MovieChat Forums > One Eight Seven (1997) Discussion > This Movie Was Over-Hyped

This Movie Was Over-Hyped

posted 21 years ago by Alien_Latino
13 replies | jump to latest

[–] davidpenzer 20 years ago

I agree it sucked and I have no clue what lesson it teached us.

When an ass needs back up... you back dat ass up

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] LosGrifos 20 years ago

Garfield dies to teach Cesar a lesson on stupidity, since he has nothing left to live for. He also helps Rita to be who she is and not stay at the level she is at. Basically, he is trying to help the students become better and raise themselves out of the ghetto.

[–] mccarthystuart 20 years ago

It must be a truly horrible experience to get to such a low point were a person feels that their life is no longer worth living. Garfield didn't half put the *beep* up those punks when he turned the tables on Cesar by threatening to take his turn in the game of Russian Roulette unless he took it himself.

[–] ijmunoz 19 years ago

I have been a teacher for around 5 years now. I graduated high school about the time of this movies release. I entered college and received my teaching certificate. The whole time the students were telling me to watch movies like Dangerous Minds, Lean on Me, Stand and Deliver, etc. Yeah I watched them and they were really inspiring. But in truth movies can't actually capture the devotion of a teacher. This movie showed this deplication, as well as the aggrivation that goes along with teh teaching profession. People are always saying that teachers only go into teh profession for the money and the summers and holidays off. Let me tell you, when you enter the profession for the money and summers off- then you quit after your first year. I have seen it each year.

To be a teacher has to be rooted in an individual. Teachers get a lot of smack because everyone feels that we have the dream job. What about those nights when you lay awake at night trying to reach the students and knowing that it is almost a lost cause. You speak to the parents and they are lost. You speak to social workers and they can't help you because they are as lost as you are. A true teacher wants to reach students and see tehm succeed. A true teacher tries to teach at all costs. Garfield was a sub, and yet he went through all the trouble to get through to the class. Notice his first day at the LA school compared to later when the students are actually caring and answering.

Many won't get this movey because they may not feel the passion that burns for teaching. When that passion is prematurely extinguished- then what does a person do. I quote Garfield:

"You got some respect back now?

The only thing you respect
is stupidity.

You willing to die for stupidity?

See, I am, if it'll teach you something.

You can't kill me, homeboy.

What I am, what I was,
died over a year ago.

Everything I've ever wanted
has been taken from me.

And no matter how many of you
I get rid of...

...I can't get it back!

I was a teacher!

I wanted to help you!

You can't kill me!

And you can't scare me!"

This movie shows all of what is means to be a teacher. The teacher took actions into his own hands more liekly because the system failed him. I don't condone thos actions, but at the same time people have to understand the frustration and complications of teaching and I feel this movie shows that.
t6rs6r6t

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Steve5805 19 years ago

Yeah, I was planning on teaching - I would be entering the field in a year - but I just dropped that component from my major. I still want to teach; but as it turns out, you can't actually do that with the structure of the public school system today. You get bogged down in the bureaucracy; you have to treat everyone equal, and you can't separate the quick learners from the slow learners. In Maryland, you can't grade papers with red ink, because that could cause students to feel bad.
My point is that if they want skilled, qualified teachers, then they need to make some serious changes. As it is, I'll be entering grad school instead, and teaching college, where I have the freedom to actually educate my students, rather than babysit them.
-Steve

[–] makavelidonthug 19 years ago

I think the message of this film is plain and clear. Some people just cannot see past their own noses. Garfield was a very un-selfish person, all he wanted to do was teach and help people better themselves, but to his students he was just someone who stood there while they clowned around.

All the teachers that had the teaching certificates weren't half as dedicated as Garfield was and he was the 'sub'. To me it shows that people may think that teachers are there for the money and time off (as someone has already pointed out) but actually there are some that genuinely care about their job and their students, and when the bell rings they don't just go home and forget about them. I'm not a teacher, but I could clearly understand Garfield's determination and passion for teaching.

This film also demonstrates that society can push a perfectly good person over the edge if given the oppertunity.

[–] divncom 18 years ago

I rented this movie on BlockBuster after I saw so many positive reviews here but for the life of me I couldn't sense what the hype was all about. "Dangerous Minds" was a way better movie. The movie was boring, a pity because it had so many excellent actors in it, both known and unknown but good nevertheless. Whoever wrote that script must have been a bigger amateur than me, jesus I could have made this movie better if I would have the chance of scripting it. What was this movie about anyways? What lesson did it thought us? Someone please enlighten me.

---------------

I'm not sure what you mean by "hype". This movie wasn't hyped, it didn't get much commercial exposure - it was a pretty gritty, low budget effort.

"Dangerous Minds" was garbage - it was formulaic cliche ridden non sense. The students were one dimensional stereotypes - their dialogue was farcical; the Hollywood portrayol of the first year teacher universally reaching a group of gang bangers and teaching them to love poetry and chemistry and to alter their basic life course is fantasy. These movies are pumped out a dime a dozen - if you had any depth of film knowledge you'd be able to see that immediately.

187 experimented with different settings, different conventions, slightly different character trajectories, and a vastly more risky conclusion. It was obviously not concerned with coddling the audience with uplifting fallacies.

The morality if the film is ambiguous - that is, you're not directly told what the good/bad of the story is. That's infantilism... it's inapplicable to reality. The only reality is the individual struggles of the central figures.

Once you begin to grasp what makes a formulaic hollywood moral jerk-off fantasy different than a complex, disturbing, morally ambiguous ground level portrayol of reality, you will understand what makes one "better" than the other.

[–] breakcurse1918 18 years ago

I totally agree...Dangerous Minds sucked donkey dick compare to 187...

[–] ChiChick267 18 years ago

Are you serious about the red ink thing in Maryland? That really speaks volumes about the state of education in this country. Who cares about the color of the ink if the grade is still the same? I'm no scientologist, but I kind of feel what they are saying about psychology taking over the education system.

And depending on the university you want to teach at, I've heard that the collegiate level can be very bureaucratic and "political" as well. Be careful and good luck :)

On topic, I really love this movie. The non-conventional plot made it more enjoyable for me, and less "Hollywood". Sometimes there are no happy endings.

[–] Lantastic77 17 years ago

Steve, it is probably a good thing you are not a school teacher since you feel that way. Schools all over the country separate students based on ability and teachers are asked to treat students unequally based on their needs. When you say you want to separate students, I have a guess as to which level you were planning on teaching (hint: it is not the remedial levels).
You have to remember at the college level, you don't build any relationship with students and you are basically spitting information at them, not inspiring them. You are wrong when you say that you cannot teach in public schools today, very wrong.

-Lan

[–] ijmunoz 17 years ago

He may be right though. Education is really going in a hard way these days.

STOP SB 861