, "Well, if we're all good and honest and upstanding and clap
our hands to show that we believe in fairies, then the problems
will be solved!" It doesn't even give simple solutions to diffi-
cult problems, it just says that good intentions are necessary,
and we must all keep trying. OK, true enough, but hardly helpful
in the greater sense. "Teachers", like so many of Hollywood's
social problem films, is much happier examining the problem than
suggesting how to solve it. This wouldn't be anything to com-
plain about if the filmmakers didn't try to convince us in the
end that everything is going to work out, when actually they
haven't done much of anything to solve the problems.
If one is willing to ignore "Teachers" simplistic social
conscience, there's a fair amount of good stuff in the film. The
script, while not really inventive in plot, does have some good
scenes and ideas, and Hiller keeps it moving fast. If you don't
like what's going on in "Teachers", don't worry, they'll be on to
something else soon. In addition to the aforementioned plot ele-
ments, we have a teacher who is impregnating female students (re-
quiring a quick abortion subplot), a too-fast-to-live, too-
young-to-die teenager subplot, a teacher who consistently gets
dumped on by his students, stolen cars, cardiac arrests, and much
more.
All of this frantically paced activity is well acted by a
fine cast. In addition to Nolte, Hirsch, and Williams in the
leading roles, there are Ralph Macchio as the problem student,
Lee Grant as the ice-queen head of the school board (she'd better
be careful or she'll wind up typecast), Allen Garfield as the
pedagogical doormat, Richard Mulligan as the gentle looney given
to livening up the history classes with costumes and historical
recreations, Royal Dano as a martinet teacher, and Art Metrano as
the randy gym instructor. Macchio and Mulligan are particularly
effective. Nick Nolte, as usual, is excellent. Nolte seems to
have a somewhat limited acting range, but he also has a superb
ability for choosing suitable parts.
"Teachers" is an audience-pleasing film, and there's nothing
wrong with that. It admits that there are problems with
America's school system, and that's something. It has good in-
tentions, it's competently made, and it doesn't espouse anything
likely to be too offensive to much of anyone. Overall, not a
landmark in American cinema, nor one of the year's best films,
but a respectable effort by all involved.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher