Teachers on Film
Anna and the King of Siam
The story of the King of Siam and the strong-willed English widow who teaches him how to live in a modern world, while educating the king's harem and children. Based on the biography by Margaret Landon.
Video - DVD
Belles of St. Trinians
A rip-roaring farce set among the uninhibited pupils of an unorthodox school. A sultan sends his daughter to St. Trinians because it is near his racehorse stables. One of the students kidnaps the sultan's prize mare and pandemonium ensues.
The Bells of St. Mary's
Father O'Malley the unconventional priest from "Going My Way" continues his work for the Catholic Church. This time he is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.
Video - DVD
Blackboard Jungle
Depicting life in an inner city high school in the 50's, this film was the first to utilize a rock 'n' roll soundtrack. A dedicated young teacher soon loses his idealism when he has to deal with the tensions that threaten to destroy his classroom.
Video - DVD
Children of a Lesser God
Love story about an idealistic special education teacher and a headstrong deaf student.
Video - DVD
The Corn is Green
A portrait of a middle-aged Englishwoman who tries to improve the lives of the needy, illiterate Welsh coal miners through education and learning.
Dangerous Minds
Based on an incredible true-life story -- Michelle Pfeiffer is former U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, a first-time high school teacher assigned to a class of tough but smart inner city students. When conventional methods fail to reach them, the feisty Ms. Johnson tries the unconventional -- defying the rules and creating her own curriculum! In the process, she instills a new self-confidence in her students -- motivating them toward their greatest potential. Critically acclaimed and powered by a riveting star performance, "Dangerous Minds" is hard-hitting, crowd-pleasing entertainment you won't soon forget!
Video - DVD
Dead Poets Society
English professor John Keating, in an age of crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest, exclaiming ... "Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!" The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm -- changing their lives forever.
DVD
Diabolique
An acknowledged influence on "Psycho," Henri-Georges Clouzot's horror classic is the story of a sadistic headmaster who brutalizes his fragile wife and his headstrong mistress. The two women murder him and dump his body in a swimming pool; when the pool is drained, no corpse is found.
Video - DVD
A Dry White Season
The politics of apartheid are put into meaningful, human terms in this critically acclaimed film about a prominent white schoolteacher who is awakened to the reality of South African justice.
Video - DVD
The Emperor's Club
In the honorable tradition of great teacher dramas like "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," Kevin Kline is well cast as Mr. Hundert, longtime teacher of classics and assistant headmaster of St. Benedict's Academy for Boys. There he encounters a defiant student and senator's son (Emile Hirsch) who desperately needs -- but ultimately rejects -- Hundert's lessons on leadership, integrity, and the shaping of character.
DVD
The Faculty
When some very creepy things start happening around school, the kids at Herrington High make a chilling discovery that confirms their worst suspicions: their teachers really are from another planet! As mind-controlling parasites rapidly begin spreading from the faculty to the students' bodies, it's ultimately up to the few who are left -- an unlikely collection of loners, leaders, nerds, and jocks -- to save the world from alien domination!
Video - DVD
Fahrenheit 451
Montag, a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Suddenly he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal safety and intellectual freedom.
Video - DVD
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
In 1870 Charles Edward Chipping is engaged as the new Latin master at Brookfield School where he leads a rather lackluster life. Then his friend Staefel persuades Chipping to accompany him on a walking tour of the Alps where he encounters Katherine Bridges, with whom he falls in love.
Video - DVD
Lean on Me
Based on the true story of new jersey high school principal Joe Clark,who wins the support and respect of his students for his controversial methods in ridding the school of violent students and drug dealers.
Video - DVD
The Miracle Worker
A dramatization of the story about the struggle of a Boston teacher, Annie Sullivan, to communicate with and teach the deaf, blind, and mute child, Helen Keller.
Video - DVD
Mr. Holland's Opus
A frustrated composer comes to realize that his real passion is teaching, and that his legacy is not a truly memorable piece of music, but the generations of young people whose lives he affects.
Video - DVD
October Sky
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Video - DVD
Pay It Forward
"Pay It Forward" is a multi-level marketing scheme of the heart. Beginning as a seventh-grade class assignment to put into action an idea that could change the world, young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) comes up with a plan to do good deeds for three people who then by way of payment each must do good turns for three other people. These nine people also must pay it forward and so on, ad infinitum. If successful, the resulting network of do-gooders ought to comprise the entire world. Trevor's attempts to get the ball rolling include befriending a junkie (James Caviezel) and trying to set up his recovering-alcoholic mother (Helen Hunt) with his burn-victim teacher (Kevin Spacey), who posed the assignment.
Video - DVD
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
Poignant, funny story of an eccentric teacher in an all-girls school in Edinburgh during the 1930's.
Video - DVD
Pygmalion
Follows the transformation of a Cockney flower girl's speech, dress, and manners as the result of a wager between Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering until she successfully passes as a duchess at an ambassador's reception. Based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.
Video - DVD
Rachel, Rachel
Rachel Cameron is a 35-year-old school teacher living with a selfish, sickly mother in a small town. She sees no way out of her depressing life until an old school friend comes back to town, which forces her to confront new feelings.
School Colors
Originally broadcast on "Frontline;" this in-depth documentary looks at a turbulent year at Berkeley High School in California, focusing on teachers, students, and parents struggling with the question of whether diversity will enrich American society or tear it apart.
Stand and Deliver
Story of Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East Los Angeles' Garfield High School, who refuses to write off his inner-city students as losers. Escalante pushes and inspires 18 students who were struggling with math to become math whizzes.
Video - DVD
The Summer of Miss Forbes
Explores the excitement of repressed desire. Miss Forbes is a governess hired to look after two boys whose parents have taken a six-week vacation. By day, she runs the household with oppressive discipline, prompting the boys to fantasize about her brutal murder. By night, she parades around the house naked, drunk on tequila. The boys spy on her nighttime binges and her attempted seduction of their scuba teacher. But even their plans for her death are not as grim as her ultimate fate.
To Sir, with Love
Novelist James Clavell wrote, produced, and directed this 1967 British film (based on a novel by E.R. Braithwaite) about a rookie teacher who throws out stock lesson plans and really takes command of his unruly, adolescent students in a London school. Poitier is very good as a man struggling with the extent of his commitment to the job, and even more as a teacher whose commitment is to proffering life lessons instead of academics.
Video - DVD
Topaze
Comedy about a naive professor, a seductive temptress, and an unscrupulous businessman. The businessman needs an educated and respected man to endorse his worthless health tonic, so he uses a beautiful woman to tempt a naive teacher.
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