Discuss One Eight Seven
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Pyrrhic victory indeed
posted by DRDMovieMusingsSTAFFMOD on August 24, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Be forewarned - this post includes spoilers. Having read the aforesaid, you acknowledge you have been warned, and proceed of your own free will and volition.
I tuned into this movie just because it was Samuel L. Jackson and I was curious, having no idea where it was heading.
One might consider it a tragedy; I'm not quite sure. Let me break down what I saw.
The opening scene is singularly brilliant, showing a man peddling his bicycle furiously. We have the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and the backdrop of Manhattan...but he's not cycling TO Manhattan, he's cycling to Brooklyn. And, even though it's raining, he's smiling. He arrives in a crummy 'hood and to a school rife with all the stereotypical inner-city public high school cues. The environment sucks, but Garfield loves teaching. He lives in Manhattan, but he's giving back, working back in Brooklyn.
Firstly, the main antagonist in this movie is not Benny Chacon; it is not Cesar Sanchez. It is the system. The system was introduced as the bad guy at the very beginning, when Garfield reported the textbook as a threat and was dismissed, only to reveal that he was not informed the student he awarded failing grades was volatile. The system created the conflict, and did nothing to mitigate it. Garfield got stabbed.
He recuperates, ends up temping in LA. He's assigned to a class with students who chased their teacher to a breakdown. "Mrs. Eskander" is noted as being a good teacher, but the system might find against in her a potential legal proceeding, and that's just not fair to what actually happened that drove her out of the class.
Garfield has an awkward first day, which includes a curious lunch encounter with fellow teachers Dave Childress and Ellen Henry. Later that afternoon, Ellen apologizes to Trevor, telling the story of what happened to Mrs. Eskander, and explaining she's got her hands full with Benny, who was assigned to the school as a condition of probation and, even though she testified against him, the system put him into her homeroom class. And, now, he's threatening her, and she's scared.
Well, Benny ends up dead, and his lieutenant Cesar fills the leadership void in their gang. He and Trevor escalate their friction leading to the penultimate showdown. En route, we see Trevor and Ellen begin an innocent friendship that, through their traumas and baggage, is sadly doomed. There was a particularly beautiful dinner date over jazz music in which Trevor said it wasn't the stab wounds themselves that hurt so much as losing "that spark, my unguarded self."
We see him giving extra time and attention to Rita Martinez, who mistakes his overtures as come ons, but he puts her back on track with nary any hint of temptation. He does not take advantage of her. He is a teacher, he loves teaching, he's there to help, not take. During one session, they discuss "Pyrrhic victory" but instead of just telling her what it means, he challenges her to go ahead and look it up.
We also come to find out that Childress is a closeted racist, slurring his racist slurs in a drunken confession that he had a sex with Rita, musing that "she's a slut." He's got tenure, Trevor doesn't. Life, eh? The system.
Eventually, we see Trevor recognized by the principal as a good teacher whom he still must, unfortunately, let go. That sends Trevor over the edge.
In that showdown, Trevor dies, and Cesar dies. But, here's the key...
In the car, just before Cesar, Stevie Littleton, and Paco go into Trevor's house, hellbent on murderous revenge, Littleton and Paco both shave their heads in a sort of rite or ritual. They go into the house, Trevor and Cesar both get shot in the head and, just before Stevie leaves, he says "what's the point?"
Now, at graduation, Rita speaks. Paco did not graduate, but he is shown outside the schoolyard fence, quite literally "on the outside looking in." Paco, that is. What about Stevie?
Well, he's wearing cap and gown, and we see very clearly he grew all his hair back. Stevie Littleton, it would appear, is going to be okay. Not Benny. Not Cesar. Not Paco...but Stevie.
Childress is there. He'll always be there. The system. As for Ellen? She quits. She takes her graduate diploma off the wall, tosses it into a bin, and walks out, during a montage while Rita is telling her graduating class what a "Pyrrhic victory is" - a victory not worth winning because the cost to achieve it is too high.
"The system" seems to be winning. Childress will be there. Stevie graduates. But the cost - good teachers like Eskander, Ellen, Trevor - and kids like Benny, Cesar, Paco, get chewed up in the process. The pyrrhic victory is that the system keeps on keeping on, seemingly winning, but the cost ought to be considered to high to be worth it.
This movie bombed at the box office. I suspect it had not a little to do with the take-away — this movie points an accusatory finger at the status quo, the establishment, the system.
At any rate, that's what I saw.
Your thoughts?
Reply by northcoast
on August 25, 2024 at 9:26 AM
I saw this film shortly after it became available on home video, so probably around 1999 or so. I remember that I liked it. The performances from all involved were vivid, and, despite its poor box office performance, critical reception wasn't awful, if lukewarm (the well-known American critic Leonard Maltin gave it 2.5 stars out of 4).
However, now, reading your summary, DRD, and thinking back on it, I'd say it was a good film, but with some qualifications:
Despite Trevor's passion for teaching that we the audience are told to hang our hats on, the movie really does stretch the bounds of believability. The man was stabbed and seriously injured in one bad New York City school, so he moves across country and teaches in another bad inner-city school? In real life, odds are he's going out on psychological disability retirement if he can, he's going to quit if he cannot, or at the very least, he just absolutely is not going to willingly teach in another "problem" classroom again. He'll teach elsewhere or he'll find another job outside of teaching.
It's also telling in these sorts of movies that all of these really bad kids keep coming to school every day, and the drama continues. At the high school level at least, I just find it hard to believe that the kids who are hardcore gang members also appear to have great attendance records. But then again, if they didn't show up, there'd be no movie.
But, DRD, you are right to point out the "system" and the "establishment", and how bad teachers like Childress seem to be protected. This is the downside of tenure. While I am one of the most pro-Union guys out there, and am in one myself, the system in place to protect livelihoods and the ability to call out management/administrative malfeasance also has the consequence of allowing some truly unfit characters to remain on the job. Also, regarding the "system"-- and I've seen this in my own line of work --there's the double-whammy of not only tenure being abused but also a worksite or a job that is so undesirable that management almost has no choice but to allow bad employees to remain on the job simply because no one else will take the position. It's a tough needle to thread.
Although, in the case of Childress, if it was ever discovered that he was sexually involved with a student, from everything we've seen on the news over the years with these very situations, I don't see any way where a Union contract is going to protect him (which it shouldn't).
Another thought-provoking post from you as always, DRDMovieMusings.
One Eight Seven (1997)--
6 out of 10.
Reply by DRDMovieMusings
on August 25, 2024 at 1:42 PM
Yep, agree! In his first conversation with Ellen, when she first came to his classroom, they talk about his always wanting to teach, and that, for him, quitting wasn't an option. He even challenged her that she could "quit." There is the literary angle here that his attempt to "get back on the horse" and teach troubled, at-risk youth, might have seemed like a victory to him, but at what cost? The "pyrrhic victory" angle may apply to him!
In the end, after all that she's been through and seen with Trevor, she ultimately decides the price to pay to "hang in there" is not worth it; thus, she adds her name to the key characters in this movie who learned from Trevor, and themselves avoided downfall - Rita, Stevie, and Ellen, too. Rita learned to not give up on herself and her dreams; Stevie learned to get his head out of his ass and live upwards, not downwards; and Ellen learned that you've got to "know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run," she learned that, for teachers like Trevor and herself, the system will fail, so she might as well get out while she still can.
Yeah, the tension that keeps them there does seem somewhat contrived. Back when I was in high school, we did not need a note from parents to miss class after we turned 16. I don't know enough about the American system or social mechanisms but, if I were a sub, I'd say to high school kids, "hey, if you don't want to be in this class, don't come to this class; but if you're going to show up, we do it my way." Of course, it's easy for me to say because I'm not a professional teacher in that system, so, what do I know?!
Yeah. You're right. I am pro-union, but can't avoid acknowledging that it's a double-edged sword, not a perfect system. I like that poetic expression - "It's a tough needle to thread"!
And likewise, my friend!
Solid rating, exactly where I rated it as well!
Reply by hamzaakramseo2
on August 28, 2024 at 12:55 PM
nice movie i like this movie