Renaissance Man

An unemployed executive desperately accepts a job teaching English to a class of underachieving Army recruits to help them complete basic training. He sparks their interest by introducing Shakespeare, and fights with an unimpressed Drill Sergeant.

A standard fish-out-of-water comedy, “Renaissance Man,” released in 1994, is the type of offended, type-A failure with a bunch of likable rejects against the setting of this man’s army. Bill Rago, played by Danny DeVito, is a smart but arrogant advertising man whose overblown ego eventually gets him fired and puts him in the unemployment line.

To his dismay, he finds a job there: he’s told he has to take a short-term teaching position at a nearby army base, or his benefits will be terminated. TV Guide said in their review, “He's not a military type--pre-dawn reveille nearly gives him a heart attack--and he has nothing but contempt for his class, a cross-section of the worst the volunteer army has to offer. If he can't teach them basic language proficiency, they're all going to be drummed out of the military; they've already been labeled the dumbest of the dumb, and they're sullen and resentful. Rago's attitude changes the day they cajole him into reading Shakespeare to them, and the power of great literature wakes up their underused minds.”

Rago begins to get to know them: Donnie, played by Lillo Brancato, Jr., is a street-smart kid from Brooklyn who’s never read anything more difficult than a comic book, but comes through when he’s challenged. Miranda, played by Stacey Dash, is lonely and feels really rejected by her family and society. She sees the army as her last chance. Jamaal, played by Kadeem Hardison (who you might remember from the hit show “A Different World”), is quick with the smart remarks, but inside he feels like he’s looked down upon. Jackson, played by Richard T. Jones, went through school on a football scholarship, and never had to learn anything. Roosevelt, played by Khalil Kain, is hiding from the law. Brian, played by Peter Simmons, is slow and saddened by the memory of his father, who fought in Vietnam. Tommy Lee (Mark Wahlberg) is determined to use the military to improve himself, and Mel (Greg Sporleder) is a sociable follower with an attention deficit disorder.

With Rago’s encouragement, they all make exceptional progress, despite the aggression of their training officer Seargeant Cass, played by Gregory Hines, who thinks they’re rejects and that Rago is wasting their – and his – time. One by one, the recruits face their fears and live up to their responsibilities, and Rago becomes a nicer and gentler person. He even fixes his relationship with his estranged daughter, played by Alanna Ubach.

He prepares an exam for his students, and when he’s told by Colonel James (Cliff Robertson) and Captain Tom Murdoch (James Remar) that he shouldn’t give them a test because if they fail it, they’ll be expelled from the Army, he gives the class a choice. Would they rather all be allowed to leave the class without a grade, or do they want to challenge themselves? They choose the challenge, and they all pass. Rago, now an army man, looks forward to teaching a new class.

TV Guide credited in their review, “RENAISSANCE MAN is an exceptionally unoriginal comedy with a heart-tugging streak as big as Fort Bragg, but it succeeds perfectly well on its own unambitious terms. The cast is slick and well-directed, and pint-sized comedian Danny DeVito's trademark brand of frustrated bluster is perfectly suited to the role of Rago, the vicious flack whose vitriolic tongue defends a heart of pure Jell-O. His transformation into a warm, loving teacher of society's outcasts may not be precisely convincing, but it's smoothly done.”

“Renaissance Man” has all the right things to say: we all have to stop and look at the real world, that our family and friends are more important than high-paying jobs, that everyone has talents and the key is to find them, that the human spirit can embellish under the least promising of circumstances, and that you can’t win if you’re not willing to take the failure. Obviously, the last lesson is one the film itself doesn’t tell. “Renaissance Man” plays it safe all the time.

There are no bad kids in Rago’s class, and definitely no stupid ones. They’re all just misunderstood and abandoned, and their tough, sad lives have amazingly failed to hurt them so badly that they can’t be reached in a matter of months by the first man who believes in them.

The worst thing that happens to any of Rago’s students is that Roosevelt goes to jail after Rago insists to open his file, but his classmates and new friends write to him, and he learns to accept responsibility for his actions. We know he’ll come out of prison a better man.

In the end, “Renaissance Man” is a film with so many laughs and lessons so easy that they’re easily forgettable. TV Guide ended their review by saying, “Despite a major promotional effort, the picture performed disappointingly--a career setback for director Penny Marshall, who had become Hollywood's most bankable woman director on the strength of the smash hits BIG and A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, as well as the critical success AWAKENINGS.”

What’s really surprising is that this movie is not as recognized as much as it should. There’s nothing in this movie that is horrible. So what if it’s about a person who takes a job teaching Shakespeare to army recruits? That’s what makes it so good. They would eventually have to learn it if they chose to go back to school after graduating. Give this movie a chance and watch it because I think this is a really good movie that people don’t give enough credit or remember enough.

Look out next week to see another military movie that Wahlberg starred in when we continue “Mark Wahlberg Month.”