Reverend

I've only lived here for a couple of years but it seems that Americans have this bizarre desire to watch cheesy movies about the tough rugged teacher who sweeps into a troublesome school and turns a bunch of ethnic thugs and dropouts into a winning team. Coach Carter, Gridiron Gang, Ron Clarke Story, Dangerous Minds...and now Freedom Writers.

They are all the same - nothing but cookie cutter, formulaic movies, yet all my American neighbors seem to adore them as "heart warming".

I mean seriously, folks. There's only so many times you can see the cornball 'serious' scene as the teacher pulls the most troublesome kid to the side and with a stern face tells him how he won't give up on him...and then later the kid passes and says "I couldntve done it without you Sir".

Bleh.

lauriejane

Thought I'd comment here since I am a Yank--and a teacher (in a detention school no less). The reason Americans love these movies is that the school systems in the US have been in the toilet for about 20-30 years now. Before, when the school systems were much better, these movies did not exist. Now, Americans romanticize ANYONE who can get any kind of education across to young punk kids. The worse the school system is, the more people love these films. A fantasy substitution for a harsh reality. SOME teachers do manage, against the odds and against the craziness of current school systems, to help one or two students in those rough neighborhoods, but it is absolutely never anything like in those movies. These flicks make me want to tear my graying hair out and picket the studios.

Sally

Just when you think it can't get any worse, another totally formulaic puke puke movie comes out.

Seahorse3

Sally, why don't you go ahead and tell us how you really feel!

Sally

Respect, working with challenging young people is so difficult and as you say, nothing like the movies...but then, what is??

Sally

Hiro11

Good American high school movies:

American Grafitti
Dazed and Confused (may be my favorite movie of all time...)
Rebel without a Cause
Sixteen Candles
Brick
Clueless
10 Things I Hate About You
Ferris Beuller
Hoop Dreams
Election
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Say Anything
Rushmore
Pump up the Volume (bit of a guilty pleasure)
Forgot one:
The Last Picture Show (should be required viewing)

Rushman

Dont come on here canvassing for yet another pay rise

Rushman

Wheres "The Breakfast Club"??

Rodney you plonker

Its just off the I-95, but you need to be there before 10am or they switch to the lunch menu.

cindyabs

Tybee Island, GA.


Btw, I can see you as the Judd Nelson character.

cindyabs

Well it all started with the Blackboard Jungle, followed by To Sir with Love and then Up the Down Staircase.
Btw, some of the ones you mentioned are based on true stories.

Bob

so what's up with all the national lampoon movies showing up in the movie shops? haven't heard of half of them....there everywhere though...

marriedtothemod

Those have always been the cheeseball movies that go straight to video...very rarely do they ever actually make it to the big screen.

Englishmum

I did like 'Grease' when it came out......now have it on DVD and it seems soooo cheesy!

With yet another crossover idea from the UK (where Andrew Lloyd Webber held a theatre audition competition for the part of Maria in his stage production for "The Sound of Music".....I've seen adverts (on Fox TV, I think) for a similar competition to audition for parts in a forthcoming stage production of 'Grease'...

NB: Isn't "To Sir With Love" a British secondary school movie from the 60s with Sidney Poitier and Lulu?

Can anyone remember the comedy series "Please Sir"...with John Alderton as one of the teachers?