Teachers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Teachers Blu-ray Movie Review

Hands up if you've seen this one before.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 6, 2015

By 1984, when Teachers hit multiplexes, it had been well over fifteen years since two “dueling” films about urban high schools, Up the Down Staircase and To Sir, With Love, came out in 1967. The landscape was probably more than ripe for another incisive if predictably heartstring tugging entry focusing on a harried if well meaning teacher attempting to make a difference in young lives which were otherwise scattered with various emotional problems and dysfunctional living conditions. Despite being helmed by Arthur Hiller, a director with a long and impressive filmography which includes such stand outs as The Americanization of Emily and Love Story (perhaps surprisingly, his sole Academy Award nomination for Best Director), Teachers is something of a mixed bag, with overly cartoonish characters cavorting within a supposedly grittily realistic urban setting (the film was shot at an abandoned Cleveland high school which evidently now serves as home to the city’s Center of Science and Industry). Well intentioned (probably to a fault), Teachers walks its well worn hallways with assurance but ultimately not enough conviction to make the story of hangdog social studies instructor Alex Jurel (Nick Nolte) really resonate. Some of the (many) subplots have some unusual relevance to today’s academic environment, chief among them a running subtext of the school cranking out ostensible “graduates” who are still incapable of reading or writing, something that in this particular case has resulted in a lawsuit.

The opening chaos in the halls and main offices of John F. Kennedy High School may initially lead some acquainted with Hiller’s oeuvre to think that they’ve wandered into some academic analog of The Hospital , or perhaps an only slightly less hyperbolic environment as the one depicted in Class of 1984. A student has been stabbed and sits bleeding while hassled Assistant Principal Roger Rubell (Judd Hirsch) attempts to deal with any number of other issues, including that aforementioned lawsuit, pretty attorney Lisa Hammond (JoBeth Williams) who’s representing the plaintiff, an ironically truant class of teachers which necessitates dredging the bottom of the barrel for substitutes, and (just for good measure) the evident mental breakdown of the school’s psychologist, who goes berserk over use of a mimeograph machine (in an element that dates the film as surely as its big hair and shoulder pads).

Sweetly acerbic school secretary Grace Wensel (Madeleine Sherwood) is tasked not just with rounding up appropriate (or at least available) substitutes, but also with finding out whether actual teacher Jurel will be deigning to show up that day. She wakes him from an obviously drunken stupor, where it’s also revealed he’s at the tail end of a one night stand with a woman whom he’s told he’s a pilot (are pilots that much sexier than teachers?). Once Jurel shows up to school, he learns that in addition to his regular teaching duties he’s being assigned care of some of the school psychologist’s “problem cases,” including young delinquent Eddie Pilikian (Ralph Macchio).

Meanwhile the lawsuit against the school is going full steam ahead, with perennially confused Principal Horn (William Schallert) attempting to navigate the roiling legal waters with school district lawyer Al Lewis (Morgan Freeman with really bad hair) and harridan District Superintendent Donna Burke (Lee Grant) leading the way. Teachers are about to be deposed, and the word is coming down from on high that all “stories” much match. Rubell vouches for Jurel, who is already causing concern due to his anti-authoritarian and anarchic tendencies. In a predictable if slightly problematic plot point, it turns out Lisa Hammond was a former student of Jurel’s (even though their age difference doesn’t seem very major), and soon they are reestablishing their relationship on somewhat less platonic grounds.

Teachers could have been another brilliant send up of an American institution had it been scripted with someone on the order of Paddy Chayefsky, but W.R. McKinney’s screenplay is too formulaic and also ultimately simply not daring enough to ever capture any incipient zeitgeist totally successfully. There are a lot of really interesting elements here (maybe too many), but they simply march by in an unimaginative fashion, as if various boxes on a multiple choice test are being ticked off. There are hints of something a bit more astringent here at times—keep your eyes peeled on a teacher’s briefcase in the lounge in one early scene, in a moment that seems culled directly from a similar gambit in Class of 1984 involving Roddy McDowall in that film. Too often Teachers takes a goofily playful stance, as in introducing mental patient Herbert Gower (Richard Mulligan), who more or less stumbles into assuming the guise of the school’s new history teacher.

Earnest almost to a fault, and with a big, heroic climax where Jurel gets to stick it to The Man (as it were) while proclaiming “I’m a teacher!”, the film manages to work up a decent degree of emotional attachment for Jurel and his plight, though within the context of some overly cartoonish characters and a way too rote set of plot mechanics. Performances are crisp if often one note, with Williams especially winning as the hard working attorney who really only wants one thing: schools that actually teach something.

Teachers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Teachers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. After the slightly problematic optically printed credits sequence is over (one that includes a fair amount of wobble and lots of grain), things clear up considerably and the rest of this presentation is rather nicely sharp and well detailed, albeit with quite a bit of age related wear and tear (there's quite a bit of minus density on display here, with lots of white flecks dotting the premises). Colors are still reasonably bold and well saturated, with flesh tones looking accurate and a naturalistic palette presenting no real problems. Fine detail is very good in close-ups, offering nicely resolved textures on apparel and elements like props in the overstuffed school office. Image stability, contrast and black levels are fine, and as is Olive's stock in trade, there are no signs of digital intrusion on the image.

Teachers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Teachers' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 provides a good supportive showcase for a handful of era appropriate source cues, as well as rendering dialogue very cleanly and clearly. Fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to warrant concern.

Teachers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

Teachers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Films about teachers becoming grist for the dual mills of school bureaucracies and errant students were nothing new even in 1984, and that's probably the biggest problem afflicting Teachers. The film is never less than entertaining, but it's often pretty derivative and ultimately almost always completely predictable. Good performances by a huge cast of notable stars and character actors offer a lot of color in what is ultimately a twice or even thrice told tale. Technical merits are generally very good on this release, and Teachers comes Recommended.