Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

vincentlynch-moonoi I have very mixed feelings about this film.As a retired teacher and school administrator, I'm appalled at the scatter-shot "curriculum" that "Conrack" is teaching the children in the film. He seems like a very appealing teaching, and yet it's been my experience that some of the most appealing teachers actually teach the least to their students. I kept thinking ahead 5, 10, 20 years. How would his "curriculum" help those children? We'll never know. How nice it would be to somehow be able to follow some them into adulthood.On the other hand, there are performances here that are almost stunning, starting with Jon Voight. I first saw Voight in "Midnight Cowboy", a film I hated (although I can admire his performance). Then in "Deliverance", I film I rather enjoyed (and recently re-watched), and I thought his performance was quite good. I enjoyed him very much in "The Odessa File", "Coming Home", "The Champ", and "Table For Five". And then, for me, he sort of fell off my radar. But it was actually this film I most enjoyed for his performance. It just felt free and easy and, thinking back to my younger years as a teacher, I could identify with him as the character (if not his methods, which seemed to be well meaning). And, appropriately for the film, he had to be about the whitest-skinned actor in Hollywood; get some tan man! This was the first film in which I saw Madge Sinclair, here as the principal. Excellent performance.But most of all I remember the performance of Hume Cronyn as the school superintendent. With such a long and distinguished career, I know I must have seen Cronyn previously, but it was this film where I really noticed him. He was a favorite character actor of mine ever after. Here, though his character is unlikable, his performance shines.So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not impressed how the film portrays teaching, but I'm impressed with the film as a story.

Ben Larson I not only consider this to be the best film that Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home) has ever done, but a real tribute to teachers.Despite incredible odds, Pat Conroy (Voight) managed to reach a group of students and bring them from nowhere to a basic literacy and awareness of the world. His methods made be criticized by bureaucratic dinosaurs like Mr. Skeffington (Hume Cronyn), but teachers like Conroy will always be winners. Voight really showed that he had a love for teaching and that it was a natural high for him. He didn't overplay the role, and I found him to be totally believable. Voight is Conrack. Besides a love of teaching, we also see another important point in this film. No matter how good you are at your job, if you rock the boat, the bureaucrats will get you.

tieman64 Though directed by the underrated Martin Ritt, "Conrack" is a generic and overly sentimental "teaching movie". Based on an autobiographical novel, "The Water Is Wide", the film stars Jon Voight as Pat Conroy, a young, idealistic teacher who is assigned to Yamacraw, an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina.As in keeping with the genre, Conroy finds himself thrust into a grim situation (teaching a number of poor, marginalised, black families), is chastised for his unorthodox and inspirational teaching methods, wins the hearts and minds of his students, inspires them to do greater things, and is himself touched by both his students and the "new culture" he has been exposed to. Very few films in the "teaching genre" break free of this template.Surprising for a film by the sensitive and once blacklisted Martin Ritt, "Conrack" is uncomfortably paternalistic and seems unconcerned with the wider, psychic effects of slavery (Conroy's students are "Gullah", descendants of South Carolinan slaves, and have preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage). And like most films which advocate "being non-conformist", "Conrack" is built upon clichés and is itself throughly conformist.6/10 – See "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", Wiseman's "High School" and Laurent Cantet's "The Class". Worth one viewing.

Susan Lunning I saw this movie for the first time a little over a year ago. I've seen it 4 more times since. I had never heard of it before and I consider myself knowledgeable of classic cinema. A true, polished, diamond in the rough.This gem of a movie revolves around Jon Voight (lead character "Conrack") as a young schoolteacher assigned to Yamacraw Island to teach the islands' children, all in one school. At first, the students reveal they know very little of the world beyond their island home. The heart of the movie is Conrack finding inspiration to awaken their young minds to the world around them. The students quickly reward their teacher with an eagerness to learn and a remarkable ability to grasp concepts that, only a short time before, had been foreign to them. Conrack uses unconventional and clever teaching techniques that happen to be, oh a little fun! God forbid. Learning AND fun? Together? Can't be, or so says the ones in charge. To avoid a spoiler, I shall just say that Conrack finds resistance with the boss man....and the ending is truly bittersweet.I am a 35 year old white male with some teaching experience, so I should identify with the lead character, Pat Conroy (aka, Conrack, Mr. Petroy). But I don't, I identify with the black kids. As a kid, I was bussed to the school on the other side of town from the 4th to the 6th grade, circa 1979. These kids in the movie remind me of my classmates then. Luckily, in 4th grade as a 8 or 9 year old, one doesn't understand racism. I just remember we were all being kids, playing 4-square, kickball, hide-and-seek, and running relays.This movie is very moving. There are delightful and poignant moments from beginning to end, non-stop. I found myself many times with tears in my eyes, then suddenly laughing out loud. It's a funny movie."Git away from that winda!!".... "Sir, if you're prepared to accept crap, I should tell you that rabbit just did it in your lap."..... "So, you the white schoolteacher, Mr. Conrack. My grands LOVE Mr. Conrack. You a good looking teacher, you a good looking white man."..... "wind 15 mph from the east. Small boat warning. Small boats beware. Big boats OK, don't gotta worry 'bout nothing.".... "not a fry cook, but Eleanor Roosevelt, not a share-cropper, but (something Latin)...that's Latin..hey wait!".... "Conrack sing like a frog....I sing good, whatcha talkin' 'bout?!".It still mystifies me that I still hear nothing about this movie or that it has very little reputation or following. I intend to seek out more reviews, comments, background, and "making of" tidbits, if they are out there. What amazes me is the acting given from the untrained kids. One of the kids, Mary, I understand was an actress, and you can tell. However, the other kids have plenty of lines and genuine reactions. I wonder how they did it! I'm guessing that Conrack and Mary had precise dialogue to work with while some of the scenes unfold naturally or ad-libbed.Conrack is a special movie. In my opinion, it is one of the very few movies that are so good AND so unknown. Others in that category are King Rat ('65), Dark Passage ('47 with Bogie and Bacall), Gods Must Be Crazy ('80), and Bad Day at Black Rock ('55). I recommend them all. But first, take a seat in the class of Mr. Conrack.