Themes: Existential Crisis, High School Life, Teachers and Students
Main Cast: Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams, Judd Hirsch, Ralph Macchio, Lee Grant
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Arthur Hiller directed this satiric look at contemporary urban high schools, examining disillusioned teachers who try to regain their idealism. Nick Nolte stars as Alex, a teacher at John Fitzgerald Kennedy High School, who was once an idealistic teacher but whose main concern now is sobering up before the next class session. The high school is headed by ineffective principal Mr. Horn (William Schallert) and an imperious vice-principal named Roger (Judd Hirsch). When a recent graduate of the high school sues the school because it graduated him illiterate, Alex finds himself in conflict with the hard-nosed school superintendent Dr. Burke (Lee Grant). The high school heats up even more when Alex falls in love with Lisa (JoBeth Williams), the attractive lawyer who was once one of Alex's honor students. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Arthur Hiller's Teachers contains -- or more appropriately, fails to keep contained -- every single issue that could conceivably face the contemporary high school. In turn it serves as a preview of the feverish sensationalism otherwise known as Boston Public, David E. Kelley's overly topical TV drama that would arrive 15 years later. But, earnest moments aside, Teachers is more clearly a satire. One teacher makes his students face the opposite direction and quietly work while he reads the paper; a second attacks her colleague with the squirted blue ink from a mimeograph machine; a third carries a gun in her briefcase. And did we mention there's an escaped mental patient working as a substitute? Teachers stays on top of this messy abundance of subplots by way of its good humor, plus an all-star cast fronted by Nick Nolte and JoBeth Williams. Solid professionals like Judd Hirsch, Morgan Freeman and Richard Mulligan also keep it from going off the rails as issue after issue collide. At the same time, Teachers can't be taken seriously enough to work as a real inspirational film, which it also wants to be. Nolte's best efforts aside, Teachers is working too hard at grappling with its spectrum of hot-button educational issues, featuring all the character archetypes required to dramatize them, to seem like much more than a highlight reel of disastrous incidents. The standard components are shoe-horned in with a basic competency that sometimes approaches real likeability. But Teachers' enduring role is more academic; it's as a first-rate example of a certain catch-all philosophy popular in 1980s filmmaking. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Richard Mulligan - Herbert; Allen Garfield - Rosenberg; Royal Dano - Ditto; William Schallert - Horn; Crispin Glover - Danny; Zohra Lampert - Mrs. Pilikian; Katherine Balfour - Theresa; Art Metrano - Troy; Laura Dern - Diane; Mary Alice - Linda Ganz; Vivian Bonnell - Nurse; Wilbert Bradley - Guard; Bernard Canepari - Cop; Virginia Capers - Landlady; Ellen Crawford - Social Worker; Ron Dean - Guard; Zaid Farid - Cop; Aaron Freeman - Brinkman; Patricia Gaul - Lowe; Anthony Heald - Narc; Steven Hill - Sloan; Ronald Hunter - Mr. Pilikian; Stephen Mendillo - Lecture Cop; Madeleine Sherwood - Grace; Virginia Smith - Lee; Dick Sollenberger - Attendant; Simon Williams - Attendant; Will Zahrn - Cop; Richard Zobel - Propes; Morgan Freeman - Lewis; Mary Louise Wilson - Teacher; Julia Jennings - The Blonde; Andrew Ream - Henson; Jeff Ware - Malloy; Phillip S. Wilson - Teacher; Tony Lincoln - Guard; Paul Zegler - Attendant
Credit
Art Levinson - Associate Producer, Ruth Myers - Costume Designer, Michele Neely - Costume Designer, Norman Burza - Costume Designer, L. Andrew Stone - First Assistant Director, Arthur Hiller - Director, Don Zimmerman - Editor, Irwin Russo - Executive Producer, Jerry Jost - Musical Direction/Supervision, 38 Special - Songwriter, Joe Cocker - Songwriter, Night Ranger - Songwriter, ZZ Top - Songwriter, Bob Seger - Songwriter, Richard Macdonald - Production Designer, David M. Walsh - Cinematographer, Aaron Russo - Producer, Irwin Russo - Producer, John M. Dwyer - Set Designer, Jerry Jost - Sound/Sound Designer, W.R. McKinney - Screenwriter
The film opens with a typical Monday morning at JFK High School, "typical" events including a fight between teachers, a student with a stab wound and talk of an upcoming lawsuit. We meet haggard Vice Principal Rubell (Hirsch) and clueless Principal Horn, as well as stuffy lawyer and former JFK alumna Lisa Hammond (Williams), who is in charge of taking depositions for the Calvin case, in which a recent graduate is suing the school for giving him a diploma despite his illiteracy.
Alex Jurel (played by Nick Nolte) is a veteran Social Studies teacher who takes his job lightly despite being one of the most popular teachers in school because of his ability to identify and connect with the students. Jurel has been worn down by years of being in-between the rowdy students and the demands of the administration (principal, vice principal, superintendent, and school board). He is assigned to temporarily take over the duties of the school psychologist (who started a fight in the office) and meets a young man named Eddie Pilikian (Macchio) to whom he becomes a mentor.
The major plotline centers on the Calvin lawsuit, with Superintendent Donna Burke (Lee Grant) and school lawyer Al Lewis (Morgan Freeman) attempting to avoid bad publicity associated with the case. To this end, they try to figure out which teachers will "rock the boat," or are critical of the school board policies. Intertwined with the major storyline are Jurel's efforts to reform Pilikian into a student who believes in himself and Jurel's growing moral conundrum that ultimately culminates in a showdown with Dr. Burke, who threatens to fire Jurel if he does not resign.
A number of minor plotlines deviate from the primary goings-on. These include Herbert Gower/Stuart Van Ark (Richard Mulligan), an outpatient from a mental institution who is accidentally put in charge of a U.S. History class and makes it fun and engaging; gym teacher Mr. Troy’s sexual relationship with a student that ends with Jurel taking the girl to an abortion clinic (a decision that later comes back to haunt him); and the death of Eddie Pilikian’s friend Danny (Crispin Glover), who is shot and killed by the police after he draws a gun from his locker during a drug search. A romance also begins between Jurel and the attorney Lisa Hammond (who at one point srips herself naked in the middle of a hallway). Lisa ultimately convinces Jurel that despite their many flaws, the students of JFKHS are worth risking reputation and career.
