An earnest, well-made story about English social change post WWII, or someone trying to fit in and succeeding.
I'm from a lower-middle-class London family and won a scholarship to a minor English public (US private) school in the late 60's, so I can identify with Jack Read, the 23-year-old Richard Attenborough skilfully playing a slightly chunky 13, who does the same just after WWII. The premise of the film is the standard fish-out-of-water shtick, where Jack arrives at a snooty boys' school founded by Henry VIII. Everybody but Jack has a plummy English accent and looks down their noses at him, and he only finds one ally in the progressive new teacher Mr. Lawrence Lorraine, one of whose legs has been shot off. I'm not sure which leg, as his limp varies. Mr. Lorraine encourages Jack to 'stick at it', despite deciding to resign himself.
The film starts to appear something of a defence of the institution and its customs, including caning, bullying and ritual humiliation. Jack's efforts to fit in and move up the class system while sticking up for himself are complementary to the downward changes that the stuffy and snobbish, but picturesque and proud school - much like Mr. Chips' Brookfield - needs to make in England's post WWII democratisation (however short-lived that was).
After about an hour, Jack's Walthamstow accent becomes distinctly RADA, and he begins to have some success with the ladies, particularly the sweet young thing Miss Beckett in the village bookshop. Meanwhile, the debate about whether money for scholarships for the underprivileged is a good or a bad thing continues. Yep, it's not exactly 'Die Hard'.
Jack's parents resolve to scrape together the £1000(!) to send Jack to Cambridge, and when they attend a school tea party, the deference of the lower class to the status quo is complete. At this point TGP loses focus and becomes a love story about Mr. Lorraine.
SPOILER: In the movie's Mr. Chips-like redemption of the uptight, miserable housemaster Mr. Hartley, the money is (possibly) found to pay for Jack to go on to do a degree and become a teacher. Those were the days.
So in the end, the guinea pig himself is altered and conforms to the system, whose faults are only of rigidity, and everyone lives happily ever after. This wasn't my experience.
I'm from a lower-middle-class London family and won a scholarship to a minor English public (US private) school in the late 60's, so I can identify with Jack Read, the 23-year-old Richard Attenborough skilfully playing a slightly chunky 13, who does the same just after WWII. The premise of the film is the standard fish-out-of-water shtick, where Jack arrives at a snooty boys' school founded by Henry VIII. Everybody but Jack has a plummy English accent and looks down their noses at him, and he only finds one ally in the progressive new teacher Mr. Lawrence Lorraine, one of whose legs has been shot off. I'm not sure which leg, as his limp varies. Mr. Lorraine encourages Jack to 'stick at it', despite deciding to resign himself.
The film starts to appear something of a defence of the institution and its customs, including caning, bullying and ritual humiliation. Jack's efforts to fit in and move up the class system while sticking up for himself are complementary to the downward changes that the stuffy and snobbish, but picturesque and proud school - much like Mr. Chips' Brookfield - needs to make in England's post WWII democratisation (however short-lived that was).
After about an hour, Jack's Walthamstow accent becomes distinctly RADA, and he begins to have some success with the ladies, particularly the sweet young thing Miss Beckett in the village bookshop. Meanwhile, the debate about whether money for scholarships for the underprivileged is a good or a bad thing continues. Yep, it's not exactly 'Die Hard'.
Jack's parents resolve to scrape together the £1000(!) to send Jack to Cambridge, and when they attend a school tea party, the deference of the lower class to the status quo is complete. At this point TGP loses focus and becomes a love story about Mr. Lorraine.
SPOILER: In the movie's Mr. Chips-like redemption of the uptight, miserable housemaster Mr. Hartley, the money is (possibly) found to pay for Jack to go on to do a degree and become a teacher. Those were the days.
So in the end, the guinea pig himself is altered and conforms to the system, whose faults are only of rigidity, and everyone lives happily ever after. This wasn't my experience.