Blackboard Jungle

Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film, written and directed by Richard Brooks.  It stars Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow.  It was nominated for (but did not win) four Academy Awards, including Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Black-and-White and Best Film Editing.

The film opens and closes with the rousing rock and roll classic, Rock Around the Clock, written by Max C. Freedman and Jimmy DeKnight.  It is performed by Bill Haley & His Comets.  "One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock..."  Because of this song, the film garnered a large teenage audience and "their exuberant response to it sometimes overflowed into violence and vandalism at screenings."

Blackboard Jungle concerns conflicts between teachers and students at an inner city, all-boys, trade high school.  It contains many adult themes such as juvenile delinquency, sexual assault,  infidelity, and racism.  In spite of the above, my brothers took me to see the film at the Oswego Theater when I was only ten years-old.

Mr. Dadier (Ford), a new English teacher, passionately wants to teach.  However, he can only find a job at a school where the students don't seem to want to learn anything from him.  Mr. Dadier tries to cultivate a relationship with a student named Miller (Poitier) whom he believes could be a positive leader in the classroom.  He is rebuffed.  

Another student named West (Morrow) attempts to cause trouble for Mr. Dadier by writing and telephoning his pregnant wife (Francis), falsely suggesting her husband is with another woman.  West and his gang assault Mr. Dadier and another teacher in an alley one day after school.

After finally making a connection (using video) with Miller and the majority of his students, Mr. Dadier has a final confrontation with a knife wielding West in his classroom.  

Forty-five years after I first saw this film, I experienced my own Blackboard Jungle when I took a job as a World History teacher in an alternative high school in Brooklyn.  I didn't have the same courage as Mr. Dadier and left after a month.