THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
IN THESE TIMES, there is an inclination to applaud any film that makes heroes of our teachers.
Underpaid and much-maligned, they stand, practically alone, against the increasing trauma in the educational system. Even at that, ``Dangerous Minds,'' the latest movie about an ``inspirational'' teacher, waters down its opportunities by going for broad cliches rather than tackling real issues.
Michelle Pfeiffer, working hard but miscast, is a former Marine who now teaches inner-city students. Given ``special accreditation'' because the school needs a body to occupy the classroom, she decides to go all-out to attract the attention of her flock.
The emerging film quickly becomes a ``feel good movie,'' designed more to sell popcorn than to bring up untidy issues. Every cliche is trotted out and everything goes right for schoolmarm Pfeiffer - so right that we are sent from the theater reassured that all our fears about the classroom were overwrought. Unfortunately, we quickly realize that this film is mostly meaningless piffle.
Pfeiffer is the latest in a long list of inspirational movie teachers. There was Bette Davis, who tutored a lowly Welsh coal miner to win a scholarship in ``The Corn is Green'' (followed by Katharine Hepburn in a TV version); Robert Donat who warmed hearts and won the Academy Award over Clark Gable's Rhett Butler for ``Goodbye, Mr. Chips''; Jennifer Jones as the teacher who guided small-town life in ``Good Morning, Miss Dove''; Sandy Dennis who led a good fight in ``Up the Down Staircase''; and Glenn Ford who fought hoodlums as the rock era broke out with ``Blackboard Jungle.'' And on through ``Dead Poets Society,'' ``Stand And Deliver'' and ``Lean on Me.''
Even if you didn't see any of these films, ``Dangerous Minds'' would still be entirely predictable. The minute you see the class, you spot the subplots: The sexy female student who ends up pregnant, the handsome boy who has to face the peer pressures of gangs. And so they go.
This is based on a real-life teacher named LouAnne Johnson, who taught in California for three years. Pfeiffer, who doesn't quite look like herself after returning from several years of family leave, looks elegant and frail, but she doesn't look as if she would ever have been a Marine. In spite of her Catwoman stint, she also doesn't look at home with karate. She does all that the material will allow, but this outing won't compete with her finest work - the memorable performance in ``The Fabulous Baker Boys.''
The screenplay is based on Johnson's book ``My Posse Don't Do Homework,'' which was the title of the movie up until a few weeks ago. Only if you know the background would you know that these students have been bused to a predominantly white California school. Little is said about their minority status. Drugs hardly enter the discussion.
The teacher has no outside life. Andy Garcia, who had a cameo bit as her boyfriend, has been cut from the movie entirely.
As usual in this genre, the school system is stuffy and insists that she stick to the curriculum and stop experimenting. Even this worn theme gets short shrift.
Pfeiffer is initially called ``whitebread'' by the students, but she quickly wins them over by wearing jeans and boots to class and teaching verbs by using sentences like ``Never shoot a homeboy.''
Even though the film is rated R (and there is some corresponding language), it comes off as unrealistically bland and prepackaged.
We can only applaud its good intentions. There is a huge suspicion, though, that its main intention was merely to sell tickets. You get the feeling that you've been given rose-colored glasses, the same way they used to give you 3-D glasses. In both cases, the view is distorted. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Michelle Pfeiffer portrays an English teacher in charge of a group
of tough inner-city high school kids.
Graphic
``DANGEROUS MINDS''
Rate: R
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer
Mal's rating: Two 1/2 stars
by CNB