 |
|||
 |
 |
||
 | |||
 | |||||||||||
|
|
Starring Edward James Olmos. This is the world's first drama based on the subject of calculus. I, personally, had enough trouble staying awake in my own high school calculus class, sitting next to a girl who would later pose naked for Playboy. Sit me down in front of a television screen with a movie centering on the high school careers of students in the barrios of east L.A. who, after learning how to add and subtract in their freshman year of high school, move on to study calculus in their junior and senior years and watch out, it's time to set the snooze alarm! Edward James Olmos stars as the caring teacher in Stand and Deliver. He quits his stable and well paying job that may, or may not have involved computers, and signs up to teach at your average, run-of-the-mill, gang infested high school in Los Angeles. Despite the fact that his students can barely count to twenty with their shoes off, Olmos has an unwavering faith in their natural mathematical ability. So he brings up the idea of teaching these students calculus to the school's principal, an idea that is received as well as if Olmos has suggested streaking Dodger Stadium during the playoffs. Nevertheless, since Olmos is willing to spend roughly 95% of his waking hours teaching for no extra pay, the principal relents and allows Olmos to teach calculus. For their part, the students are forced to attend their calculus class as if it were a full-time job, with lots of overtime. Occasionally, the tempers of Olmos and one of his students--namely Lou Diamond Phillips--flair up, providing the viewer with a brief respite from the constant tangent curves, derivatives, and d(x)'s that are invariably mentioned. Finally, after completing more schooling than several types of doctors practicing internal medicine, Olmos' students take the calculus Advanced Placement (A.P.) tests and score very well. However, the A.P. board, suspecting something nefarious, based on their "if you live in the ghetto, you can't do well in calculus" theory, discredit the scores. Then the students take the tests again, and again score very well, overcoming the surprising odds that were facing them solely because of their dedicated teacher. Yawn. This was one of the first Inner City High School movies to be released, not counting The Blackboard Jungle, and even as one of the pioneers of the genre, Stand and Deliver fails to set itself apart from the rest of the crowd. This film was based on a true story, but, thanks to Olmos' rather stubborn lead, and writer-director Ramon Menendez's tedious script and rather innocuous style of direction, Stand and Deliver can't escape the hole it dug for itself. Despite it's inspirational story, I'm just not sure that this material was meant to become a movie. After hearing the 25 word pitch, I'd nod and agree that the story was heart-warming, but an entire movie, basically set in a single, small classroom with the students learning calculus, just doesn't capture the same feeling. There aren't many mainstream films with predominately Hispanic cast and crew members, and in that respect Stand and Deliver was a pleasure to see, but the translation of the real life events to the silver screen is poor. This was the worst of the Inner City High School films, and released in 1988, merely a sin of things to come.
|
| |||||
