It's not only a teacher's downfall:it's also the twilight of a teaching,not only a way of teaching but also the teaching of dead languages.Half a century ago,Latin and Greek were the elite's pride.Now they have been dethroned by mathematics and science,... and English in the countries where the first language is not that of Shakespeare.The science teacher just happens to be a young "modern" smiling dude,whereas Finney's successor is an older man who does not seem that much funny .
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This movie destroys a cliché: the lit(or language or history) teacher is liberal,the science teacher is a bore (check the notorious "dead poet society").Finney is called the "Hitler of the low sixth-form" and hated by both his students and his colleagues.It's the actor's performance which gives the movie substance.All that surrounds him is not that much great:cardboard characters such as his principal,his wife ,her lover et al, the umpteenth version of the posh school.
But Albert Finney's rendering is extremely moving.He remains sparing of gestures and of words.When he's given a present (first time by one of his students ,"the Browning version" of a Greek drama),he understands that you 're never a wash-out when at least,you've enriched a human being 's mind.And when he publicly criticizes himself,the standing ovation he gets shows that the assembly has finally understood the mote and the beam parable.Compares favorably with the first version.
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This movie destroys a cliché: the lit(or language or history) teacher is liberal,the science teacher is a bore (check the notorious "dead poet society").Finney is called the "Hitler of the low sixth-form" and hated by both his students and his colleagues.It's the actor's performance which gives the movie substance.All that surrounds him is not that much great:cardboard characters such as his principal,his wife ,her lover et al, the umpteenth version of the posh school.
But Albert Finney's rendering is extremely moving.He remains sparing of gestures and of words.When he's given a present (first time by one of his students ,"the Browning version" of a Greek drama),he understands that you 're never a wash-out when at least,you've enriched a human being 's mind.And when he publicly criticizes himself,the standing ovation he gets shows that the assembly has finally understood the mote and the beam parable.Compares favorably with the first version.