Stand and Deliver (1988)

 This was tonight's viewing pleasure. 

Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) believes that he's supposed to be teaching computer science but instead, he finds himself teaching math to a bunch of inner city kids, some of whom don't appear to even speak much English, but they've been passed along. 

The first hour moves along quickly, with him somehow gaining the respect, even though some of them are in a gang, while others have parents who don't value education. He doesn't take it easy on them, doesn't cut them any slack, and yes, he probably is a bit mean from time to time, but they learn and want to please him. They even sit for the AP calc test, and all pass, something which just blows my mind as math was never my strong suit.

Then the twist comes. Due to everyone making the same mistake (probably because they weren't taught that problem), they are accused of cheating, which just makes my blood boil. And it makes Mr. Escalante's blood boil as well, and after arguing, somehow all the students decide to retake the test, and still all pass, with different scores so no one can accuse them of cheating again. Mr. Escalante is thrilled, though he wants the original scores re-instated. But the epilogue tells us that he continued teaching and more and more students passed the AP calc test yearly, proving that his teaching methods were successful. 

While the film is solid and based on a true story, I was bothered by the pace, I did like the realistic style and the acting (Olmos deserved his Oscar nomination) was also great though there were many characters and we only caught glimpses of their lives outside of the classroom. And the title of the film only comes into play with Mr. Mister's song played over the end credits, which is a great song, by the way, though it wasn't written for the film, the film was named after the song. Still, this film had the potential to be great and it fell just short of that. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-Escalante doesn't wear a wedding ring though he is married with a saint of a wife and two sons.

-The students steal his car and detail it for him as a reward. 

-He suffers a heart attack but leaves the hospital without permission just to back to his students.