As a person who works with kids with behavior problems, and am starting to teach special education, this movie provided a great, guilty, cathartic escape.
I thoroughly enjoyed the humorous but dead-on portrayals of the various problems with teaching "problem kids", and I really enjoyed seeing the kids get to find themselves when literally stripped of the distractions of material culture.
I found that the language and disturbing situations in the school were not very far off from my experiences in the classroom and hallways. I really have known homeless students. I really have known kids who went out on their own because a parent overdosed and died.
And, on the fantasy end, it was interesting to see the extreme application of brainwashing for a startling new effect. Sure, some scenes stretched credulity... (How do you pretend to shoot a student at point blank range without really killing them?) but I found it great entertainment with a deep truth to the core message of the film.
Although the production quality on the VHS I bought was poor, I intend on buying the DVD so I can watch my favorite scenes - the art scenes and the Heart of Darkness scene - repeatedly.
What a wonderful guilty pleasure. I plan on watching it while grading papers several times a semester!
I thoroughly enjoyed the humorous but dead-on portrayals of the various problems with teaching "problem kids", and I really enjoyed seeing the kids get to find themselves when literally stripped of the distractions of material culture.
I found that the language and disturbing situations in the school were not very far off from my experiences in the classroom and hallways. I really have known homeless students. I really have known kids who went out on their own because a parent overdosed and died.
And, on the fantasy end, it was interesting to see the extreme application of brainwashing for a startling new effect. Sure, some scenes stretched credulity... (How do you pretend to shoot a student at point blank range without really killing them?) but I found it great entertainment with a deep truth to the core message of the film.
Although the production quality on the VHS I bought was poor, I intend on buying the DVD so I can watch my favorite scenes - the art scenes and the Heart of Darkness scene - repeatedly.
What a wonderful guilty pleasure. I plan on watching it while grading papers several times a semester!