School Ties is a 1992 film directed by Robert Mandel that launched the acting careers of Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell and Cole Hauser. Randall Batinkoff and Anthony Rapp also appear in the film.
Brendan Fraser plays the lead role as David Greene, a Jewish high-school student who transfers from a Pennsylvania public school to a New England prep school in his senior year after he is awarded an athletic scholarship.
Plot Description
David Greene (Fraser) is a working-class Jewish teenager from Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1955, who is given an unusual football scholarship to become the school's starting quarterback at an exclusive Massachusetts Protestant prep school, St. Matthew's, or St. Matt's.
In this film about coming of age and prejudice, Greene's Jewish heritage is first insulted outside a hometown hangout and he challenges the bigoted biker who insulted him, leading to a fight where David beats up the biker. It is after this that his father (Ed Lauter) tells him that he "can't fight his way through life like this" even if his Jewish background is denigrated; this is, after all, his big chance to go to Harvard.
Greene is exposed to prejudice from his first day at his new school. His new football coach, Coach McDevitt, drives him onto the campus. His coach, awkwardly asks about any special "dietary" needs David might have, presumably because of his Jewish background and stresses to not to tell the other boys any more about himself than he has to. When he meets the "other big men on campus" - Dillon, Connors, Van Kelt and Reece (his roommate) - he becomes aware of their feelings towards Jews in a conversation about team follower McGivern's new hi-fi that McGivern bought when he "Jewed down" the seller from $40 to $30.
Greene finds his faith tested when he attends Protestant chapel and when he must choose between going to temple for Rosh Hashanah as his father wishes and playing football. He copes with this second challenge by playing the game where he establishes himself as the team's leader and throws a long touchdown pass late in the 4th quarter to give St. Matt's a 13-7 win in the game, and later that night reciting Jewish prayers in the chapel in honor of Rosh Hashanah. Dr. Bartram, the headmaster, catches him in the chapel after lights out and asks him if winning the big game was worth "breaking a tradition" to which Greene responds "My tradition or yours?"
Beyond dealing with religious prejudice this film deals with social prejudices, abuse of power, and the concept of honor. Fairly early on in the film, it becomes clear that although they are gifted by the circumstances of birth, not all of Greene's classmates are gifted academically. McGivern struggles with French and it is in his struggle that we see what happens when one person abuses the power he or she has over another. McGivern is given a recitation of a passage that counts for a large portion of his final grade in Mr. Cleary's French class. Clearly nervous, McGivern stumbles over the translation several times and Cleary berates him (in French) repeatedly. McGivern is unable to complete the recitation and runs out of the classroom. Later he is found on the floor, having a nervous breakdown. In this section of the film there also a scene where Dillon makes a comment about Greene being a survivor and Dillon being forced to live up to the implications of being a Dillon. Dillon tells David he envies him because if David gets what he wants, he'll have deserved it—while if he doesn't, he'll manage anyway. Dillon, on the other hand, is forced to live up to expectations. "If my name weren't Dillon, things would be different."
It is Dillon's character and struggles in history class that brings the concept of honor as well as the expression of full blown prejudice into the forefront. The root of Dillon's problems with Greene can be found on the football field, where Dillon feels that Greene plays a position that was meant for him, proves to be good at it, and therefore receives attention from both his classmates and Dillon's girlfriend, Sally Wheeler. After a particularly spectacular struggle between Dillon and Greene on the football field in which Greene is forced to make Dillon look bad during the big St. Matt's v. St. Luke's game, Greene's religion is revealed. Dillon finds Sally and David dancing together at an aftergame reception and when he tries to pull Sally away from Greene, he is rebuffed by Sally, who tells him "I'm not your girl." Dillon then heads to the bar where he finds a St. Luke's alumnus needling a St. Matt's alumnus about bringing a Jewish player in to break St. Matt's losing streak. Overhearing this, Dillon later confronts David about his heritage by telling a joke about Jews and Pat Boone, and informing the group that David is, in his words, "a lying, backstabbing kike." A fight ensues between the two, broken up by Van Kelt and Reece. David finds himself ostracized by his teammates and friends.
Religious prejudice extends to all areas of Greene's life and makes the social prejudices more obvious as well. Things between Greene and Reece turn sour when Reece says he's angry David didn't tell him that he was Jewish, and responds to David's point that Reece has never talked about his Christian faith by saying "That's different." Reece insists that David could have told them that he was a Jew and that it wouldn't have made a difference, to which David mentions McGivern's remark on his first day at St. Matt's about "Jew[ing] Down" the guy he bought the hi-fi from and sarcastically says "Sure, it wouldn't have mattered." When Greene attempts to console Connors, who is accused of plagiarizing a French translation assignment, he is rebuffed. Sally refuses to speak to him and when he appears unexpectedly at her swim team practice, Sally dumps him, telling him that such a relationship "just can't happen." He is then insulted by his former friends during a meal session where they harass him for providing slow service in the cafeteria, where, as a working-class student, he has to work to help cover school expenses not covered by his scholarship. He goes back to his room that night to find a "Go Home Jew" sign above his bed with a swastika. He puts a note on the wall in the hallway, where the other boys are playing floor hockey, challenging whoever made the sign to meet him that night. The scene ends with him standing outside at night after lights out is called, waiting to fight whoever shows up. All the other boys in the dormatory look out their windows to see him standing in the rain. When none of them have the guts to face him one on one, he yells "Cowards!"
The climax of the film occurs when Dillon is caught cheating on a history test. Greene sees Dillon cheating, as does Van Kelt, but neither say anything about it despite signing an affirmation of the school's honor code pledging to reveal any cheaters that they discover. Dillon accidentally drops his crib sheet on the classroom floor and Mr. Gierasch, the history teacher, discovers it before Dillon realizes he lost it. During the next class, Gierasch announces that someone cheated, and due to the honor code, the history class themselves must determine justice.
David confronts Dillon about the cheating, and Dillon tries to bribe David not to tell anyone. David, however, is determined to set things straight. During a meeting the next morning with the rest of class, Dillon attempts to protect himself by accusing David of cheating, to which David responds by calling him a liar and protesting that it was Dillon who cheated. Greene and Dillon then leave so the rest of the class can decide their fates. After hours of debate and despite several of the boys defending David in spite of his being a Jew, the majority of the class finds that David cheated, either because he is Jewish (which they say is an example of the fact that he has a history of lying), or for fear that they will be ostracized for siding with him. David agrees to honor tradition and tell Dr. Bartram that he cheated.
The next morning, David goes to Bartram's office to confess, but Gierasch and Van Kelt are in the office and they intervene. Van Kelt admits he saw Dillon cheat. David states that he broke the honor code by not stating up front that he saw Dillon cheat (as did Van Kelt) but Bartram absolves them both on grounds that this is another evolution of the honor code and sufficient lessons have been learned. Dillon, however, is expelled from school.
Bartram then states that he wants to forget the whole thing ever happened, to which David replies "No, sir. You're never going to forget it happened. Because I'm going to stay here and every time you see me, you'll remember that it happened. You used me for football. I'll use you to get into Harvard." Later on, David encounters Dillon as he's leaving St. Matt's in disgrace. Dillon bitterly says that he's still going to get into Harvard and that years from now this will all be forgotten but that no matter what David accomplishes, he'll still be a Jew. David tells Dillon "And you'll still be a prick."
Cast
Production
Filming
- The scene at the bus depot in Scranton, Pennsylvania is actually filmed at a bus depot in downtown Leominster, Mass. The location still has Scranton, Penn. in the building's storefront.
- The scene shot at Skip's Blue Moon Diner was filmed in downtown Gardner, Massachusetts.
- Most of the movie was filmed on location at Middlesex School, in Concord, Massachusetts. In addition, Worcester Academy and St. Mark's School (both area prep schools) were also involved in the filming.
- Opening scenes are of the South and West sides of Wyandotte Street (RT.378 heading North), the Bethlehem Steel Plant and Zion Lutheran Church from the top of the graveyard looking Northwest to 4th Street. All on the South side of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
References
External links
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Films directed by Robert Mandel |
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| 1980s |
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| 1990s |
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| 2000s |
A Season on the Brink (2002)
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