Movie Review: To Sir, With Love
I'm not entirely sure how we ended up watching this movie. M-N picked it out at the library, but it seems an odd choice. Sidney Poitier is struggling to get a job as an engineer, so in the meantime he takes a job at a rough school in London, teaching the rejects from other schools. That sounds familiar.
Only, these aren't exactly "Dangerous Minds" or "Stand and Deliver" kids. They look a bit like they're attending their own 10-year reunion. Maybe it's just 1967, but they're the nicest-looking bunch of ruffians I've seen.
Still, Poitier struggles with them, they push him, then he miraculously wins them over, teaching them life lessons and taking them to a museum.
It has its moments. It's not a bad movie. Poitier is a great actor. The same can't exactly be said of "Lulu," one of the students in his class. We discover near the end that she's not just an actress, but a singer as well. And not only that, but she sings the title song, "To Sir, With Love." Also known as "To Sir-r-r, with lo-o-ove."
What's bizarre about the song is that it plays over the opening credits, then THREE times during the movie (including one performance by Lulu herself), then AGAIN over the end credits. And it's not a great movie song, either. Picture Celine Dion's Titanic song FIVE times in that movie, plus Celine Dion appearing as a lead actress (though it'd be fun to see her go down with the ship) -- ok, and if Titanic was under two hours. That means the ratio of the time the song is playing in the movie to the time it isn't playing is so small that you can't help but get the damn thing stuck in your head. I'm not just talking about playing the chorus or the melody -- they play the verses, too.
Somebody either paid a lot for that song, thought it was just great, or owed a huge favor to Lulu's agent.
posted by Torgo @ 10:49 AM
2 Comments:
So my mom made me watch this in high school, along with the other movies you mention as well as "Goodbye Mr Chips" and tons of others. I think it's because Grandma was a teacher.
The only thing I remember about the movie is the song, though. I think Lulu was some pop star, though, and the movie was her "Glitter."
I think there should be a moratorium on this kind of movie. It was already cliche-ridden in 1967. There was an interesting article on the DVD sleeve that said the studio resisted making the movie b/c they thought it was too sentimental, then they didn't release it for a while b/c they thought no one would see it. Then it was a huge hit, mostly b/c of Sidney Poitier.
Maybe it'd have been better if he sang the song instead of Lulu. Or Coolio. Or Mariah Carey.
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