Review of School Ties (1992) by Denver N — 14 Mar 2013

I so wanted this to be another ?Dead Poets Society?! A New England private school setting, big name actors at the start of their careers, a Maurice Jarre composed soundtrack, it had all the right ingredients.

But its a far far lesser film than that classic of the boarding school genre. Brendan Fraser plays a working class kid growing up in the shadows of the soot belching smokestacks of steel factories who, owing to his talent as a quarterback, is given a scholarship to St.

Matthew?s, a private school, for his senior year. He sees new friends and Harvard in his future but when the football coach tells him to keep his religion to himself, and when the other kids start making anti-semitic comments, he hides his Star of David necklace away in a package of Band-Aids and starts having all kinds of inner turmoil.

Which soon becomes outer conflict. There?s also a slimy french teacher, fights over girls, a cheating scandal, and an honor code violation but the elements just don?t add up to much. The way the movie handles the racial issues was stock, the performances of the young actors are what you?d expect from people with the slim amount of experience they have, and the usual coming of age style issues just weren?t treated with an unusual amount of sensitivity.

The filmmakers opted for formula where they should have been more personal and inventive. They got a few things right in the recreation of 1950s boarding school life, with wood panelled lunch rooms and monastic looking dormitories.

But if you are a fan of ?Dead Poets Society? I recommend just watching that one again since this one can only prove disappointing.