steiner-sam

It's a tough-love, clean-up-a-school drama about Joe Louis Clark (Morgan Freeman), Principal of Eastside High School in Peterson, New Jersey, in the 1980s. The film features Clark as an unorthodox firebrand teacher at Eastside High in the 1960s, who is asked by Paterson Mayor Don Bottman (Alan North) and school Superintendent Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume) to "save" Eastside High from being taken over by the state because its students are unable to meet minimum standards.

"Lean on Me" portrays an über-authoritarian Clark clashing with faculty members like Mrs. Elliott (Robin Bartlett) and Mr. Darnell (Michael Beach), students like Kaneesha Carter (Karen Malina White) and Thomas Sams (Jermaine Hopkins), and combative parents like Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen).

The movie is hyper-fictionalized to establish Clark's achievements, despite the script's demand for a despicable personality. Somehow, his straight talk wins over the student body and, eventually, the faculty, despite taking patently illegal initiatives, such as chaining the school doors shut and suspending 300 students with no due process.

The Wikipedia article on Clark suggests that he had a minimal impact on raising Eastside High's standards and that he lost his job the year "Lean on Me" was released. It feels like the film picked the wrong "hero" or was a missed opportunity.

It's a snarky satire of the British Secret Service set in pre-Revolutionary Havana, Cuba. Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness) is a British ex-pat selling vacuum cleaners. His wife has disappeared, and his spendthrift 17-year-old daughter, Milly (Jo Morrow), is restless. The head of the British Secret Service in the West Indies, Hawthorne (Noël Coward), enlists Jim to be a spy and to recruit agents under his direction. Jim accepts because it helps to pay for Milly's extravagance. However, his inaction leads "C" (Ralph Richardson), the head of MI6, to insist on tangible results.

"Our Man in Havana" then follows Jim's creative endeavors that lead to complications with his friend, Dr. Hasselbacher (Burl Ives), and local Police Captain Segura (Ernie Kovacs), who has a hankering for Milly. As results increase, the Service supplies Jim with a secretary, Beatrice Severn (Maureen O'Hara). However, things begin to unravel to the dismay of all.

"Our Man in Havana" is an understated display of British humor, with word plays, raised eyebrows, and irony instead of belly laughs. Guinness and Kovacs hold it together, and Noël Coward provides the most fun. Jo Morrow doesn't quite seem to get the joke. It's all a nice contrast to the later James Bond types.

The film was shot two months after Castro seized power, and provides fascinating exteriors of 1959 Havana.

It's a drama about a naive young guy and a crusty old guy set over a Thanksgiving week in the early 1990s, in the Boston area and New York City. Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell) is a scholarship student at an exclusive prep school. Mr. Trask (James Rebhorn) is the headmaster. Wealthy student acquaintances include Harry Havemeyer (Nicholas Sadler) and George Willis (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Charlie wants a job to earn money to fly home to Oregon at Christmas. He takes a job to be a companion to a retired blind army officer, Lt. Col. Frank Slade (Al Pacino), who lives in a small cottage on his niece's (Sally Murphy) property. The niece's family wants to visit family in Albany during the week. It turns out Frank is an abrasive, foul-mouthed depressive, and Charlie and Frank get off to a bad start.

Back at the school, Charlie and George see Harry and some friends perpetrate a prank on Mr. Trask, and the administration knows Charlie has seen the culprits. The story then intermingles two threads--Frank takes off to New York City with Charlie, planning one last blowout, while Charlie has to decide whether to squeal on his classmates. Although several crises arise, Charlie and Frank reach a resolution by the end.

"Scent of Woman" (the title is related to Frank's gift of identifying the perfumes worn by women he encounters) features strong dramatic performances by Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell, as well as an early appearance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in a popular movie. My problem is the unbelievable plot, especially the ending, which leaves many unanswered questions. What happens to Charlie after Mr. Trask's humiliation? Is Frank really over his depressive outlook after one week with a naive high school companion? The scene with the Ferrari is over the top. Roger Ebert classed this as a comedy, probably to help cover the extremes. And Al Pacino does seem to bellow throughout.