Lean on Me is a 1989 biographical-drama film written by Michael Schiffer, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Morgan Freeman. Lean on Me is loosely based on the story of Joe Clark, a real life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, whose school is at risk of being taken over by the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores. This film's title refers to the 1972 Bill Withers song of the same name.
History
Morgan Freeman spent time with Clark to capture his mannerisms and sayings. Clark resigned as principal of Eastside High School the year after this film was released to become an author and motivational speaker. In August 1995, he was hired to run a juvenile detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Parts of the film, including the elementary school scenes, were filmed in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
Plot summary
Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, is plagued with numerous problems, especially those dealing with drugs and gang violence. Furthermore, the students are receiving low scores on the state's basic skills test.
During the opening credits sequence (in 1987), after the principal is brutally beaten by students for trying to break up a fight, Mayor Bottman (Alan North) consults school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier, (Robert Guillaume), who suggests the school hire elementary school principal Joe Clark aka "Crazy Joe" (Freeman), who was a teacher at Eastside High 20 years ago, as the new principal. The mayor is reluctant at first, knowing about trouble Clark has caused in the past. But Clark is hired and things immediately get tense after Clark dismisses from the school hundreds of students identified as drug dealers or abusers and troublemakers. A meeting between the parents of those students and the academic board only fans the flames.
The next day, Clark runs into one of the expelled youths, Thomas Sams (Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins), asking to be let back into the school. In a dramatic rooftop scene, Clark gives him a sharp lecture about crack and what can happen to Sams if he kept on using it. Clark then threatens Sams to commit suicide by jumping off the roof, but Sams, breaking down in tears, refuses and make a promise to clean up his act. Clark reluctantly grants him a second chance to turn things around. Another dismissed student manages to get inside the school and attack another student before Clark comes to break up the fight. Knowing he is breaking the fire code, Clark orders all doors chained and locked during school hours to keep drug dealers out. Also, the students show no improvement in taking a practice version of the basic skills test (Passing was 35% below, according to Ms. Barret near the end of the movie).[clarification needed]
Clark does not put up with teachers who disagree with him either, especially those who do so in front of the students. One of his rash firings is reversed by the superintendent. Meanwhile, one parent whose son was expelled from Eastside by Clark, Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen) aligns herself with the mayor in an effort to oust Clark. The fire chief eventually catches Clark not just for having chains on the doors, but conspiring to have them removed during surprise inspections. Interestingly, Clark would not let the fire chief in each time the chief was over there.
Clark's arrest comes after a key scene involving Kaneesha (Karen Malina White), who remembers Clark from grade school. Clark is offering counsel about Kaneesha's unplanned pregnancy just before he is arrested.
That night, while Clark is in jail and the mayor is preparing to remove him, the entire student body converges on the Central Office of the Paterson Board of Education. They demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal.
Eventually, Clark is freed from custody, and to good news: enough students passed the basic skills exam which results in the current administration retaining control over the school. With that, Clark shuns both Mrs. Barrett and the mayor: "You can tell the State to go to hell!" Then Clark leads his students in singing Eastside High's school song (several scenes throughout the movie find Clark insisting that each student be taught to perform the school song on demand). The closing credits feature scenes of graduating Eastside High Class of 1988 seniors.
Cast
Trivia
Joe Clark is the father of Olympic track athletes Joetta Clark-Diggs and Hazel Clark, and the father-in-law of Olympic track athlete Jearl Miles Clark.
The cast of the film includes the reunion of former Benson co-stars Robert Guillaume and Ethan Phillips.
While some real-life students and teachers from Eastside High School appeared as extras in this film, most of the student extras were brought in from surrounding towns.
Michael Best, Stephen Capers Jr., Dwayne Jones, and Kenneth Kelly (who portray the students that Clark forces to learn the school song on threat of suspension) formed the R&B group Riff after their involvement in this film.
In the auditorium scene where Freeman's character expels the students on stage, a young Michael Imperioli (of The Sopranos) can be seen behind him.
Director John G. Avildsen's son Anthony appears in the movie's prologue, as one of Joe Clark's students at Eastside in 1967.
A young Hank Azaria portrays one of the fire chief's cronies.
Prior to filming, Morgan Freeman spent time with the real life Joe Clark, and applied some of his mannerisms and sayings into the film.
Beverly Todd (who plays Mrs. Levias in this movie) reunites with Morgan Freeman 18 years later, playing the role of his wife in the 2007 movie, The Bucket List.
Awards and nominations
1991 NAACP Image Awards
- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Morgan Freeman (won)
- Outstanding Motion Picture (won)
1990 Young Artist Awards
- Young Artist Award Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated)
- Best Young Actor Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins (nominated)
- Best Young Actress Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Karen Malina White (nominated)
- Jackie Coogan Award – Norman Twain, producer (nominated)
Accuracy and liberties
This being a movie, certain creative liberties were taken with names, people, and story and time lines.
Many of the events depicted in the movie while based on actual events, did not occur over the course of just one school year as alluded to in the movie. They occurred over the course of Mr. Clark's tenure at Eastside.[1]
Further, the main plot of movie -- the school being on the verge of a take over by the state if the test scores did not improve -- was untrue. There was never any threat of a state takeover of Eastside High, though the state designated the Paterson Public Schools district as an Abbott District in 1991, one year after Clark left, taking over its operations.[2] Paterson Public Schools were taken over by the State of New Jersey along with two other school districts. It remains under state control today along with being an Abbott district. The film was also inspired from the daily violence that took place at Mount Pleasant High a local public school in Wilmington, Delaware. A few students did achieve success and went on to enroll in Ivy league schools.
Though violence did decrease at the school during Clark's reign, the test scores did not significantly increase as depicted in the film.[citation needed]
The auditorium scene where Clark expels the students did not happen but Clark did expel 300 students for fighting, vandalism, drug possession, profanity, or abusing teachers on a single day during his first week at Eastside.[citation needed] He explains, "If there is no discipline, there is anarchy. Good citizenship demands attention to responsibilities as well as rights."[3]
The scene where students protested when Clark was arrested and jailed never happened[citation needed] but four hundred students did march on the school board office in response to the board suspension of Mr. Clark.[1]
The mayor of Paterson at the time was named Frank X. Graves, not Botolman.[citation needed]
Clark's nemesis in the movie, Mrs. Barrett, did not exist.[citation needed]
The football coach (Mr. Olsen, not named Darnell) was fired as coach not for losing games but for allowing academically ineligible students to play. As depicted in the movie, he was and continued to be a teacher at the school.[4]
The girl's basketball coach was fired for walking around during the school song. The movie depicts teacher and former football coach Mr. Darnell as being suspended for moving during the singing.[4]
Ms. Joan Levias was actually a white female secretary, however she was portrayed by a black actor for certain unknown reasons.
References
External links
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