(SPECIAL NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here)
In late 1990s the vision of Clinton's America as the best of all possible worlds suddenly became challenged after the series of tragic school incidents, culminating with the massacre in Columbine. Just as the world's only superpower began to come to grips with that tragedy, the author of this review got the opportunity to see one of the films dealing with issues related to the event. One Eight Seven, 1997 drama directed by Kevin Reynolds, came to my country's video stores and gave an interesting perspective on the violence in American schools.
The script for the film was written by former school teacher Steve Yagemann and partly inspired by his experiences. The protagonist is Trevor Garfield (played by Samuel L. Jackson), idealistic Brooklyn high school teacher who has a dangerous gang banger among his students. His attempt to apply academic standards to the troublesome youth and have him expelled results in death threats and, ultimately, stabbing. Garfield survives but he is not the man he used to be. Fifteen months later he tries to restart his career, this time as substitute teacher in a crime-infested Los Angeles school. The story is the same - the halls and classrooms are ruled by violent gangs led by Benny Chacon (played by Lobo Sebastian) and Cesar Sanchez (played by Clifton Collins Jr.). Garfield again tries to discipline troublemakers and again doesn't get help from lawsuit-obsessed conformist school administration. The only support comes from Ellen Henry (played by Kelly Rowan), beautiful teacher who is constantly threatened by her students, and Rita Martinez (played by Karina Arroyave), ex gang member who is inspired by Garfield and wants to go to college. Garfield perseveres in his attempts to establish decency and authority and when conventional methods fail he resorts to new, unexpectedly brutal, measures.
For the most part, One Eight Seven looks like an extraordinarily serious film that tries to make a point about some issues usually ignored by Hollywood. The all-too-familiar setting of American inner-city schools is presented through a perspective that transcends usual Hollywood leftists' rants about drugs, racism and uncaring government. The issues in this film are more complex – hedonism heavily promoted by youth-oriented popular culture reflects in pupils being more interested in drugs, sex and cheap thrills than education. To make things worse, school bureaucracy, burdened with "political correctness" and institutional inertia, takes the path of least resistance and, instead of confronting problems, invents ingenious ways to maintain status quo. Students are allowed to graduate while being practically illiterate and even the most violent among them can't expect ever to be expelled. Teachers, constrained by the system that in its essence panders to the worthless and the ignorant, are forced to conform to those rules or risk their careers and lives.
Because of the script's brutal honesty and the way Samuel L. Jackson plays the tortured protagonist, the audience will forget that One Eight Seven is full of cliches borrowed from almost fifty years of high-school-from-hell films (idealistic teacher, beautiful female colleague that is harassed by student thugs, seemingly hopeless student with the potential to excel at education etc.). Unfortunately, in the second part of the film, it all degenerates into the worst possible ending -too bleak to satisfy ordinary audience while in the same too preposterous to be taken seriously by more thoughtful viewers. Even more pathetic is finale during which it becomes quite apparent that the film's choice of music was poor. Well-acted and occasionally insightful, One Eight Seven disappoints mostly because it shows that it could have been a great film.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on June 9th 2004)
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