evanston_dad
Probably the granddaddy of all those films about a headstrong teacher who's able to break through to a bunch of underprivileged kids when everyone else has given up on them and, though the oldest, the toughest and most biting of the ones I've seen.Unlike other movies of its kind, where the teacher pretty much becomes the best friend of everyone in his/her class, "Blackboard Jungle" doesn't wrap things up as cosily or tidily. Glenn Ford's teacher certainly earns his class's respect, but not completely their trust. And Ford is not the saint in teacher's clothing that you might think a film from 1955 would make him. In one key encounter with an African-American student (Sidney Poitier) who he has singled out as having the makings of a leader, Ford's character exposes the racism that he knows he shouldn't feel but does anyway. In a decade of films not known for their nuance or subtlety, "Blackboard Jungle" handles the question of race in a somewhat delicate manner and makes a much more complex study of it than audiences who are used to many of the other cinematic offerings from around the same time period would expect.Another thing that struck me about the film was its handling of the World War and its aftermath. In the 1950s, a film could perhaps be critical of war in the abstract, but it would find itself on thin ice if it tried to be too critical of America's involvement in World War II, and it certainly could not suggest that there were serious social problems as a result of the war. This was a decade in which people wanted to believe in the American Dream, that men were proud to serve their country and settle into lives as worker drones and that women were happy to be doting housewives. What to make of a film like "Blackboard Jungle," then, that outright blames the absentee parenting brought about by the social upheaval of the war for juvenile delinquency? And the film is honest too about America's treatment of draftees to its wars. The kids in this film, poor and disenfranchised, know that they'll be the first ones drafted into Korea or whatever war America will be fighting next, treated like grunts, and disposed of when their usefulness expires.Glenn Ford gives a truly terrific performance in "Blackboard Jungle," an award-worthy one that nevertheless went unnoticed for awards attention. The film did garner four Academy Award nominations though it won none of them: Best Screenplay (Richard Brooks, who also directed), Best Art Direction (B&W), Best Cinematography (B&W) and Best Film Editing.Grade: A
ElMaruecan82
For all the classics that came out the 50's, no movie moment stuck in my mind as obsessively as the first three minutes of "Blackboard Jungle".A disclaimer crawls on the screen, stating the film's reason to be: a warning on the rise of juvenile delinquency, troubling the lethargy of an American society resting on its economical laurels. And the military drum beat, fitting the gravity of the subject, prepares you for the worst. Then, in a totally opposed mood, it turns to the iconic "1,2,3 o'clock, 4 o'clock Rock", basically, the birth cry of Rock 'n' Roll, the other emerging phenomenon. Cinema and music have always worked hand-to-hand but never has the symbiosis been so timely.Rock became the rallying sound of a lost generation, torn between the baby-boomers and the War vets, the lucky and the prestigious ones. The film features a significant scene where pupils destroy their teacher's precious collection of jazz records, as to emphasize a generational gap that translated into the world of music. Rock had the same defiance toward Jazz and Blues, and it's only natural that kids enthusiastically responded to "Rock Around the Clock" in theaters. The music was to the film what "Born to be Wild" would be for "Easy Rider", a youth-defining hymn, paving the way for a new form of artistic expression.Rock, then Coca Cola, fast foods, drive-ins, and leather jackets, modeled the lost-in-space generation turning rebellion, through the figures of James Dean and Elvis, to marketed values. But "Blackboard Jungle" is no "Rebel without a Cause" or "The Wild One", it's a social commentary about the roots of violence in America's youth, without any attempt to romanticize it. School becomes the altar where kids are sacrificed because of poverty, ethnicity and a lack of education due to the absence of fathers when they were kids in WW2. The point is not to inspire pity or sympathy but to portray them from the perspective of a teacher, Richard Dadier, played by Glenn Ford, whose vocation is to get them interested on education.But paraphrasing "Cool Hand Luke", what Dadier's got in the urban jungle he's stranded in, is a failure to communicate, some kids that can't be reached, the biggest barer being the absence of models that could've made the very concept of authority and excellence acceptable. Dadier, nicknamed Daddy-O, embodies all the ungratefulness of being a teacher. Mr. Murdock, one of his colleagues played by the incomparable Louis Calhern, compared the school to the "garbage can of the educational system". As harsh as it sounds, the metaphor amused me since I've always thought garbage men practiced a noble profession, by handling the 'dirty' stuff we wouldn't dare to touch.But if Dadier surrendered to the idea that some souls can't be reach, he'd betray his vocation, and the thrills of "Blackboard Jungle" lies on that dilemma, and the constant pressure endured from the kids in general and the two 'leaders' in particular. There is Miller, Sidney Poitier as the most charismatic (tallest and strongest too) of the group and the hardest nut to crack, Artie West, played a young Vic Morrow. It's easy to see in "Blackboard Jungle", the movie that 'started them all', when a zealous teacher face the defiance of rebellious kids from poorer areas to guide them with the light of knowledge and self-confidence, usually by using words, and force if necessary.Naturally, force is indispensable in a jungle-word like. You have early glimpses of Brooks' documentary-like realism that will pinnacle with his masterpiece "In Cold Blood". In "Blackboard Jungle", the pupils commit the worst that is coming to every teacher. I mentioned the records' breaking, which was already painful to watch, but it went as far as an attempt to rape the attractive teacher Lois Hammond (Margaret Harris). Even Dadier would be beaten up for having injured the culprit. And it's still nothing compared to the harassment Dadier's pregnant wife (Anne Francis) would be victim of, making the antagonism between Dadier and his pupils more personal.At many parts of the film, we're tempted to approve Murdock's opinion, but Dadier understands that it's for reasons like that that teaching takes all its meaning, and the only way to accept that the causes of thirty students aren't lost, is to spot the truly rotten apples and prevent the class from their bad influence. "Blackboard Jungle" is perhaps one of the only teachers-film that doesn't fall in the blissfully angelic trap trying to convince us that "all kids are good". Indeed, the film tackles many subjects such as race, sex and crime without going too preachy and deal with them, with a realism ahead of its time. Glenn Ford is impeccable as the struggling well-meaning and sometimes wrong average man but it's Poitier's talent that clearly emerges.Poitier who was respected for his natural predispositions as a leader turned out as vulnerable as any other, finally winning the trust of Dadier. I thought he was playing a character opposed to his soft-spoken, well-mannered teacher facing the same issues in "To Sir, With Love" but in fact, he exudes the same straightness and gentleness in "Blackboard Jungle", making it almost a prequel for "To Sir, With Love". Ultimately, all the films with teachers facing rebellious classes owe something to "Blackboard Jungle". It's to "Rebellious Minds" or "Stand to Deliver" what "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" were to "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas", obligatory eye-openers on phenomena that would apply to any time, hence the timelessness of these genres.And it's then not surprising that like the seminal gangster movies, "Blackboard Jungle" opens with a disclaimer, what became banal today was still new at that time, a public warning was needed. But not today, which is even sadder; there are still "Blackboard Jungles" right now, except that kids would listen more to Rap music and break Bill Haley's records!
spencer beck
First and Foremost the movie starred not one, but two great actors, Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. Glenn Ford played as an inspiring teacher(Richard Dadier) that fights to gain the respect from an African American boy named Miller(Sidney Poitier) whom he believes to be the source and leader of juvenile delinquency in an all boy high school class. Later in the movie Glenn Ford character realizes that he sought this respect all for the wrong reasons and realized flaws within himself that he changed, thus, allowing him and the student, Miller, to become friends.The overall movie was entertaining to me. It had a lot of aspects that we look for in movies today. It was a mixture of drama and comedy. Besides that the main purpose of this 1950's "B" movie was to attack social and ethic clashes and anxieties going on in America such as: As early on in the movie the camera constantly focuses on the African American student whenever something bad happened. For example, while having his back turned Dadier gets a baseball thrown at him, immediately the camera focuses on Miller. After class, Dadier holds Miller back to talk to him and accuses him of throwing the baseball even though he had no real proof of him doing it. In this case, the movie uses Glenn Ford's character to symbolize the "color blindness" in white middle class Americans. Dadier's constant negative attention towards Miller proves to be racist and this is clarified in the scene where Dadier explodes and screams at Miller "Why, you black . .." but immediately realizes what he said and apologizes.At the time, Americans had the idea that African American males longed for white women. Thus, white females avoided African American males due to the fear that they would be raped. The reading discussed this anxiety as well as a social structure called, Triangulation. This triangle structure consisted of a white male, black male and white female. It stated that in order for a black and white male to become friends the white female has to be removed from the equation. This relates to, Blackboard Jungle, because for Dadier and Miller to become friends Wes, the white delinquent that takes the role of the female in the triangulation, had to be removed. This was evident and proved to be correct because when Dadier finally realized that it wasn't Miller that was causing him stress and that it was Wes, and when Miller realized that the real racist was Wes and not Dadier, the two were then able to oppose Wes, thus, making their bond stronger.
