No story of inspirational educators packs quite the punch of Joe Clark, the controversial administrator at the center of John G. Avildsen’s Lean on Me.
The Production: 3.5/5
Inspirational educators have been the focus of a handful of films (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Good Morning Miss Dove, Up the Down Staircase, To Sir with Love), but none packs quite the punch of Joe Clark, the controversial educator at the center of John G. Avildsen’s Lean on Me. Based on a true story, Lean on Me is as divisive as its protagonist, a no-nonsense, semi-tyrannical administrator tasked with bringing discipline and order back to a high school mired in harmful and wasteful neglect. It’s an inspiring story, but there are bumps and bruises along the way to its conclusion.
Eastside High in Paterson, New Jersey, is on its last legs before a hostile takeover by the state, rife with drug pushers, abusers of all kinds, graffiti-riddled, and failing at its primary mission of preparing its students for what the real world is going to throw at them. As a last-ditch effort to retain control of the school, city mayor Don Bottman (Alan North) and school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume) choose longtime school principal and education advocate Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman) to bring order out of the danger and chaos that is Eastside High. Always up for a challenge, Joe has less than a full school year to accomplish a miracle to get a 75% passing score for the school on the statewide proficiency test (the school begins at 33% passing). Joe’s methods are harsh and beyond dictatorial: he brooks no protests as he casts out recalcitrant students who have been taking up space for more than five years, ejecting the drug dealers and pimps who had previously lined the hallways and classrooms, and demanding that his three hundred-teacher staff work overtime to revitalize school spirit in the place. He breaks laws and demands total obedience, and many in the neighborhood are up in arms over Joe’s brusque, brutal methods of regaining control. One outraged parent Leona Barett (Lynne Thigpen) makes it her mission to bring Joe down, but as she works threateningly behind the scenes, Eastside High begins a slow and steady march toward legitimacy.
Michael Schiffer’s screenplay packs a wallop as we see Joe, with bullhorn in hand, outshout and outmaneuver the thugs and no-accounts who had been heading a reign of terror at the school. Schiffer doesn’t paint Joe as a saint; he’s not always in the right (he fires the chorus teacher (Robin Bartlett) who tries to stand up to him, replaces the black football coach and English teacher (Michael Beach) for daring to move when he demanded stillness, padlocks the school doors to keep out the dealers, and is sparse with credit and appreciation to his hardworking staff), but it’s all for a greater good in Joe’s eyes: to restore pride from students and parents in the school and to make headway toward gaining that proficiency that will keep state officials out of their building. A few students are chosen for special attention to show how things are turning around at the school: Thomas Sams (Jermaine Hopkins) is allowed to return on probation after being tossed out for openly smoking crack, Keneesha Carter (Karen Malina White) is struggling with problems at home and comes to her former fifth grade principal Mr. Clark for help. Director John G. Avildsen helms it all with unfussy authority, and stages a couple of masterfully eye-opening scenes: a group of boys caught in the bathroom are there not for mischief but to practice the school song that they deliver in surprising fashion, and Clark heads a massive revivalistic pep rally in the auditorium an hour before the final state exam led by the new chorus teacher (Regina Taylor) leading the singing of the title song. There’s a big stumble in the plotting near the climax: the angry, vindictive Mrs. Barett heads a protest at the school board meeting demanding Clark’s removal before the final results of the exam are revealed, as if he wouldn’t get some credit for positive results even if he were fired. A supportive student body protest outside the meeting hall ends that farcical development.
Morgan Freeman offers a galvanizing performance as Joe Clark with long, haranguing speeches at students, staff, parents, and town officials, a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination had he not also starred in that year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, Driving Miss Daisy, earning his Oscar nomination for it instead. While all of the other performances in the film are notably and professionally handled, none of the other characters are explored in any deep sense in order for their performers to display multiple layers to their personas. Robert Guillaume as the wily school superintendent, Beverly Todd as Clark’s assistant principal Ms. Levias, and Karen Malina White as troubled student Keneesha Carter come closest to rounded characterizations. Lynn Thigpen’s vituperative Leonna Barrett is one-note, but it’s a powerful one.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is faithfully delivered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Though there are occasional soft shots that seem out of place as if the focus puller erred, most of the image is first-rate and very detailed. Close-ups reveal lots of expressive facial features and hair textures, and color is balanced and always true. The movie has been divided into 25 chapters.
Audio: 4.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound mix offers a reasonably wide soundstage with very good if not quite sterling fidelity. The mix lacks much bass even with a profusion of rap and other music styles on the soundtrack, but dialogue is always discernible, and sound effects come through loudly and clearly. There are no problems with hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter.
Special Features: 1/5
Theatrical Trailer: (1:28, SD)
Overall: 3.5/5
John G. Avildsen’s Lean on Me is one of those audience pleasers that satisfies viewers even with a screenplay that sometimes grates or seems one-sided and overly manipulative. The Warner Archive Blu-ray release is very good and deserves to be seen.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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