The Principal Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Principal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 24, 2018

There were several notable 1980s films about dedicated individuals committing not just their time, but their hearts and their souls, to bettering tough-luck, hard-headed, disgruntled, disinterested, or otherwise hopelessly lost inner-city high school students. Lean on Me (talk about a film that desperately needs a Blu-ray release) is the genre's standard-bearer and Stand and Deliver isn't far behind. The Principal is another example, a lesser film than those but a quality picture nevertheless. Director Christopher Cain's (Young Guns, Pure Country) film follows the usual genre tropes, telling the tale of a man who takes charge of a crumbling inner city school, literally crumbling to be sure and figuratively crumbling as well if one considers the moral decay within the student body and the decaying morale of the school's staff. He sheds blood, sweat, and tears to clean it up. The Principal shakes things up a little, though, as the title character finds himself standing up not just against frustrated teachers, cat calls from the student body, and various troublemakers in the previously hallowed halls of learning but a real villain in the form of a student who not only makes idle threats against the principal but actually promises to kill him, building towards the very grim and very real possibility of a violent showdown before all is said and done. The film plays well, even if it's little more than a harder-edge take on familiar formula.

Rick Latimer (Jim Belushi) is a high school teacher who loves to drink more than he loves to teach. When his drinking gets him in trouble at a bar, his punishment isn’t termination but rather promotion. He had previously applied for an administrative position, and he’s getting his big break. Or so he believes until he learns the opening is at Brandel, a notoriously decrepit and dangerous inner-city school. Seeing a second chance for himself and an opportunity to actually better lives in desperate need of guidance, he decides to do what none have done in many years: work hard to make a difference. Against the better judgment of his faculty as well as the school’s tough, but smart, security officer Jake (Louis Gossett Jr.), Latimer assembles the student body and declares there will be no more missed classes, gambling, extortion, drug use, gang intimidation, arson, robbery, or rape. That doesn’t sit well with the student body, but he slowly gains the respect of both the pupils and the staff. But even as he finds a couple of pet project students who actively seek to better themselves, he finds himself at odds with one particularly dangerous student, Victor Duncan (Michael Wright), who repeatedly promises Rick that he won’t finish out the school year alive.

The movie is about a man finding purpose. When he exits his comfort zone and is essentially placed in charge of what almost amounts to a prison setting filled with, at best, directionless students and, at worst, violent troublemakers, Rick perhaps sees at least a part of himself in them, a part that consumed his life when he took his job and very existence for granted. His own past helps propel him forward, towards the decision to do what he can to give the students an opportunity to find purpose, to challenge them to make something of themselves. Whether he can make them receptive is another story, and he will no doubt have to resort to more than just pep talks to put his plan in motion, but the film is ultimately as much his redemption story as it is the student body’s collective redemption story.

Honestly, it’s a rather stale story and, as noted above, there really isn’t a shortage of films of a similar style. Its still an entertaining venture in totality, a little predictable (which comes with the territory) but unpredictable in the more violent route the film ultimately takes, showing perhaps more realistically than some that there’s just no getting through to some people. Belushi’s performance certainly isn’t of the career-defining variety, but it’s solid all-around. He can’t quite shake the slightly jovial persona that so often follows him around in movies like K-9, but he puts on the hard-edged, rough-and-ready face as the scene or situation demands and makes for a fairly believable hero who stands up for what's right and also stands up in the face of serious danger. Louis Gossett Jr. holds firm as the security guard who comes around to Rick's side as the film progresses, eventually standing by his side when the unthinkable eventually goes down at the school.

The Principal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Principal looks very good on Blu-ray. This release is impressively natural and filmic. Grain is retained at a light, consistent level, yielding a pleasing filmic veneer. Detailing can't match the exacting standards of new releases or the very best catalogue Blu-rays, but skin textures are satisfyingly imitate and complex, ditto clothes, while various environments, from low-light and warm barroom interiors to worn-down and graffiti-strewn exterior walls and interior lockers at the school, are very well defined with special attention to decay and wear. Colors are anything but intense or bright. The film favors the lower light and worn-down colors inside the school, but bursts of natural greens, red blood, and various examples of louder attire are well saturated and always please. Black levels and flesh tones appear accurate and the image suffers from no significant encode or source flaws. Sony continues to impress with its recent wave of MOD (Manufactured on Demand) catalogue releases, and The Principal certainly looks good and bodes well for future endeavors.

The Principal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony's two-channel lossless presentation for The Principal is more than adequate for this release. The Principal handles dialogue efficiently and clearly. Vocals are centered towards the middle of the stage, while the track manages to present a little width as necessary, when the principal addresses an assembly in chapter three, which also features some energetic jeering from the student body that eventually leads to a full-on brawl in the auditorium (a scene where a more expansive 5.1 track would have proven effective in drawing the listener more completely into one of the film's most critical scenes). Slamming doors near film's end come across as loud but a bit tinny, and it's another scene that would've benefited from an expanded sound field. Altogether, though, this two-channel lossless track serves the movie about as well as can be expected.

The Principal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Principal contains only one extra, the film's theatrical trailer (1080p, 4x3, 2:09). No DVD or digital versions are included, and the release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Principal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Principal doesn't break new ground, but it does break a few bones and bloody its characters in what is likely the most violent and hard-edged "school savior" film from the 1980s, or any era, for that matter. It's a tough and gritty film that features a couple of solid lead performances from the ever-reliable pair of Belushi and Gossett, Jr. Sony's MOD Blu-ray is unfortunately absent any meaningful extra content, but the studio has done a terrific job with the 1080p transfer and the two-channel lossless soundtrack suits the material well in most instances. Recommended.