Blackboard Jungle

1955 teacher movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: War veteran Richard Dadier (pronounced "Daddio") takes a job teaching English at an all-boys high school only to find out that it's more dangerous than any battlefield. He and his colleagues try to reach the boys because, as a colleague once told me, you've got to reach 'em to teach 'em. But the boys, like ants, are just mean. Oh, snap!

This doesn't hold up very well in 2010. I like the performances. I like Glenn Ford fine despite his character not seeming in any way realistic or coming within chalk-throwing distance of anything that resembles a good teacher. I like the kids despite them being caricatures or stereotypical exaggerations of thugs. You have to give Poitier credit. He does well playing a high schooler, especially considering he would have been, unless my math is way off, around 27 when this was made. I also think it's really interesting how this movie handles race. Issues are maybe only suggested, but at least they're not entirely ignored. I just don't think this was or ever will be a realistic portrayal of what school is like. The storytelling is really episodic. There's no flow to Dadier's first semester, more a choppy progression where the character just has thing after thing happen to him. There was almost no transition between Dadier as a struggling and hated teacher to the point when he starts to reach them, ludicrously by showing them a filmstrip. And the scene in the library? And the goofy dialogue? Yikes. It's all too much. This is still worth seeing, but almost more as a cultural artifact, evidence of how the squares viewed education and delinquency. And perhaps amazingly, there are still some issues raised that are relevant in public education today.