Anyone who has seen Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing will have remembered that it was introduced by Public Enemy’s then-current song Fight the Power, a song that revealed to the world the sound of the culture and generation that was depicted in the film. The song was an aggressive, angry, critical piece -- the combination of the sound and the lyrics, and the combination of that with the characters -- a multiracial group that, by the end of the movie, descends into violence and racism -- would have certainly scared, or angered, uptight people from a previous generation.

Of course, now, a song like Fight the Power isn’t as “scary” as any of the rap songs from today, from Eminem and the like, just as the songs from before Fight the Power are seen as harmless little pieces of music. Even all those crazy heavy-metal songs from the 80’s that parents and the like were so concerned about are considered innocuous fare nowadays. Go back even further, to the 70’s, 60’s, and even to the 50’s, and the further you go back, the more tame the music seems. It is almost hard to believe that someone like Elvis was considered controversial.

Go even further back, and you’ll get one of the most famous early rock and roll songs -- Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock”. Could one imagine a time when this was considered provocative? When putting it in a movie would have actually caused a bit of an uproar? Well, it has happened -- way back in 1955, with the film Blackboard Jungle. The opening credits are accompanied by this song -- nowadays, we’d hear it with nostalgia. Back then, it probably would have been the equivalent of..... well, of hearing Fight the Power over the opening titles, especially considering the nature of this movie.......

Glenn Ford is a guy who decides to enter the teaching profession, but he picks a bad place to start a career, when he manages to get a job at one of the worst schools around, the sort where everybody seems to be a budding delinquent, and one of the cynical lessons told by another teacher is to never turn your back on the class. On Ford’s first day, he experiences students who seem not to give a crap about class, or the teacher -- specifically, two of the students garner Ford’s special attention and frustration, the characters played by Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier. Ford first sees Poitier smoking in the boy’s room, and, in class, Morrow gives Ford a particularly difficult time, by just being uncooperative. In both cases, Ford finds himself unable to react except by anger and contempt..... he is in danger of becoming as frightened or hateful of his students as the other teachers are.

Things get even worse when a student, or students, do worse than just give him a hard time in class. Ford and another teacher are beaten up in an alley, after Ford subdued a student earlier on for trying to assault a female teacher in the library. Later on, he is sent to the principal’s office after this mysterious student deliberately twists Ford’s words about racial bigotry to make it look as if he, the teacher, was the racist. And Ford’s wife, having already suffered a miscarriage, and currently carrying another child, is getting these anonymous letters linking Ford romantically with that very same female teacher who was attacked in the library.

The one issue I had with the film was how little time it spent with the teacher actually getting his students to be somewhat interested in learning. Unlike some of the later movies about teaching (such as To Sir with Love, with Poitier), Blackboard Jungle is really more interested in the environment, in the shock value (as this would have been shocking in 1955) of teenagers being violent and antisocial. The issue is more whether Ford, despite the violence and abuse he receives, will accept the challenge of teaching these seemingly hopeless cases, or give up entirely. The movie doesn’t give us a whole lot of hope that the problem will be fixed right away, although Poitier’s character turns out to be the one with the most hope, as Ford discovers that he at least spends his after-school hours working, rather than causing trouble like Morrow and his pals. Ford discovers that all some people need is a little more direction, a little more belief that they can get further in life -- that not all of these kids are bad apples.

The movie is quite rough for its time. The students are rude, and violent. The attack of the female teacher in the library is quite vivid enough for you to know that if it went any further that it would be a rape . And the violence (with switchblades and blood in the forefront) at the end of the film takes place in the classroom. Racism rears its ugly head as well, with the epithets heard by all -- what is interesting about this sequence is that, after the teacher is falsely accused of preaching racism in his class, Ford naturally suspects Poitier, who successfully embarrasses him into realizing that even the teacher, so defensive about the racial charge, isn’t perfect either.

There isn’t really any suspense to this film, as it’s perfectly clear who the culprit of many of the acts toward the teacher is. And of course, being a 50’s movie, the attitude is more conservative, and the acting, writing, and directing styles are on par with 50’s Hollywood. But don’t think that this film is dated in very many ways, because the more things change, the more they stay the same. The music may have changed, but the issues haven’t, not really. Inner-city schools still have these sorts of problems (or so I hear; I don’t exactly live in an urban jungle), and violence, apathy and the like still exist with some members of the young generation. This time, however, the kids will probably be bringing guns into school, not mere knives.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV