To Sir, with Love
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| To Sir, with Love | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | James Clavell |
| Produced by | James Clavell |
| Written by | E. R. Braithwaite (novel) James Clavell (screenplay) |
| Starring | Sidney Poitier Christian Roberts Judy Geeson Suzy Kendall Lulu |
| Music by | Ron Grainer |
| Cinematography | Paul Beeson |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 14, 1967 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $640,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
To Sir, with Love (1967) is a British film starring Sidney Poitier that deals with social issues in an inner city school, written and directed by James Clavell and based on the memoir of the same name by E.R. Braithwaite.
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[edit] Cultural impact
The film is in a now-established genre in which an idealistic teacher is confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, disengaged from conventional schooling. The first such film was Blackboard Jungle in 1955, a film in which, incidentally, Poitier played a disruptive pupil. The present film makes a departure in that it sets Poitier, a black teacher, in a predominantly white London school. The film touches on racial issues but concentrates on the usual tropes of teenage angst and inspirational leadership. The film portrays a sanitised and fictional Swinging London. Issues of sexual infatuation between a pupil and teacher were rather less sensitive in the 1960s than they were to become in the 21st century, as evidenced by the rather provocative strapline A story as fresh as the girls in their minis.
Subsequent films that exploited the inspirational teacher drama theme include: The Principal (1987), Stand and Deliver (1988), Lean on Me and Dead Poets Society (both in 1989), Dangerous Minds (1995), Take the Lead (2006), and Freedom Writers (2007), as well as Sister Act 2.
[edit] Plot summary (film)
Braithwaite's name is changed to Mark Thackeray, from Guyana. Although he holds a college degree in engineering, Thackeray can't find work in London where he lives. Ostensibly, this is because there are no openings, and because he's overqualified for anything less; Thackeray, however, suspects (correctly) that nobody will hire him because he's black. Finally, he lands a job teaching at a high school in the slums. On his first day, Thackeray is warned about the punkish and unteachable students who got their latest professor (the man Thackeray has been hired to replace) to leave the school in resignation.
Thackeray's class keeps getting disrupted by the students' letting their desks slam shut, switching chairs in the middle of lessons, walking in and out of the room without ever saying a word, passing around pornographic magazines in mid-lessons, and the like. (One student even wears sunglasses right in the classroom; Thackeray keeps taking them off for him.) Thackeray shrewdly presumes all of these things are being done just to make him lose control of himself. Soon enough, he does just that upon finding his students burning a tampon in the classroom's wood-stove. Abandoning his previous vow never to do so under any circumstances, Thackeray flies into a rage and shuts all the boys out of the classroom. Then he bellows at the girls about keeping certain things private, and what he thinks of women who fail to keep those things private. Finally, Thackeray slams out of the classroom and retreats to the school's faculty office; he's more furious with himself than with his students, because he allowed them to get the better of him. At the same time, the youngsters he's been trying to teach are impressed by the fact that he didn't use dirty language with them, as did Thackeray's predecessor. Thackeray's is proving a much harder spirit to break than their last teacher's.
Thackeray completely changes his approach to these youngsters' education. He starts by throwing the textbooks into the wastebasket, since the students never use them anyhow. He then sets up an open discussion, during which the students may ask about anything they feel the need to know. Thackeray explains to his students that they will soon enter the world of adulthood, where they must stand or fall on their own. He hopes to prepare them for higher education... and also for careers, matrimony and/or parenting. Thackeray also urges his students to address each other as "Sir," or "Miss," although he himself also answers to "Mr. Thackeray." (The youngsters had previously called him "Mate," and worse.) When some of the kids point out that they've grown up alongside each other and are already on familiar terms, Thackeray responds by saying that such gives all of them the right to be called "Sir" or "Miss." Sure enough, the entire class quickly comes to know Thackeray as "Sir."
At one point, an out-of-shape boy named Buckley is ordered by the gym teacher Mr. Bell to jump a hurdle, something everyone knows the boy is unable to do. When the boy falls and breaks the hurdle, another student named Potter (Christopher Chittell) angrily grabs a piece of broken wood and threatens to attack the teacher with it. Thackeray is called and stops the fight. Although he condemns the teacher's use of the fat student as a "whipping boy", Thackeray also insists that the students should control their anger; he points out that serious damage could have been done, had a gun or knife been used instead of broken wood. Soon afterward, Bert Denham (Christian Roberts) - the ringleader of Thackeray's students - challenges Thackeray to an impromptu boxing match in the gym. Since Thackeray was a Golden Gloves contender, he should be a worthy opponent. Indeed, Thackeray soon gets the upper hand by knocking the wind out of Denham with a single hook to the body. Thackeray helps Denham up and offers to help prepare him for a professional bout. Denham is surprised that Thackeray stopped after one blow, since the boy was clearly attempting to injure his teacher. Thackeray, however, informs Denham that responding in kind would have accomplished nothing for either of them.
Later, a half-black student's mother dies of an illness. Although Thackeray's class buys a funeral wreath, they are afraid to personally deliver it, since everyone would gossip if a white person went into a black person's house. Fellow student Pamela Dare (Judy Geeson), who greatly admires Thackeray by this point, bravely offers to take the wreath. Thackeray, shortly afterwards, meets Pamela's mother - who tells him that Pamela is always out late at night. She asks him to find out where her daughter goes. When questioned, the girl insists that she is only visiting her grandmother. Yet Pamela refuses to tell her mother this; she feels bitter towards her mother for entertaining gentlemen friends in the family home. When Thackeray tries to convince Pamela to forgive her mother, the girl feels betrayed and angrily renounces her agreement to bring the funeral wreath. Later, however, she realizes that he was right. When Thackery goes to pay respects at the funeral, Pamela and Thackeray's entire class are there to deliver the wreath.
Thackeray stresses the importance of self-respect to his students; if they don't care about themselves, they're never going to care about anybody. Accordingly, he takes them on a field trip to the nearby British Museum. The school opposes this, anticipating a riot. There is none. All of Thackeray's students conduct themselves the way he has treated them: like young adults.
A day later, Thackeray receives a job offer from a local engineering company. After due consideration, he plans to resign from the school following the graduation of the senior class he's been teaching. The faculty says they'll miss him a lot; after all, Thackeray has accomplished so much with those youngsters in so little time, a feat none of the other teachers dreamed possible.
Pamela asks Thackeray to dance with her at their senior prom, which he does. Later another student, Barbara Pegg (Lulu, in her first film), performs a song she has written with him in mind: "To Sir, With Love." He is deeply moved by this.
On the last day of school, Thackeray bids farewell to his students and thanks them for being in his class. They thank him for being their teacher, and then depart. After everyone else has left, Thackeray is visited by an eleventh-grade boy and girl... both of whom are as surly and sullen as Thackeray's previous students had been when they first met him. "I'm in your bleeding class next term," says the boy, who then shows himself out with the girl. Thackeray realizes that his work here is not finished after all; accordingly, he tears up the letter regarding the engineering job offer. Then he walks out of his classroom to make plans for the next term.
[edit] Plot summary (book)
Ricardo Braithwaite, a British West Indian-born communications engineer, comes to Britain in 1939 for post-graduate studies, but enlists in the RAF. After being demobilized from the service, he is unable to find work in his profession due to anti-black racism, and is advised to look at teaching as a career. He is accepted and assigned to a tough school in London's East End, where teachers come and go frequently and the pupils are mostly rebellious and unwilling to learn.
After several false starts, Braithwaite starts to gain the confidence of the pupils, as well as his fellow teachers. He is attracted to Gillian Blanchard, another new teacher, and by the end of term, they are deeply in love and plan to marry.
[edit] Quotes
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- Moira's mother: (on double-decker bus, gesturing at Thackeray) I wouldn't mind having this lot in my stocking for Christmas.
- Pamela Dare: Do you two...?(sways hips suggestively)
(Students laugh) Do you two shake?
- Pamela Dare: (after cleaning off Thackeray's desk) Don't worry about your desk. I'll clean it every day.
Thackeray: No, it's no problem. Pamela Dare: It's all right. A woman's work is never done.
- Theo Weston (fellow teacher, to Thackeray): Ah, so you're the new lamb for the slaughter - or should I say, black sheep?
- Thackeray: I am sick of your foul language, your crude behavior and your sluttish manner. There are certain things a decent woman keeps private, and only a filthy slut would have done this... and those who stood by and encouraged her are just as bad. I don't care who's responsible - you're all to blame. Now, I am going to leave this room for five minutes by which time that disGUSTing object had better be removed and the windows opened to clear away the stench. If you must play these filthy games, DO THEM IN YOUR HOMES! - and not in my classroom!
- Denham: Eh, Sir, would you mind boxing with me? Sapiano's wrenched his wrist and looked devilish.
Thackeray: I think you'd better forget about that for today. Denham: I don't mind having a punch-out with you.
- Ingram: Lucky punch yesterday.
Denham (whirling, furiously): Yeah? Well, you got eyes in the back o' your 'ead, that's what. Ol' Chimney Sweep coulda taken me down with one hand behind his back and you know it!
- Denham: How many times did you hit me?
Thackeray: Once. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I guess I just lost my temper. Denham: You could have taken me right there. I’ve had it in for you since the beginning of school. I was meaning to hurt you.
[edit] Trivia
- The film's title song "To Sir, with Love", sung by Lulu, reached number one on the U.S. pop charts.
- It was shot in London, where the book was also based.
- A television movie sequel, To Sir, with Love II, was released in 1996.
- This movie ranked number 27 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
[edit] Soundtrack
Track listing:
- To Sir With Love - Lulu
- School Break Dancing "Staling My Love from Me" - Lulu
- Thackeray Meets Faculty, Then Alone
- Music from Lunch Break "Off and Running" - The Mindbenders
- Thackeray Loses Temper, Gets an Idea
- Museum Outings Montage "To Sir, With Love" - Lulu
- A Classical Lesson
- Perhaps I Could Tidy Your Desk
- Potter's Loss of Temper in Gym
- Thackeray Reads Letter About Job
- Thackeray and Denham Box in Gym
- The Funeral
- End of Term Dance "It's Getting Harder All the Time" - The Mindbenders
- To Sir With Love - Lulu
The original soundtrack was released on Fontana Records, and was only re-released onto CD once in 1995.
