Lean on Me starring Morgan Freeman
Director: John G. Avildsen


Essential Actor / Actresses Here

Amazon.com
Rocky director John Avildsen championed the briefly famous New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark in this upbeat 1989 drama. Morgan Freeman plays the tough-love educator who wields a baseball bat and bullhorn to keep discipline in his hallways and to motivate underachieving students to keep their acts together. After establishing Clark's controversial methods and showing him giving some punks the boot, Avildsen relies on the usual school-drama clichés to fill out the rest of the movie, including a challenge to Clark's philosophy from timid authorities. Freeman makes a strong impact as Clark, his dignity and integrity a sometimes awesome thing. Avildsen, however, is going for a Rocky-esque emotional crescendo.

Synopsis
Based on actual events, "Lean on Me" tells the story of Joe Clark, a tough disciplinarian hired to run the worst school in Paterson, New Jersey. To make sure his students would pass a basic proficiency exam, Clark resorted to what some felt were questionable methods -- including wandering the halls threateningly with a baseball bat -- to restore order to his school. The film chronicles these extreme tactics, but it also shows Clark's success, which resulted in the school remaining under the town's jurisdiction rather than being placed under the state's control.

Video Description
Based on the true story of Joe Clark, an obsessed, disciplinarian of a principal who had a mandate. In one school year, he had to turn a snake pit of a high school into a halfway civilized place of learning, populated by passable students.

Video Annotation
Shot on location at Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey and in New York City. Clark was an educator who had been in the New Jersey Public School system for over 20 years when he took over Eastside High School. His first act of discipline at Eastside was to systematically expel all those students with a reputation for dealing drugs and excesssive misbehavior.

 

 

 

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