I just finished watching Lean on Me for the first time. It was such an amazing film with great actors, a great story, and a great message. It gets a solid 10 from me. How the hell does this have a rating below 7.5?? This movie deserves to be in the Top 250 films of all time! Who agrees?
I put the FUN in FUNERAL!
i'm definely with you man.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
I agree 120%, Morgan Freeman gives one of the most if not the most underrated performance by an actor not acknowledged. If rules permitted, he coulda been nominated for both Driving Miss Daisy & Lean On Me in 1989. This film is truely magnificant, it gets overlooks by critics and the media alike, it's a very powerful and uplifting film, I do hope in the future they make a Special Edition DVD for it.
shareI didn't even know this film existed until I just watched it on TV five minutes ago. Amazing. MOrgan Freeman certainly pulled it off as he always does. I just have one question thats bothering me, I missed about 10 minutes including the part where the fire department came in and MR Clark was arrested. I thought they had a plan for the teachers to take the chains down to avoid this. What happened?
share(Warning: spoilers)
I just saw it too for the first time, the same time you saw it yesterday (Wednesday) -- we probably saw it on the same channel/time slot. To answer your question, Mr. Clark was set up (I think). What happened was, Mr. Clark went to talk to ...umm, whatsherface with the mother that kicked her out... in the auditorium, because she was knocked up by her boyfriend. Then one of the security guards came running in and told Mr. Clark that the fire chief was on his way to the school. Mr. Clark got up and ran and started screaming into his walky-talky, "Code 10! Code 10! Get those chains off the doors before he gets in here!" ...or something to that effect, but when he met the fire chief, who already made it inside the school, the fire chief held up a cassette recorder that played Mr. Clark's orders that he had just announced through the walky-talky, to take off the chains. So that's how he was arrested.
Not sure if he was set up, but he did have a system in place to warn him if the Fire Chief showed up. The head of security told Mr Clark that the fire chief got past the gate. That's when Mr Clark tried to alert the staff with his walkie talkie, but it was too late. I had thought that the Chief showed a warrant to whomever was at the front gate, and so the person let him in immediately.
-The Divine Ms Slim
"I make him an offer he no refuse"
You watched the movie in five minutes? You said you just watched it five minutes ago. Cool. Can I use your time machine?
shareYeah, unfortunately, people out there give movies like the Lord of the Rings' 10's JUST because they have great special effects and were really popular and such. So those end up being in the top 250 (which I think is unfair). I really liked this movie, and definitely think it should have gotten above a 6.9!
shareThis movie definitely deserved to be in the Top 250. It was really good and was the best movie I've seen Morgan Freeman in.
share[deleted]
and thats precisely why the movie got a low undeserved rating. There are no white people in it to feel sorry for. Lets get real here the guy above me said it best, who cares about losers at some school?
Sad really it is.
In my opinion this was Freeman's best performance ever. This is the character I always saw Freeman as, 'Crazy Joe Clark (Batman.) Not an ol' white woman's ass kissing stereo-type in Miss Daisy. I really hated that film. And all the critics that overlooked this film. That should tell you something about Hollywood, they'll give an award to Washington not for playing Malcom X, but as a crooked drug dealing cop. They'll pass up a great movie like Lean on Me, in favor of some other watered down turd fest, because they have to pick a black film that doesnt make whites walk out the theater feeling sorry and inadequate.
To quote a famous poet...
BURN HOLLYWOOD BURN!!!
Come on, the only reason people think it deserves anything is because of the subject matter...the fact of the matter is that the cast minus Freeman held the movie back. It was trite and melodramatic, with terrible dialogue. And it makes it seem like you can teach kids the same way you can motivate atheletes.
Oh, no, Mrs. Robinson. I think you're the most attractive of all my parent's friends.
way underrated. This movie is so anti-hollywood and thats what makes it so great..I'm from the area the film is about. I remember all the fuss about Joe Clark, this movie is very much based on a tru story. make no mistake, Joe Clark was the H.N.I.C!!!
share[deleted]
[deleted]
I know why it got 6.9/7.0 nowadays. Stupid people see OTHER movies who are made AFTER "Lean On Me" and think LOM stole the ideas from them. Kinda the same with Rocky 1. A GREAT movie not even in Top 250, while any movies with Lindsay Lohan topless probably will go Top 10 after the premiere. Youngsters nowadays have no taste or knowledge about classics. And this is coming from a 20-year old...
The Vikings are attacking! HUSS, HUSS, HUSS!
I agree, it should be in one of the top 250 films of all time. Morgan Freeman was amazing in this movie. This was actually the first movie I have ever seen him in and after I watched this movie I wanted to see all his movies, his performance was amazing.
"Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will in fact calm up." - Teal'c - Stargate Sg-1
[deleted]
wtf? this movie is the most melodramatic, laughably cheesy movie i know of. seriously, how can any of you take this movie seriously?
i laughed so hard when he was on stage for the pre-exam pep rally. this isn't a football game. just because you are in high-spirits does not mean that you are gonna pass a test.
[deleted]
It's just turned up on latenight TV here in Australia. I find it unwatchable. The Freeman character is basically an authoritarian bully. I don't do well with bullies.
share^yeah I'm watching it here too. Morgan Freemans character is such an ass (at this stage anyway)- the teachers should all just quit already (before he fires the all lol). I missed the beginning so I guess I might not know exactly what the point of this movie is but so far... not loving it. (however that does not change the fact that Morgan Freeman is a kickass actor and rocks all movies he's in) :)
shareThe real Joe Clark was hired to run a juvenile detention centre in New Jersey. I think Joe Clark has a very dominate personality, and Morgan Freeman does an excellent job playing Joe Clark.
shareJust watched it myself and I think the rating is fair.
Some parts are decidedly CORNY, with corny music to match. Like when Crazy Joe walks into the classroom full of kids that are all over-enthusiastic to answer the teacher's questions, so Joe gives him the trusty "thumbs up". I mean gimme a break, it looked like something off an insurance commercial.
Certainly Morgan Freeman puts in a solid performance overall as you'd expect, but the film's cheese factor dropped it down to a 6-7 for me. Not bad, not fantastic.
i just finished watching it in australia too...i found it to be a great movie, and while a little too disney like in terms of story, it was pleasant to watch...as for other people crapping on the character of joe clark, if you had a look at the school in the beginning, how else would that place have been cleaned up? with a relaxed laid back attitude and an honour system? tough times call for tough measures and tough people to enforce them...besides, we have too many idiot kids running around today that have nothing better to than cause trouble , collect money, and think that the world owes them something, that everything will come to them without having to lift a finger...its not as bad as in the movie, but its not like kids couldnt use some real discipline these days...
shareMy wife attended this High School during Joe Clark's reign for one year. She said Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Joe Clark was pretty accurate. She did point out that the school could still be quite dangerous if you weren't careful and that it was not as safe as it was made out to be at the end of the movie.
Joe Clark made a point to know his students and knew most of them at least by name including my wife. He was firm and tough and if you were looking for trouble, you certainly picked the wrong guy to mess with. But, if you stayed out of trouble and did your school work, you were fine.
After a year there, the school district changed the residential boundries for the high schools and she was sent to Kennedy High School which she said was a little better.