Cipher in the Snow

19741974
Not RatedNot Rated
21m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

156

YOUR RATING

Short

Drama

Asking to leave a school bus, Cliff, a young teenager, collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His math teacher is asked to notify the parents and then write a short obituary. This... Read allAsking to leave a school bus, Cliff, a young teenager, collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His math teacher is asked to notify the parents and then write a short obituary. This task is difficult, for although he was Cliff's favorite teacher and had the most interact... Read allAsking to leave a school bus, Cliff, a young teenager, collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His math teacher is asked to notify the parents and then write a short obituary. This task is difficult, for although he was Cliff's favorite teacher and had the most interaction of any at the school, he barely knew him. In unraveling the mystery of the untimely de... Read all

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

156

YOUR RATING

Director
- Keith J. Atkinson
Writers
- Jean Mizer(story)
- Carol Lynn Pearson(screenplay)
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20User reviews

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Storyline

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Asking to leave a school bus, Cliff, a young teenager, collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His math teacher is asked to notify the parents and then write a short obituary. This task is difficult, for although he was Cliff's favorite teacher and had the most interaction of any at the school, he barely knew him. In unraveling the mystery of the untimely death, he finds that Cliff was shy, lonely, and ostracized, being slowly reduced to nothing, a zero (cipher). He vows to not let this happen to others. —Brian Greenhalgh

child abuse

frog

pond

school bus

death

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Did you know

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Trivia
CIPHER IN THE SNOW was adopted by the NEA and was used as an initiation to grade school kids in the '70s as part of the standard curriculum.

Connections
Referenced in The Field Is White (2002)

User reviews20

Review

Top review

10/10

People Are Never "Nothing"

30 years ago, my friends and I walked into a high school classroom laughing and joking around like we always did.

We weren't laughing when we walked out.

"Cipher In The Snow" is a film that strikes an almost universal chord among those who have been fortunate enough to see it; a tremendous, penetrating sadness in realizing that people around us are sometimes abused or neglected or ignored, and we, with the best intentions in the world, don't even notice. For younger adolescents, the empathy for the character reference in the title is positively overwhelming.

The film is also very well known as a film almost everyone who ever sees it remembers, although they can't remember its title. Very highly recommended.

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