Mundane, poorly acted, extremely predictable, this movie almost could not have been any worse. I honestly laughed out lout several times throughout the movie, and couldn't believe it received so many horors and recommendations. It almost worked better as a comedy or a spoof. My god, it was so laughable. So, so so awful.
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View the trailer.
shareEither you haven't seen many movies or have a really skewed perception of what makes a good/mediocre/bad film. The film is mediocre with a good performance from Kline, but far from the "ABSOLUTE WORST FILM EVER~!"...
sharethis movie sucks its a total rip off of the dead poet society except dead poet society is a good movie with an interesting story and a good ending
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It is nothing like Dead Poets Society. In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating is all about using unorthodox teaching methods to teach his students to "Carpe Diem" and to be an individual. That movie focuses on the student's lives and Mr. Keating's effect on them.
In The Emporer's club, Mr. Hundert wants to instill honor, virtue and conviction. The story focuses more on the effects the students have on him. It also shows that although he is very straight laced and by the book, he is flawed as all characters are.
To say that they are the same just because of the fact that both take place in an all boys private school is a pretty shallow comparison.
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I agree with babaganoush's take on the movie. Both teachers are very passionate about their subject but I don't find a lot of similarities apart from this and of course the private boys' school setting. For me DPS seems student oriented and TEC teacher oriented in its focus. (Yes, focus on Sedgewick Bell but mainly related to the effect on Mr. Hundert.) The two movies have quite different themes, DPS revolving around individuality and TEC personal integrity.
Mr. Keating's teaching methods are unorthodox (as previously noted), shockingly so in that particular school environment. Mr. Hundert's are extremely conventional, even to the extent of focus on memorization.
Mr. Keating was indeed dismissed but I believe Mr. Hundert became disillusioned with the profession and resigned after failing to gain a promotion to Headmaster or whatever. (It's been awhile so I'm prepared to stand corrected on this.)
The 'star' students both had issues with their fathers, it's true, but otherwise could hardly have been more different. Neil Perry was a very nice, respectful young man, an extremely sympathetic character. Sedgewick Bell wasn't merely the class troublemaker and a perpetual cheater but a complete jerk, IMO, not cast sympathetically at all. (Others are entitled to view him differently of course.)
It's true that each movie features a quiet student with a major role. However, I'd describe Todd Anderson as painfully shy, sometimes nonfunctionally so, but Martin Blythe merely as a nice, quiet boy.
I didn't feel that TEC had a bitter ending at all but a quietly happy one. While it's true that Mr. Hundert did not influence Sedgewick Bell in the way he had sought, this teacher saw that you can't win 'em all! He realized that, despite his own flawed behaviour, he'd had a positive impact through the years in the lives of the majority of his students. He returned happily to his classroom position in the end, the teaching profession he loved, even realizing that Martin Blythe did not hold his previous unfairness about the contest against him. Instead Blythe entrusted his own son into the care of that school and Mr. Hundert as teacher, clearly indicating his own forgiveness.
Regarding the fancying of girls, most teenage boys do think quite a lot on the subject so it wouldn't seem unusual for this to come through in both these films or in any movie, school oriented or not, about boys that age!
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I take all your points, Grey Daze, especially your examples showing the similarities about the boys fancying girls. I surrender on this one!!
However, all the 'teacher movies' of whatever era have a similar concept of a dedicated teacher who inspires students and makes a difference in their lives. This goes all the way back to the 1939 Goodbye, Mr. Chips (itself set in a boys' boarding school) and others since then have basically all been variations on the same idea.
There are the teacher centered movies such as TEC and Mr. Holland's Opus, only it's a Music teacher in the latter case, a showcase of his thirty year music teaching career in a public high school.
And there's the student centered ones. Actually, the one that seems to me far more than TEC a copycat of DPS is Mona Lisa Smile, even though it's set in a women's college rather than a private boys' school. Its revolutionary teacher with unusual methods is a feminist trying to instill career ambitions beyond marriage and motherhood in her 1950's classes. Like DPS, this movie showcases the personal lives of about four different students. In the end the teacher is basically told by the administration to conform to tradition or she'll be dismissed, shades of DPS where Mr. Keating is fired.
Yes, Sedgewick did have a brief period where he elicited sympathy but at least for me, very brief! While Neil Perry was indeed overly romantic and made several poor choices (of course suicide being the most notable), I found him sympathetic throughout.
It's a matter of interpretation but I never felt myself that it was Sedgewick's failure in the original contest that brought about his downfall. He appears to have been a cheater, pure and simple, and never changed. Pure speculation but if he had won that contest back in his schooldays, I can only imagine it would have even further reinforced in him the ideology that cheating pays off and he would have continued on in like manner, much as he did anyway.
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Again I see your points, especially about Neil and Sedgewick both having their moments to shine, difficult fathers to please, and giving up in the end. Your posts have pointed out a number of legitimate similarities. However, it's all a question of perspective and to me, they seem superficial when compared with the differences. DPS is certainly more dramatic and also its theme of individuality is likely to be more popular with viewers than the integrity theme of TEC.
When I first saw DPS, I loved it and the ending can still move me to tears. However, the more I've thought about it over the years, the more I question whether Mr. Keating was the wonderful teacher I first thought or more of an entertainer. He was ill advised in some of his methods, IMO. For instance, the textbook ripping, while dramatic, now seems pointless to me, foolish and juvenile. If he had been more subtle in his approach to change, not 'rocked the boat' quite so much, he could still have gotten his point across and probably to many future years of students long term at that school. (I'm a former teacher myself, by the way. And sorry, I know this has nothing really to do with the topic of similarities between the movies!)
I don't believe myself that the reason Mr. Hundert and Katherine failed to get together straight away was because he lacked the courage to declare his love. From their parting scene (when she's about to leave for England with her husband), it seemed clear to me that the two of them were well aware of each other's feelings without ever having spoken them, but were deliberately choosing not to act upon them because she was already married. Maybe the two of them did miss out on a few years together, but I believe were happier in the end, more at peace within themselves, with her having given her marriage a further chance rather than dumping her husband initially for Mr. Hundert.
I agree that Sedgewick Bell would undoubtedly have become a political success and certainly already had wealth, business success, luxury living, popularity, all the trappings. Nevertheless, without the respect of his son, I believe these would all have eventually proven to be pretty hollow, superficial, and meaningless. (I'm a parent also! ) Not much of a comfort to him on his deathbed.
However, it's all just my own opinion!
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Thanks very much, Grey Daze! But I have to confess to only having lasted a couple of years, didn't really make anything like the success of my brief teaching career as all the stellar teachers generally shown in these teacher movies. However, I can never resist watching those films!
Your list is a great idea! I'll add one more:
6. School Ties (1992) - Themes of prejudice, about a Jewish boy at a prep school in the 1950's. (I don't remember much about the teacher(s) in this and seem to recall it revolving mainly around student interactions and the old boys' club.)
I've never watched Les Choristes but have heard mention of it before and would love to see it.
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At least Mr. Keating in DPS was controversial and hilarious, a performer for his students. Mr. Hundert was a constipated prude with all the stiffness of a British Butler in a "Pass the Gray Pu Pon"commercial. Seriously, I understand that his intentions were good but I found nothing remotely "inspiring"about him as a teacher. Not once during the movie does he take one of his students aside and ask them about their feelings or their personal lives, more importantly as a teacher he never allowed the students to express their minds. I also get the feeling that as much as Mr. Hundert lectured his students about honor and integrity and virtue, he was afraid of the outside world so he stayed in a safe boarding school surrounded by his books and his authority. In that respect Sedgwick had a more realistic view of how the world really works.
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I'm just wondering where is the OP to defend his opening post. Apart from establishing (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that he is 100% american what else did he accomplish by said post?
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Okay with the exception of Sedgwick cheating later on as an adult that's the only little twist the movie threw at us, but everything was obligatory classroom scenes. Kevin Kline hitting a stickball through a windshield, oooooohhh the originality!!!the boys rowing across the lake to the girls school as the nun catches them!!! the lame attempt at creating a period piece of the 70's, when clearly all the cars were from the 90's! It wasn't a terrible movie it was what I call a "Standard"movie like the way you would call a sports drama about an underdog team you just know is gonna win "the big game"at the end. Like I said the only difference was the twist at the end.
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Mr. Hundert actually cared deeply about his students, but he was an extremely formal and conventional teacher, and it wasn't in his nature, or his style, to take them aside and discuss personal feelings with them. He was quite repressed about his own emotional feelings, and not comfortable discussing them.
He did get to know his students very well, though. He observed their interests, actions, and activities closely, and he clearly was interested in them. In a restrained way, he got to know them, and they got to know him. He admired Sedgewick and favoured him over the others.He made a mistake in his interpretation of Sedgewick's character, and ever after regretted it. However, he also got to know Deepak, who was avidly interested in classical history for it's own sake, did extra reading outside of class, and Hundert was able to use this insight into Deepak's character to enable Deepak to win the "Mr. Julius Caesar" contest, when it became obvious that Sedgewick was cheating. (Hundert asked an impromptu question about a historical figure who hadn't been mentioned in his classroom, but whom he knew Deepak would likely be familiar with.
He also felt very guilty all his life about bypassing Blythe in favor of Sedgewick, even when as an adult Blythe told him it didn't matter, that he'd more than made up for it. Hundert clearly had a strong influence on all of his students (even Sedgewick) for the rest of their lives.
Hundert was indeed a little bit afraid of interacting with the outside world, which isn't unusual. He was an old-fashioned individual, more academic than administrative. (The school's board of trustees recognized that, which was why they bypassed him for the Headmaster's position, and which clearly came as a shock to him). He also was clearly intimidated during the interview with Sedgewick's father. (But though intimidated, he clearly understood how Sedgewick also was intimidated, and increased his empathy for Sedgewick).
Sedgewick did gain, probably from his father, a realistic view of how the world works. That's why he was so successful as a CEO and politician. He's cynical about truth and integrity. But deep down, he's insecure. He follows the example set for him by his father, but at his father's deathbed, he realizes that he never really knew him.
And it's clear that Hundert was a positive influence on his other students, and succeeded in imparting to them a respect for learning and integrity.
What kind of movies do you like comic book action?