Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

tx_ghost great comedy and some good drama, One thing to Point out from the First review was the the Machine was a stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo) is a low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper.Along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, mimeographs were for many decades used to print short-run office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. They also were critical to the development of early fanzines because their low cost and availability enabled publication of amateur writings. These technologies began to be supplanted by photocopying and cheap offset printing in the late 1960s.Mimeographs did Smell something awful. I am trying to remember if we used them in the early 80'sI know we did in the 70's. Comments on a Movies about teachers and Schools can be Educational.

edwagreen This off-the-wall film, unrealistic at times, is absolutely terrific. Why? It brings forth the blame of the urban school system on where it belongs- the administration, uncaring parents, and even the teachers to some degree.Judd Hirsch is perfect as the lousy English teacher who got out of the classroom and is now some stinker as an assistant principal.The always terrific Lee Grant shines as the District Superintendent, desperately trying to save her rear end and those of her administrators at the expense of the students who attend this school of utter failure. Of course, we must remember that it is the student population that will make or break a school.Nick Nolte, as the frustrated burned out teacher, is perfect for the part. He reaches the point where he is no longer able to work under a miserable system.While the section dealing with the teacher who died while reading a newspaper may be over the top, the sequence just shows you how bad our schools can be.Jo Beth Williams is stunning as a former graduate, an attorney, who is fighting the school for its inability to educate.James Dean could move over thanks to a towering performance by Ralph Macchio, as a student going nowhere but to disaster. Macchio conveys the frustrated, out of control kid, who is almost doomed by uncaring parents and an administration in school. This film is great on detail. Madeleine Sherwood plays the role of the school secretary just as I've observed many a secretary. School secretaries think that they run the schools and they're not entirely wrong. Principals have given them such authority. William Schallert, who portrays the principal in this film, conveys the idea of the figure head. He is there in name only. Afraid of scandal and to step on toes, he is the typical principal leading an urban school-while counting the days to retirement. This film is definitely thought provoking as it attempts to establish what is going on in our urban school system. It a rousing success.

hitch75 I just wanted to comment on the previous/first commenter's comments. You mentioned that you didn't think there was any point to having the teacher who doesn't teach & sleeps all day in class. You couldn't possibly be more mistaken! Of course there was a point -- his LACK of teaching/presence makes one think about who is teaching our kids. I am a teacher, in fact, and I can tell you that there are many teachers out there who are ONE step away from retirement & choose to "not" teach every day in their classrooms. What's interesting is seeing what the students do in the absence of a really good, effective teacher.This move was "over the top" and felt pretty cheesy at times, but overall, it has a good, interesting, and important message about what real teaching is about. The needs of our youth have changed in the past 20, 30, 40+ years. This movie is TWENTY-THREE years old and yet it was onto something -- kids need teachers who are REAL people. They need teachers who maintain high standards of both work habits AND personal behavior BUT who also model what being a REAL human being/adult looks like.Nolte's character definitely got himself into hot water -- and nowadays, it could have been much hotter actually -- and overstepped many, many boundaries in his attempt to help his struggling students. But, overall, what he did to inspire and connect with them definitely outweighed the mistakes.Anyway, give it a shot and watch this. I grew up in the '80s but for some reason, never caught this one. If you want to revisit the era of cheese -- typical 80s soundtrack, 80s style, actors (Ralph Macchio, Crispin Glover, Laura Dern) and actually get a little insight into what it means to be a public high school teacher, check it out.

tedginn05 Like the movie trivia says...this movie was taped at Central High School in Columbus. And it(The school building)has since been remodeled and COSI now uses it.The Central HS building was owned by Columbus Public Schools. They allowed the movie crew(Whoever that may have been)to use the building.Not realizing what the movie was going to be about. Basically putting down the school systems. Saying that the school systems were passing kids that couldn't even read. Even though it was not based off of that school district.They were not happy when the movie came out depicting the school systems.