School Ties takes place in the New England area in the 1950s and is about a Jewish boy by name of David Green (played by Brandan Frasier), who conceals his Jewish identity while attending an exclusive preparatory boarding. 

Initially, David is a standout quarterback at his high school football team in a small poor industrial town in Pennsylvania. He is recruited to attend St. Mathews prep school and encourage to conceal his Jewish identity both by the coach who recruited him as well as the school’s management. At first, things go very well for him. He is leading the St. Mathews team to consistent victories, is very popular amongst fellow classmates and makes friends with Charlie Dillon (played by Matt Damon), and wins the heart of an attractive girl by name of Sally from the local female prep school.

However, as other classmates eventually find out about his identity, everything changes. He suffers abuse and torment through racial slurs and posting of swastikas in his room, Sally abandons him, and, finally, the movie reaches its climax with a cheating incident on the final exam, where the class has to make a choice whether or not to pin the incident on David, who is innocent of the cheating.

School Ties, although over-the-top at times, is an education film about anti-semitism in 1950s America.

July 5th, 2007
Categories: Drama . Author: DavidFreydkin . Comments: No Comments
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The Chorus is a French movie with the theme that kindness and humanity conquers the affection of people rather than harshness and cruelty. The movie takes place in a boarding school for “troubled” boys. The main character is Clement Mathieu, a failed musician and professional trying his luck as a teacher of music in the school. The school is run by a harsh and strict headmaster named Rachin under the policy, “action and reaction” meaning that whenever an act of undiscipline such as playing a harmful prank on the school maintenance man Maxence or stealing a large sum of money, one or more students get punished with beatings, confinement, etc.

At first Mathieu has discipline problems. However, whenever an act of indiscipline occurs, he never reveals the boy to Rachin but basicly talks to the boy and explains the wrongfulness of the action. Eventually, he wins the trust of the boys and the movie gets its highlight when he forms a choir amongst the boys of the school, which turns out to be a succesful choir which eventually performs in front of high-ranking French government officials.

This is a very warm and touching movie about kindness and humanity. However, I am of the view the discipline and punishment is often a necessity rather than leniency.

July 1st, 2007
Categories: Foreign Films, French, Drama . Author: DavidFreydkin . Comments: No Comments
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All the Right Moves is about Stef Djordjevic (played by Tom Cruise), a standout football player for his high school team, who lives in a small industrial steel-producing town in Pennsylvania. Stef has ambitions to leave the town by obtaining a football scholarship at a university, hence, achieving a better life. The steel mill, which seems to employ the entire population of the town, is also laying workers off.

This is a very coming-of-age movie and focuses alot on teenagers and issues that they have to deal with as well as on people, who are “stuck” living in small towns or poor areas with limited future prospects. The title “All the Right Moves” translates really to making the right choices in this state of one’s life.

Stef, played by Tom Cruise, has to perform well in football games, impress scouts from universities, and deal with his loving girlfriend Lisa. Other minor characters in the movie are teammate Brian, who unintentionally impregnates his girlfriend which destroys his plan to attent USC on a football scholarship, and Vinny Salvucci, who gets involved in crime and winds up behind bars.

The plot peaks in the movie when Stef gets into a conflict with his coach (played by Craig Nelson), who, as a result, uses his influance to discourage other colleges from offering Stef any scholarships. Can Stef still make it out of the dying mill town via a scholarship or will he be stuck in a factory for the rest of his life?

June 28th, 2007
Categories: Drama . Author: DavidFreydkin . Comments: No Comments
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Cheaters is about the 1995 Academic Decathlon team from Steinmetz High School. Steinmetz HS is an overcrowded, underfunded school located in a poorer section of Chicago. Most of the students appear to be from blue-collar backgrounds. Gerard Plecki, an English teacher (well played be Jeff Daniels) organizes the AD team to try to compete at regionals, particulary against favorite and rival, Whitney Young High School, portrayed as a magnet school. At first the morale and motivation is high amongst the Steinmetz team but as they severely lose to Whitney Young at regionals, they increasingly view their situation as hopeless and lack confidence to compete at the state finals. However an interesting dilemma comes up as one of the team members comes up with a copy of the test for the state finals. Should the team cheat or stay honest? If they cheat, will they get away with it?

The students, encouraged by the teacher, decide to cheat and eventually get caught. Although it wasn’t right for Steinmetz to cheat, the movie shows that the world is not a level playing field and that people from more white-collar walks of life have much higher advantages and potential for success than those from blue-collar walks of life.

June 27th, 2007
Categories: Drama . Author: DavidFreydkin . Comments: No Comments
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Martha is a typical director Rainer Werner Fassbinder film of social criticism, this time focused on marriage, how people marry for the wrong reasons, and how this ruins the lives of both husband, wife, and children.

In this movie, Martha, a 31-year-old virgin marries Helmut, a wealthy engineer. From dating to marriage, Helmut completely dominates Martha and makes her do things she doesn’t want to do. He makes her ride rollercoasters with him which she fears, he makes her listen to his favorite music, makes her read a book about his profession which she finds boring. He even finally orders her not to leave their house, so that she can exist exclusively for him. He has very violant sex with her, which includes bites, bruises, even when she is heavily sun-burned. He both physically, mentally, and emotionally terrorizes her.

Why does Martha, at least for most of the movie, let Helmut do this to her? This is a result of a loveless marriage between her mother and father. Both were unhappily married, disliked one another, and often expressed that onto Martha, frequently putting her down. Her father makes fun of her all the time. Her mother calls her a disgusting 31-year-old virgin and blames the father’s death on her. As a result of this, Martha needs someone like Helmut to dominate her and usually finds Helmuts sadistic behavior acceptable.

Even other people in the movie are heading in the direction of unhappy loveless marriages. Her boss at the library asks her associate to marry him after Martha turns him down. Martha’s sister also gets married out of pressure.

At the end, the marriage between Martha and Helmut has tragic consequences. I think the message of the movie is a criticism of society and how many people get married for the wrong reasons and end up destroying their lives.

People anywhere in the world can relate to this movie and I think people should watch it before making the final decision on popping or answering the big question.

June 25th, 2007
Categories: Foreign Films, Drama . Author: DavidFreydkin . Comments: No Comments
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