GRITTY, A MUST SEE FILM FROM BEGINING TO END !!!
Added 10/26/2009
The film is A hard hitting drama from the begining to end about the constant challenges techers face in are public schools with the lead character played by non other than Samuel Jackson leading An A list cast getting to the point the movie shows how one person can influence other people in there community to make A difference to inspire change that's what this movie is about enough said you'll just have to check it out for yourself to understand the full meaning
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Been there, done that.
Added 10/17/2009
I have seen this movie several times but haven't watched it again recently, so this is not a slate to slate review of the entire movie, just some quickly jotted thoughts.
First of all, who am I?
I teach the kids who are in this movie in the maximum security facility where I work here in So. Cal. I have taught kids in the inner city for about 20 years. The stabbing incident you see in this movie happened to me in my classroom, but instead of being punctured by the punk with a pencil, I instinctively threw him over my shoulder onto his back in front of the whole class while I was taking roll at 8:30 in the morning. His fellow students jeered him and told him, "Sit yo stupid a** down, n*ggah, you can't even stab some cracker a** teacher!" He went to his seat ashamedly and never tried to attack me again. I kept taking roll. Another time, a student cut the brake lines on an old truck I kept as a second vehicle and used drive to work so that the students would not see what I really drive. I figured it out before his vandalism got me killed. I called his home the next day and found out that he actually had a father who took great interest in his son's behavior. The little hoodlum did not show up for three days at school. His friends told me that his dad beat the stuffing out of him. Sure enough, the brake line cutter showed up with lots of bruises and a newfound "respect for authority."
Who are the kids in the movie?
In reality, the situation is much worse than the movie portrays; the youths are infinitely more nihilistic than this movie indicates. They tend to hate all forms of societally sanctioned "authority": but especially teachers, law enforcement, etc. In reality, they have inured themselves to the mindset of "predator" or "wolf," as characterized respectively by such authors as Sgt. Rory Miller ("Meditations on Violence") and Lt. Col. David Grossman ("On Killing"). If you have not read these books and are interested in the moral, psychological, and social dimensions explored in these books and in this movie, then you should read them and watch this movie. This is a must see movie for you, especially if you teach or intend to teach the populations shown in these movies. Inner city neighborhoods and, increasingly, the exurbs as well, are breeding more of this type of youth every year as their reproductive numbers increase with each new generation of "kids" having "kids."
Here is the conundrum raised by this movie: If the "children" depicted in this movie cannot be "reached" or "changed for the better" by their teachers unless and until they renounce their commitment to a set of values, a worldview (Weltanschauung), and a way of being in the world antithetical to humanity, and if they will refuse to renounce their commitment to a set of values, a worldview (Weltanschauung), and a way of being in the world which is diametrically opposed to humanity unless and until they already have been "reached" or "changed for the better" by their teachers, then will these "kids" be able to change in time and before they have already found themselves standing in the dock facing 25+yr. prison sentences for having killed, robbed, and carjacked their way into adulthood?
Is this bleak?
Yes.
Is there a solution?
I don't know of one.
Morals of the story: Always watch your own back. Human beings understand reason, dignity, and compassion. Predators understand strength.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Unlike many other chicano/latino gangster movie, this one did not make me laugh at all...It made me cringe.
The brutality and viciousness showcased in the movie are nothing short of brilliant, why? Because it's true. Samuel L. Jackson really delivered an amazing performance as "Mr. G" in the turbulant L.A high school.
The finale of the movie is perhaps the most intense one I have seen, ever. The showdown of wills in amazing, showing Machismo at its deadliest.
I urge you to watch this movie, it will have an impact on you.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
good movie
Added 3/26/2009
DVD came in very good timely manner, box was a lil scratched, but movie played very good.. no problems
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Many teachers in today's school systems must feel helpless. Years ago there was the threat of corporal punishment, if not the actual fear of parent retaliation. Now, however, children are spoiled, often without strong male-role models (particularly in the more urban areas), there is simply no respect for authority or desire to contribute meaningfully to society, all parents think their child is a perfect little snowflake, and the outlook for a teacher in a troubled area is particularly bleak and hopeless.
Trevor Garfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a high school teacher who has recently been reassigned as a substitute in a rough, dilapidated LA school district after suffering a shank attack at the hands of one of his former students. Realizing the corrupt, bereaucratic school administration will never help him when the misbehavior and student intimidation begins anew, Garfield is handcuffed by not only rules, but also fear, and the depressing reality that his values and morals are not shared by many of his students, particularly the local gang leaders Benny (Lobo Sebastian) and Cesar (Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez). In no time at all, Garfield - who is immediately immersed in the gang culture when students begin to call him Mr. G, where G is for Gangster - breaks down psychologically and flips from gentle, timid, caring teacher to possessed madman intent on retaliation.
Samuel L. Jackson turns in a powerhouse performance in this movie, showing ghetto schools from a teacher's perspective. The attitude flip is classic Samuel L. Jackson, just as quick as Michael Douglas in Falling Down, but a bit more angry, and the retaliation used on the punk thugs throughout the movie, while over the top, is ingenious.
A teacher until the end, Mr. G proves that Cesar's way of life is meaningless, and instructs that he's willing to quite literally risk everything, to die, if it will provide one last lesson, one last Pyrrhic victory.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
|
GRITTY, A MUST SEE FILM FROM BEGINING TO END !!!
Added 10/26/2009
The film is A hard hitting drama from the begining to end about the constant challenges techers face in are public schools with the lead character played by non other than Samuel Jackson leading An A list cast getting to the point the movie shows how one person can influence other people in there community to make A difference to inspire change that's what this movie is about enough said you'll just have to check it out for yourself to understand the full meaning
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Been there, done that.
Added 10/17/2009
I have seen this movie several times but haven't watched it again recently, so this is not a slate to slate review of the entire movie, just some quickly jotted thoughts.
First of all, who am I?
I teach the kids who are in this movie in the maximum security facility where I work here in So. Cal. I have taught kids in the inner city for about 20 years. The stabbing incident you see in this movie happened to me in my classroom, but instead of being punctured by the punk with a pencil, I instinctively threw him over my shoulder onto his back in front of the whole class while I was taking roll at 8:30 in the morning. His fellow students jeered him and told him, "Sit yo stupid a** down, n*ggah, you can't even stab some cracker a** teacher!" He went to his seat ashamedly and never tried to attack me again. I kept taking roll. Another time, a student cut the brake lines on an old truck I kept as a second vehicle and used drive to work so that the students would not see what I really drive. I figured it out before his vandalism got me killed. I called his home the next day and found out that he actually had a father who took great interest in his son's behavior. The little hoodlum did not show up for three days at school. His friends told me that his dad beat the stuffing out of him. Sure enough, the brake line cutter showed up with lots of bruises and a newfound "respect for authority."
Who are the kids in the movie?
In reality, the situation is much worse than the movie portrays; the youths are infinitely more nihilistic than this movie indicates. They tend to hate all forms of societally sanctioned "authority": but especially teachers, law enforcement, etc. In reality, they have inured themselves to the mindset of "predator" or "wolf," as characterized respectively by such authors as Sgt. Rory Miller ("Meditations on Violence") and Lt. Col. David Grossman ("On Killing"). If you have not read these books and are interested in the moral, psychological, and social dimensions explored in these books and in this movie, then you should read them and watch this movie. This is a must see movie for you, especially if you teach or intend to teach the populations shown in these movies. Inner city neighborhoods and, increasingly, the exurbs as well, are breeding more of this type of youth every year as their reproductive numbers increase with each new generation of "kids" having "kids."
Here is the conundrum raised by this movie: If the "children" depicted in this movie cannot be "reached" or "changed for the better" by their teachers unless and until they renounce their commitment to a set of values, a worldview (Weltanschauung), and a way of being in the world antithetical to humanity, and if they will refuse to renounce their commitment to a set of values, a worldview (Weltanschauung), and a way of being in the world which is diametrically opposed to humanity unless and until they already have been "reached" or "changed for the better" by their teachers, then will these "kids" be able to change in time and before they have already found themselves standing in the dock facing 25+yr. prison sentences for having killed, robbed, and carjacked their way into adulthood?
Is this bleak?
Yes.
Is there a solution?
I don't know of one.
Morals of the story: Always watch your own back. Human beings understand reason, dignity, and compassion. Predators understand strength.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Unlike many other chicano/latino gangster movie, this one did not make me laugh at all...It made me cringe.
The brutality and viciousness showcased in the movie are nothing short of brilliant, why? Because it's true. Samuel L. Jackson really delivered an amazing performance as "Mr. G" in the turbulant L.A high school.
The finale of the movie is perhaps the most intense one I have seen, ever. The showdown of wills in amazing, showing Machismo at its deadliest.
I urge you to watch this movie, it will have an impact on you.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
