1995's Dangerous Minds, the urban school drama directed by John N. Smith and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, tells the tale of real-life teacher LouAnne Johnson, who dramatically transformed the lives of kids at an inner-city school through dedication and innovative teaching practices - all the while dealing with sensitive issues of race and violence in schools and the inner city. While its intentions are noble, Dangerous Minds tends to warp Johnson's story into a treacly, overly sentimental mess that cannot be saved by a strong cast and assured direction. In the end, the overt melodrama and incredibly simplified morality of the film undercuts any real message it might have in favor of naive idealism.
Michelle Pfeiffer's performance as LouAnne Johnson, regardless of the material, is one of the true highlights of the film, and goes a long way toward making the film watchable. Her steely gaze and total commitment to her role is admirable; despite her slight frame, she commands her classroom with a confident swagger, and even some of the film's dodgier attempts to "toughen up" Johnson (e.g. impressing her students with her toughness by beating some of them up with karate moves) are met with total commitment by Pfeiffer. The rest of the cast, made up primarily of unknown youths, is also strong, and they inhabit the anxieties and anger of their characters quite well. The actors all successfully make us believe that they are these characters in a story, and that they deserve to be there. However, what the plot and the film's direction does with them is another story entirely. The character types are fairly standard and cliche - Raul is smart, but lacks ambition; Callie faces teen pregnancy; Emilio is rebellious and aggressive, providing just the needed bit of calculated conflict and pathos required of a gritty, emotional drama.
The main draw of the film, and its primary focus, is Johnson's innovative and controversial methods of engaging her students in critical thinking and education. Johnson deliberately and liberally bribes her students as an incentive to go to class and do her assignments: she gives them candy bars and takes them on trips to amusement parts for participation, and rewards inventive thinking and research with dinners at restaurants. Instead of teaching the boring classics, Johnson uses Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas to show the children how to find symbolism and allegory in works of literature. These scenes are meant to deliberately remind one of movies like Dead Poets Society and their ilk, with the unconventional teacher catching the student's interest because they are not as boring or mainstream as the other teachers. While this is an interesting trope to have in a movie, this particular kind of atmosphere has been done much better, and with far more dexterity, in these other examples.
Of particular interest to the film's creators is the issue of black-white race relations, depicted most often in LouAnne's attempts to relate to her ghetto-raised students. LouAnne, at first, is disparagingly called "white bread" in her first days at class, and much of her early work is spent gaining the trust of her students, who distrust an upper-middle class white woman coming in to their classroom and giving them tough love. One of the major themes of the film is the interrelation between black and white, and white society's sense of responsibility to the disenfranchised black and Hispanic youths who have fallen into violence because of institutionalized racism and poverty. Johnson is meant to be, in essence, "one of the good ones" - an enlightened, smart woman who is able to talk to these youths on their own level, and fully believes in the ability of these children to succeed. However well-intentioned this message is, it is presented with little subtlety, and even has a few problematic elements to it. There is little evidence that Johnson's efforts will bear any fruit outside the classroom, as the student's successes and failures are solely relegated to their progress in class; when they do better in class, they will do better in life. This makes the progress Johnson is making in these kid's lives unclear; no matter how much Dylan Thomas they learn, they still have to worry about gangs.
Gang warfare is a constant threat in the film, and one that is offered as a perpetual source of conflict with Johnson and her students. Many of the young students are at least familiar with the gangs in their area, if not in them themselves. Johnson is seen to be tough enough to brave these young hoodlums, with her leather jacket and her kung fu moves, as well as the nebulous explanation of Johnson being a former Marine. However, the film also fumbles the gang violence subplot somewhat by providing a narrative-convenient and tragic death of one student by gang violence
One also gets the impression that using Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan is a fairly white-centric method of getting black students invested in learning, particularly since the real LouAnne Johnson used rap lyrics to achieve the same effect. A possible, if problematic, explanation for this change is that they wanted to draw in a white audience, and therefore provided white literature for Johnson to work from; this gives the feeling that the black students are being indoctrinated in white (and by implication, civilized) culture, as rap music is just another indicator of ghetto-centric despair and gang violence. Cutting out the rap music was likely a calculated move on the part of the filmmakers in order to appeal to white audiences, and thus removes any element of Johnson actually teaching the children how to find inspiration in their own setting and culture.
The question remains, as the film ends on a hopeful note as the grateful black students beg a reluctant Johnson to stay ("You're our Tambourine Man!" one student says): do the events of the film make a difference to these kids? The film seems to believe it does, and to be sure, Johnson does bring the kids hope and a reason to keep learning and discovering; however, the film somewhat dodges the complex issue of how they will leverage this education into better lives for themselves. While the short-term problem of engaging the students in learning is solved, the film fails to address what might happen afterward; though this is obviously not within the scope of the story's school setting, some mention of it might make the film's messages more coherent.
Overall, Dangerous Minds' politics are what drag this movie down, despite the overall competence of the production. The film's message - that kids can better themselves if they learn to care about school - is positive and hopeful on its surface, but the way in which it claims it should be done is hazardous. The film is clearly calculated, like other social-justice films such as Won't Back Down and The Blind Side, to make complex issues incredibly simplified, and practically (and ironically) whitewashes the issues of gang violence and despair in inner-city schools. Despite Pfeiffer and the rest of the cast giving solid performances, the film's melodramatic treatment of race relations and live in the inner city does not effectively provide a subtle and honest portrayal of the issues facing inner-city kids in major metropolitan areas.
Works Cited
Smith, John N. (dir.) (1995). Dangerous Minds. Perf. Michelle Pfeiffer, George Dzundza, Courtney B. Vance. Hollywood Pictures, 1995. Film.
