To Sir, with Love

Although Sidney Poitier has charisma to spare, he is a handsome guy to look at, and his humanistic ideals radiate from him, but I would strongly warn students of education against attempting to view the teaching profession through the lens of a film protagonist. The story of how a teacher can, through his passion, dramatically reverse the negative atmosphere in the classroom within a few weeks and turn around troublesome students at the most difficult age, who have been influenced by everything from a lack of education at home to the absence of positive role models, into motivated students ready to enter life, is nice to watch, but it has nothing to do with real life. The film is so sentimental, moralizing, and unbelievably naive, that it sometimes borders on parody. In my opinion, the significance of the film lies elsewhere. At the time of its production, it was not yet common to perceive black people as anything other than members of the working class. Poitier, in the role of an unmistakable, strong-willed, university-educated intellectual, helped to break down stereotypes and emancipate the African-American community and black immigrants in Europe. The high rating on FilmBooster, in my opinion, is influenced by nostalgia and should be taken with some reservation. Overall impression: 45%. (10/03/2017)

A film that is naïve bordering on utopia. I would have given it three stars, but I added a fourth one for the theme that is relevant even fifty years later. (09/16/2016)