adonis98-743-186503
Set in the 1950s, a star-quarterback is given an opportunity to attend an elite preparatory school but must conceal the fact that he is Jewish. School Ties is a film mostly hand driven by choices made by the characters but also those faces in general. The perfomances were so freaking great especially from Brendan Fraser and Chris O'Donnell plus Matt Damon made for a good villain to be honest and Ben Affleck was also very good. This is definitely a film that is both romantic and funny but also dramatic and reminded me even a bit of my school years as well.
mtloans
I was at (3) elite Prep Schools at the same time: 1958 -1965 beginning in 7th grade. There were Jewish kids at the schools and a few black kids. I don't buy all the discrimination whatsoever - there wasn't any.Funny, at one school I went to we recruited an ethnic Catholic kid and we were a Protestant School. That kid eventually played in the NFL. No problems at all.Another school I went to was the best football team in the state and the stars were mostly Jewish and no one thought anything of it.So, be careful when you watch what B.S. lines Hollywood wants to feed you. They mostly voted for Obama who has shown himself as a total racist 100% of the time after promising "healing". What a liar.
Josh Conradson
This movie has its comical points like how in the beginning David, played by Brendan Fraser, makes a crack about a bikers sister. However the film takes too much time to get to the main problem and it seemed as though the director had to wrap it up really quick due to the extensive amount of time spent opening the story and building up the friendship of the main characters. Then at the end many people hate the character of Rip for not speaking up to defend David at the student hearing despite having seen Charles, played by Matt Damon, cheat and laying the blame on David. But despite these issues I still enjoyed the film and plot as a whole but the ending could have easily been done better.
TxMike
The opening shot establishes that the area is a coal, steel, and manufacturing area. Blue collar workers. Pennsylvania. This movie tells a story of a really fine high school quarterback who is convinced to attend an exclusive Massachusetts prep school for his senior year, as a way to gain entry into Harvard. Plus, the St Matthew alumni hope he will give them the firepower to beat their long-time rival.Brendan Fraser is the young quarterback, David Greene. But he has a secret, he is a Jew, and he is advised to "hold things close to the vest", don't reveal more than you need to. In that area, in the 1950s, anti-semitism was alive and going strong.The young quarterback proves to be everything on the football field that the coach wanted, and was a good performer in the classroom. But his secret was to eventually get out and that brings a new layer of drama to the story.A very young (19 or 20) Matt Damon is Charlie Dillon. Charlie has a number of issues. Being from the Dillon family much is expected. His brother is already a football star, and as last year's quarterback is being pushed out by David's recruitment. Add to that his long-time girlfriend takes a strong liking to David, and announces "I wish Charlie would quit saying I am his girl." And, if all that were not enough, Charlie is having a tough time accepting that he may just be ordinary. He craves the approval of his family.Other students are Chris O'Donnell, Cole Hauser, and Ben Affleck in relatively small roles. The girl is pretty Amy Locane, about 19 or 20, as Sally Wheeler.There is a line early after David arrives at the new school, "I guess you haven't had time to buy school ties". They wore a particular necktie, and maybe that is where the inspiration for the title "School Ties" came from. Even if it did, the story really is about the students and their ties to each other, even when bigotry is being addressed and a cheating scandal has to be dealt with.Good movie, good young actors.SPOILERS: David gets mean responses from many of the students, including Charlie, after it is found out he is a Jew. Then at finals Charlie cheats, he takes a crib sheet into class, and then loses it for the professor to find. David and another student see him. Before every test they sign an honor code, so this is a big deal. Being on a Friday, the professor tell the class, come up with the cheater or you ALL will fail this class. Just before David is to tell the others what happened, Charlie stands up and falsely points to David as the cheater. The whole class discuss it over the weekend, vote, and decide it is David. As he leaves the room he tells them "I'll uphold YOUR honor code, I'll go to the headmaster and lie." But when he does the next day, the other student was there too and set the record straight. As Charlie was driven away from school, expelled, he tells David "I'll still get into Harvard and 10 years from now no one will remember this. You will still be a dirty Jew." To which David responds, "And you will still be a prick." David stayed at the school to finish his preparation for Harvard.
