You're gonna get paid to learn, but you're gonna have to learn how to take it and then get over it. That's the gist of Sidney Poitier teaching poor young adults in one of the three films that he did with Bill Cosby in the 1970's, starting off as a typical crime caper film and turning into the reverse of the Pink Floyd song "We don't need no education". The heart of the film comes an hour into which when portia takes this group of young adults and really gets them to put their attitudes away and revealed their souls.
Prior to that, there's a scene where teacher Hope Clarke is told off by student Sheryl Lee Ralph and tears up in front of the whole class at this community center because of her own fear that she's in a dead end career. It doesn't ring true, not to say that it couldn't happen but unlikely. Poitier witnesses this, and for the first time sees a purpose as to why him and Cosby were given a community service sentence to work there by police officer James Earl Jones.
Ralph, who would go on to a glamorous Broadway career, is tough as nails in this and she's not even barely of age to vote or drink. Her complaints about the black middle class not understanding what life in the ghetto is about is however a complaint that I could see being made today about inner city social work. The issue of the fact that the students and faculty of this community center are unaware of why Poitier and Cosby are there is definitely the plot resolution that needs to be seen.
Definitely not a blaxploitation film in the extent others in that genre of the 1970's, this definitely had mainstream appeal that crossed over because Poitier and Cosby were A listers and appealed to most filmgoers. Poitier definitely gets the better material and is as great as he was in "To Sir With Love". How he teaches these youngsters is amazing, and there are life lessons that are as fresh nearly fifty years later. Still in many ways this feels like a wishful thinking dream, but hey, dreams sometimes are better than reality.
Prior to that, there's a scene where teacher Hope Clarke is told off by student Sheryl Lee Ralph and tears up in front of the whole class at this community center because of her own fear that she's in a dead end career. It doesn't ring true, not to say that it couldn't happen but unlikely. Poitier witnesses this, and for the first time sees a purpose as to why him and Cosby were given a community service sentence to work there by police officer James Earl Jones.
Ralph, who would go on to a glamorous Broadway career, is tough as nails in this and she's not even barely of age to vote or drink. Her complaints about the black middle class not understanding what life in the ghetto is about is however a complaint that I could see being made today about inner city social work. The issue of the fact that the students and faculty of this community center are unaware of why Poitier and Cosby are there is definitely the plot resolution that needs to be seen.
Definitely not a blaxploitation film in the extent others in that genre of the 1970's, this definitely had mainstream appeal that crossed over because Poitier and Cosby were A listers and appealed to most filmgoers. Poitier definitely gets the better material and is as great as he was in "To Sir With Love". How he teaches these youngsters is amazing, and there are life lessons that are as fresh nearly fifty years later. Still in many ways this feels like a wishful thinking dream, but hey, dreams sometimes are better than reality.