| Lean on Me | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | John G. Avildsen |
| Produced by | Norman Twain |
| Written by | Michael Schiffer |
| Starring | Morgan Freeman Beverly Todd Alan North Robert Guillaume |
| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Cinematography | Victor Hammer |
| Editing by | John G. Avildsen John Carter |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | March 3, 1989 |
| Running time | 124 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $31,906,454 (USA) |
Lean on Me is a 1989 dramatized biographical film written by Michael Schiffer, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Morgan Freeman. Lean on Me is loosely based on the story of Joe Louis Clark, a real life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, whose school is at risk of being taken over by the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores. This film's title refers to the 1972 Bill Withers song of the same name.
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Clark resigned as principal of Eastside High School the year after this film was released to become an author and motivational speaker. In August 1995, he was hired to run a juvenile detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Parts of the film, including the elementary school scenes, were filmed in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, is plagued with numerous problems, especially those dealing with drugs and gang violence. Furthermore, the students are receiving low scores on the state's basic skills test.
During the opening credits sequence (in 1987), after a teacher is brutally beaten for trying to break up a fight and the state legislature has recently passed a law proclaiming that schools that cannot meet minimum test requirements will be put in receivership, Mayor Bottman (Alan North) consults school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier, (Robert Guillaume), who suggests the school hire elementary school principal Joe Louis Clark, aka "Crazy Joe" (Morgan Freeman), who was a teacher at Eastside High 20 years before, as the new principal. The mayor is reluctant at first, knowing about the trouble that the radical Clark has caused in the past. But Clark is hired, and things immediately get tense after Clark dismisses from the school hundreds of students identified as drug dealers or abusers and troublemakers. A meeting between the parents of those students and the academic board only fans the flames.
The next day, Clark runs into one of the expelled youths, Thomas Sams (Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins), asking to be let back into the school. In a dramatic rooftop scene, Clark gives him a sharp lecture about crack and what can happen to Sams if he kept on using it. Clark then dares Sams to commit suicide by jumping off the roof, but Sams, breaking down in tears, refuses and makes a promise to clean up his act. Clark reluctantly grants him a second chance to turn things around. However, another dismissed student manages to get inside the school and attack another student before Clark comes to break up the fight. Knowing he is breaking the fire code, Clark orders all doors chained and locked during school hours to keep drug dealers out. Also, the students show no improvement in taking a practice version of the basic skills test (passing was 33% below, as seen on the test score sheet presented to Clark by Mrs. Levias (Beverly Todd), the school's vice principal. Minimal passing requirement is 75%). The children began to bond with Mr. Clark, not just as a principal, but as a father.
Clark does not put up with teachers who disagree with him either, especially those who do so in front of the students. One of his rash firings is reversed by the superintendent. Meanwhile, one parent whose son was expelled from Eastside by Clark, Leona Barrett (Lynne Thigpen) aligns herself with the mayor in an effort to oust Clark. The fire chief eventually catches Clark not just for having chains on the doors, but conspiring to have them removed during surprise inspections.
Clark's arrest comes after a key scene involving Kaneesha (Karen Malina White), who remembers Clark from grade school. Clark is offering counsel about Kaneesha's unplanned pregnancy just before he is arrested.
That night, while Clark is in jail and the mayor is preparing to remove him, the entire student body converges on the Central Office of the Paterson Board of Education. They demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal. Mrs. Barrett tries to convince the students that Clark has made too many wrong decisions and is not the right man for principal of Eastside, and asks that they return to their homes before any trouble starts. But the students claim that Clark cares for them and has done so much good that they will not accept anyone else as their principal.
Eventually, Clark is freed from custody, and to good news: enough students passed the basic skills exam which results in the current administration retaining control over the school. With that, Clark shuns both Mrs. Barrett and the mayor: "You can tell the State to go to hell!" Then Clark leads his students in singing Eastside High's school song (several scenes throughout the movie find Clark insisting that each student be taught to perform the school song on demand). The closing credits feature scenes of graduating Eastside High Class of 1988 seniors, including Sams.
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