Edward James Olmos’ powerful performance as workaholic
teacher Jamie Escalante pushes the movie a lot as Escalante pushes a class of
unmotivated Latinos to study math. “What’s cal-coo-luz?” asks one tough student
who, like the rest, can barely subtract. Kempley mentioned, “Escalante, his
pate peeping through his plastered-back linguine hair, goads, kids and cajoles
the Garfield High seniors into bettering themselves.”
Fearless as he is funny, Escalante faces down Chuco,
played by Daniel Villarreal, with a wisecrack: “Tough guys don’t do math. Tough
guys deep fry chicken for a living.” He loses Chuco but wins the respect of his
partner Angel, played by Lou Diamond Phillips, a gangster wearing a hairnet. He
calls Angel “net head” and threatens, “I’ll break your neck like a toothpick.”
Standing up to bullies still works. His antics become popular when he comes to
class with a meat cleaver – not for self-defense, but to cut an apple in half,
thereby shockingly demonstrating the concept of 50%.
Kempley mentioned, “Unflappable as a Borsch Belter
fending off hecklers, he plays hard to get when the kids start with the smart
talk and spitballs. "You think I want to do this? The Japanese pay me to
do this. They're tired of making everything." He tempts the dispirited
youths, promising them unheard-of powers.”
Angel stays a charming rascal, but a rascal who is
also a calculus genius. The fat girl, the pretty girl, the brain, the boy who
fixes cars, all succeed to meet Escalante’s high expectations and beyond. Tough
hours, racial prejudice, bureaucrats and broken hearts do not discourage him. Kempley
noted, “Chewing their pencils and crinkling their foreheads, the Garfield
seniors enter the Math Super Bowl -- the forbidding National Advanced Placement
calculus test.” However, that is not the end of it.
Kempley mentioned, “This modest, time-tested story
line pits the little people against the establishment, like "The Milagro
Beanfield War," but not so evocatively. Even though Cuban-born director
Ramon Menendez is familiar with barrio culture, there's nothing rich and
pervasive in the movie's atmosphere. The language, yes. But
you can't sense the salsa. It's all math anxiety, and no milieu.”
Perhaps with the limited budget, Menendez has made a
rather simple film. Kempley noted, “He keeps to the classroom instead of the
streets, capitalizing on the charm of his modern Don Quixote and the natural
dynamics inherent in a clique of students. Blackboard computations can't
compare, however, with basketball or bean farmers.” “Stand and Deliver,”
released in 1988, with its small scope, would have made a perfect television
drama focusing on character over action, dialogue over cinematography. It takes
a stand, but not a grandstand.
Olmos is amazing as Escalante, whose determination is
larger than life even though the man isn’t. Kempley said, “He's almost too
human, a pudge whose chest shows through where the buttons gape -- a former
computer nerd with the nerve of Zorro. As the chief troublemaker, Phillips
lends the stardust. Slouched at his desk, his legs stretched out, he oozes the
bravado that adolescents mistake for confidence. But under the machismo,
Escalante finds the perennial schoolboy.”
This isn’t a corny film. “Stand and Deliver” is inspirational,
but never sentimental. It resists so many temptations. It cries out for sentimentality.
However, this is a drama as honest as its protagonist, a work that comes from
the heart – the heart of a computer programmer.
As you may have guessed, this is a very powerful movie
that you should all see. You could compare this to “Lean On Me,” but this is
good in its own respective way. Check it out and see for yourself. My brother
was showing my cousins this one day, so I only saw a little bit of it. Later
on, I checked it out on my own and I fell in love with it. I give this a
recommendation.
Look out next week when I continue “Lou Diamond
Phillips Month” with a film that really got slammed by critics, but I actually
liked.
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