RAN
LEAN ON ME
by Binky Wovie
"Lean On Me" is one of the better new flicks to come
off the Warner Brothers' reels. Based on a true story, it
stars Morgan Freeman as Joe Clark, a mega-aggro-ultra-
controversial New Jersey high school principal. Freeman,
who is probably best remembered for an electrifying per-
formance in "Street Smart," (for which he was nominated
for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award) molded
this part into a stirring account of one man unwilling to
surrender to the status quo.
The movie opens in 1967 with Joe Clark getting dis-
missed from his teaching position at Paterson's Eastside
High because he sees things much differently than the
establishment. The scene fades to Eastside High in 1988,
complete with mega hit up graffiti deterioration. Teachers
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are being picked on, fights are breaking out, suitcases full
of drugs are pouring in the doors and one teacher is badly
beaten when he tries to break up a fight.
Dr. Frank Napier, the district superintendent of schools
and formerly Joe's fellow educator, tracks down Joe for the
desperate and dangerous mission of getting Eastside High
back on its feet.
The next thing you know, Joe's cruising down the same
hallway he'd stormed out of twenty years before. He im-
mediately starts kicking ass and taking names. His goal
is to turn Eastside around from a place where teachers
are intimidated, crack dealers roam the halls, and students
are totally disruptive and disrespectful, into a place where
learning has a chance. Joe figures that the first step to a
major clean up is to get rid of all the bad ap-
ples so they won't ruin the whole bunch.
Solution? He just gets rid of the hoodlums,
drug dealers, truants and miscreants, expell-
ing three-hundred students! This blows
everybody away. Gradually Eastside is
transformed into looking like a school again.
Soon, the once recalcitrant students start
stokin' on learning and progress begins to
be made. The fear of "Crazy Joe" is instill
ed into student Thomas Sams when Joe tells
him to jump off the roof. "If
you're gonna kill yourself
smoking crack, then why not
do it expeditiously?"
Joe Clark is determined to
give these students the
chance they deserve to
make it once they get out of
school, and that battle is all
uphill. To underline his point,
he prowls the hallways with
a bullhorn, barking orders.
"Learn the school song well
enough to sing it upon de-
mand or suffer dire conse-
quences." Suspension. The
teachers don't know whe-
ther to love or hate him.
An incident involving a
drug dealer who has infiltrated back into the
school prompts Joe to chain all the entrances
and exits.
Now people really start getting pissed. One
parent, Leona Barret, played by Lynne
Thigpen, starts a No-Joe campaign, trying
to get him ousted.
But Joe, undeterred by obstacles of
obstreperous parents and local authorities,
manages to earn the support of the student
body who begin to believe in the idea of a
better education for the sake of a better
future. They eventually rally en masse to
demand his release when he's jailed for
violating safety regulations.
"Lean On Me" is ultimately an uplifting ex-
perience. Joe Clark is a real man who fights
against a policy that is turning blacks into a
permanent underclass.
"My motto in life is simple," says Clark.
"If you students don't succeed in life, I don't
want you to blame your parents, I don't want
you to blame the white man. I want you to
blame yourselves. What you learn in school
will determine the job you
will get, the kind of money
you will earn, and the
respect that you deserve.
The alternative is to waste.
your time and to fall into the
traps out there, of crime,
drugs and death."
"He offended people and
he treated some people
badly." says screenwriter/
associate producer Michael
Schiffer, "But underneath all
that is this urgency that 'We
can't wait another day,"
because every day kids are
quitting, dropping out, fail-
ing and falling into the pit."
Lean On Me, a Norman
Twain production under John G. Avildsen's
direction, was filmed on location at the school
itself. It features some hard driving music
from the likes of Stetsasonic, AI B. Sure, Big
Daddy Kane, Guns 'n Roses, R.I.F.F. and an
awe inspiring version of Bill Withers "Lean
On Me" by Sandra Reaves Phillips.
Joe Clark's methods may be harsh, but his
motive is true. He tells students, "If you don't
pass school, you get locked out. Out of the
American dream that you see advertised on
TV" This movie hits hard and then it just
sticks with you.
PRINTS OF
DARKNESS
by Marc Shapiro
THE MIAMI VICE OF HORROR
The original Fright Night was a hip and
groovy horror film, kind of a Miami Vice
minus Crockett and Tubbs. Bottom line: it was
basically a yuppy retelling of the classic vam-
pire story that made major money (make a
run to the video store if you haven't yet con-
tributed to Fright Night's $50 million war-
chest). Now Fright Night Part 2 has been pois-
ed and ready to sink its fangs for over a year,
and promises more of the scary same.
"Intellectually, the sequel works in a very
new wave sort of way," explains Julie.
Carmen, who portrays Regine, the blood-
sucking sister out to avenge the death of her
brother in the first Fright Night. "This film is
very exotic and sits on the cutting edge all
the way down the line. My character is a
perfect example of how '80s the movie is.
There have been other female vampires over
the years, but Regine is a totally freaked-out
personality; kind of a cross between Tinal
Turner and Catherine Deneuve."
Fright Night Part 2, which once again
features Roddy McDowell as fearless vam-
pire killer Peter Vincent and William
Ragsdale as preppy victim Charley Brewster,
takes place three years after the duo team-
ed up to defeat suave vampire Jerry Dand-
ridge. Things are going swimmingly until
Regine and a whole pack of ghouls and
nasties show up to even the score.
Fright Night Part 2, directed by Tommy Lee
Wallace from a Miguel Tejada Flores and Tim
Metcalfe script, combines equal parts tradi-
tional vampire lore with hip '80s glitz that
made the original Fright Night (cont, on page 116)
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