This movie was released when I was nine. Though many people would think it was not appropriate for a child that young, I was an extremely precocious child and understood it. i have seen it many times since and understand it more as the decades have passed. In many ways, this movie shows the bridging of the 1930's with the youth movement of the 1960's. In both eras, ideas flourished that may have been against the status quo, but brought forth a new understanding of life and the choices youths and others made in those eras. As others have already stated more eloquently than I, Maggie Smith gives one of the most brilliant performances I have ever seen. But the movie is not just about her, though she plays the title role. Pamela Franklin as sandy, the student who "betrays" her, is magnificent, showing all the emotions of a girl who is going through adolescence being driving by a whirlwind she cannot control and ultimately, cannot accept. Why she was not even nominated for an Academy Award as supporting actress, I will never know. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. I have read reviews stating that Robert Stephens, as the art master, was somewhat wooden. I totally disagree. His character was also driven by the force of Jean Brodie, and while he could stop her himself, knew what had to be done. The story of a teacher in a school for girls who molds those minds to the things in life she finds important-beauty, art, truth? (Maybe her truth, but isn't all truth subjective?) she comes up against the student who ultimately cannot believe in everything Miss Brodie has taught. And yet, even in destroying that teachers' career, she still feels sympathy and even admiration for this woman ("What will you do? Now...?" This is a film that will make you think, which in my opinion, is what the best movies do.
Review of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
