Lean on Me (film)

Lean on Me
File:Lean on Me (DVD cover).jpg Lean on Me poster
Directed by	John G. Avildsen
Written by	Michael Schiffer
Produced by	Norman Twain
Starring	Morgan Freeman Beverly Todd Alan North Robert Guillaume
Cinematography	Victor Hammer
Edited by	John G. Avildsen John Carter
Music by	Bill Conti
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	March 3, 1989 (USA)
Running time	124 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$31,906,454 (USA)

Lean on Me is a 1989 biographical-drama film written by Michael Schiffer, directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Morgan Freeman. Lean on Me is loosely based on the story of Joe Clark, a real life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, whose school is at risk of being overtaken by the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores. Morgan Freeman spent time with Clark to capture his mannerisms and sayings. Clark resigned as principal of Eastside High School the year after this film was released to become an author and motivational speaker. In August 1995, he was hired to run a juvenile detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Parts of the film, including the elementary school scenes, were filmed in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

Taglines

• A true story about a real hero.
• Eastside High was a training ground for jail. Then Joe Clark took charge. Now his kids are getting their shot at something they never would have had: A future.
• An extraordinary problem calls for an extraordinary resolution. At Paterson, New Jersey's Eastside High School in 1987, that resolution had a name: "Crazy Joe" Clark. His answer? Don't lean on excuses, drugs, crime or anger. Lean on me, and learn.

Plot summary

Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, is plagued with numerous problems, especially those dealing with drugs and gang violence. Furthermore, the students are receiving low scores on the basic skills test.

After the principal (during the opening credits sequence) is brutally beaten by students, the mayor (Alan North) consults the school superintendent (Robert Guillaume), who suggests the school hire "Crazy Joe" Clark (Freeman) as the new principal. The mayor is reluctant at first, knowing about trouble Clark has caused in the past. But Clark is hired and things immediately get tense after Clark dismisses from the school hundreds of students identified as drug dealers or abusers. A meeting between the parents of those students and the academic board only fans the flames.

The next day, Clark runs into one of the expelled youths, Thomas Sams (Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins), asking to be let back into the school. In a dramatic rooftop scene, Clark gives him a sharp lecture but grants him a chance to turn things around. Another dismissed student manages to get inside the school and attack another student before Clark comes to break up the fight. Knowing he is breaking the fire code, Clark orders all doors chained and locked during school hours to keep drug dealers out. Also, the students show no improvement in taking a practice version of the basic skills test.

Clark does not put up with teachers who disagree with him either, especially those who do so in front of the students. One of his rash firings is reversed by the superintendent. Meanwhile, one parent, Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen) aligns herself with the mayor in an effort to oust Clark. The fire chief eventually catches Clark not just with the school's doors chained, but conspiring to have the chains removed during surprise inspections.

Clark's arrest comes after a key scene involving Kaneesha (Karen Malina White), who remembers Clark from grade school. Clark is offering counsel about Kaneesha's unplanned pregnancy just before he is arrested.

That night, while Clark is in jail and the mayor is preparing to remove him, the entire student body converges on the Central Office of the Paterson Board of Education. They demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal.

Eventually, Clark is freed from custody, and to good news: all the students have passed the basic skills exam. With that, Clark shuns both Mrs. Barrett and the mayor: "You can tell the State to go to hell!" Then Clark leads his students in singing Eastside High's alma mater (several scenes throughout the movie find Clark insisting that each student be taught to perform the school song on demand).

School song

• Fair Eastside, by thy side we'll stand, and always praise thy name
  • And ever lend our hearts and hands to help increase thy fame
  • The honor of old Eastside High brings forth our loyalty
  • So cheer for dear old Eastside High! Lead on to victory!

Cast

Morgan Freeman – as Principal Joe Clark Beverly Todd – Mrs. Levias Alan North – as Mayor Don Bottman Robert Guillaume – as Dr. Frank Napier Ethan Phillips – as Mr. Rosenberg Lynne Thigpen – Leonna Barrett Michael Beach – Mr. Darnell Sandra Reaves-Phillips – Mrs. Powers Tony Todd – William Wright, Dean of Security

Sloane Shelton – Mrs. Hamilton Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins – Thomas Sams Karen Malina White – Kaneesha Carter Karina Arroyave – Maria Ivonne Coll – Mrs. Santos Regina Taylor – Mrs. Carter Jim Moody – Mr. Lott Linda M. Salgado – Linda Mike Starr – Mr. Zarella Reverend Herschell Slappy – Himself

The cast of the film includes the reunion of former Benson co-stars Robert Guillaume and Ethan Phillips.

While some real-life students and teachers from Eastside High School appeared as extras in this film, most of the student extras where brought in from surrounding towns.

Michael Best, Stephen Capers Jr., Dwayne Jones, and Kenneth Kelly (who portray the students that Clark forces to learn the school song on threat of expulsion) formed the R&B group Riff after their involvement in this film.

In the auditorium scene where Washingtons's character expels the students on stage, a young Michael Imperioli (of The Sopranos) can be seen behind him.

Director John G. Avildsen's son Anthony appears in the movie's prologue, as one of Joe Clark's students at Eastside in 1967.

Awards and nominations

1991 NAACP Image Awards

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Morgan Freeman(won)
• Outstanding Motion Picture (won)

1990 Young Artist Awards

• Young Artist Award Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated)
• Best Young Actor Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins (nominated)
• Best Young Actress Supporting Role in a Motion Picture – Karen Malina White (nominated)
• Jackie Coogan Award – Norman Twain, producer (nominated)

Factual accuracy and liberties

With this being a movie, certain creative liberties were taken in regards to people's names and story lines. For instance, Mayor Bottman is representative of the mayor of Paterson at the time, Frank X. Graves. Another would be that the main plot of movie, the school being on the verge of a take over by the state if the test scores did not improve, was untrue. There was never any threat of a state takeover of Eastside High, though the state designated the Paterson Public Schools district as an Abbott District in 1991, one year after Clark left, taking over its operations. Paterson Public Schools was taken over by the State of New Jersey along with two other school districts. It remains under state control today along with being an Abbott district.

Though violence did decrease at the school during Clark's reign, the test scores did not significantly increase as depicted in the film. The auditorium scene where Clark expels the students did not happen, though on a single day during his first week at Eastside, Clark expelled 300 students for fighting, vandalism, drug possession, profanity or abusing teachers. He explains, "If there is no discipline, there is anarchy. Good citizenship demands attention to responsibilities as well as rights."

The scene where students protested when Clark was arrested and jailed never happened.

The character of Clark's nemesis, Mrs. Barrett, did not exist.

External links

• Lean on Me at IMDb
• Lean on Me at Rotten Tomatoes