Lean on Me

2 Pages 496 Words

The movie that I chose to evaluate is “Lean on Me” starring Morgan Freeman. I chose this movie because it is my favorite of all time. I have watched this movie it seems like a million times and just this semester it dawned on me that my beloved movie had some serious problems in it. The movie is based on a true story of a principal’s battles to make a true place of education out of the no mans land that is called Eastside High in Patterson, New Jersey. In its glory days Eastside High was the crown jewel in the educational system of Patterson. Afterwards it became one of the worst schools in the nation. To turn things around the superintendent, Dr. Napier devised a plan to bring the one man who he felt could turn the school back to prominence, former Army drill instructor Joe Louis Clark. The movie chronicles the battles that Clarks makes and endures to instill pride, respect and education in the students of Eastside High. At first I applauded all of Mr. Clark’s actions but it took the discussions from our Race, Gender and Media class to inspire me to take a real second look at my favorite movie. After further evaluation I was able to see that stereotypes, hegemony and sexism usage was pervasive throughout the movie.
Throughout this movie there were many stereotypes that stood out. There was the minorities that were drug dealers and users, Latino’s that had short tempers and white students that couldn’t sing as good as the black students. The proof can be found when Mr. Clark comes to the school and demands that all of the drug dealers, users and miscreants be placed on stage for a surprise. When all of the delinquents are rounded up the camera pans across the stage and all you see are the faces of minorities. From the “thuggish” black male to the “greasy” Latinos it was quite shocking to see that only minorities dealt drugs. According to Tim Wise there are far more Caucasians that use/sell drugs than minorities but ...