Our post today is from Olga, who runs the Good Movie Finder blog. Ever since she was a little girl, she’s been a big fan of cinema and psychology. She used to ask myself all the time, “Can a movie be a personal therapist?” The answer is simple: yes. A gifted film can transform the soul and consciousness.
Last year, my eldest son went to school, and I realized how complex and responsible the work of a teacher is. Today, I want to tell you about top movies about teachers helping students. In these pictures, the teachers are real heroes without weapons, and children have hope to get out of the endless circle of circumstances and environmental pressure and become individuals.
What kind of teacher paints the best pictures of world cinema?
Mona Lisa Smile, 2003.
Events take place in the 50s. At that time, women were depicted in advertising as housewives with a toaster in one hand, three beautiful, washed children in the other, and a fragrant dinner steaming in the center of the table just in time for her husband to come home from work.
In this historical context, there are college girls whose main purpose of staying in college is to pass the time until they get married. The new teacher is a staunch feminist. She is trying to prove to intelligent, educated and purposeful girls that they have a choice and the opportunity to fight for their place in the world.
Front of the Class, 2008.
It is an American drama based on the autobiographical book by Brad Cohen. He got Tourette syndrome, with its unexpected tics in the facial muscles and vocal cords in early childhood.
The boy dreamed of becoming a teacher, which is almost impossible with his illness. It is not enough to get an education; you need to find a job. And only some directors will dare to hire a teacher with problematic speech and facial expressions. But Cohen was very persistent, made his dream come true, partially healed himself, and helped many of his students believe in themselves.
It is one of my best-loved movies about teachers based on a true story. Check out my selection of movies about life purpose based on a true story if you love inspirational movies.
Detachment, 2011.
Henry Barthes works as a temporary teacher. He moves from school to school and replaces teachers who are forced to leave their charges in the middle of the school year. Thus, he may not fear responsibility and does not become attached to anyone.
Another replacement brings him to a highly dysfunctional school, where a student falls in love with him and many difficulties also occur in Henry’s life. The teacher inevitably changes, filling history with philosophical discussions about the gloom and injustice of life.
It is not a template movie about the relationship between a class and a teacher. It is a story about not judging a person by their first impression and about the fact that behind every troubled teenager, there is a story.
Freedom Writers, 2006.
1994. Two years have passed since the Los Angeles riot, but racial issues are still pressing.
The focus is on guys from a criminal area full of representatives of various nationalities. They have different cultures and backgrounds, but they also have something in common: they all grew up among street gangs and constant fights, losing loved ones and friends. It is the setting where we find a white teacher with a bit of an upper-class lifestyle but a sensitive and sensitive heart. The film is based on actual events. At the end of the film, you can see the actual students themselves, and it’s damn touching.
Suck Me Shakespeer, 2013.
Oh, this is one of the funniest movies about teachers. By the way, it is a trilogy.
Zeki Muller is a professional bank robber. One day, he was caught in the act of a crime but managed to give the money to his girlfriend. And she buried them around the school. Having honestly served his sentence, Zeki gets a job there as a teacher to find his treasure and suddenly realizes that he likes his current life.
In the second film, Zeki travels with his class to Thailand, and this trip is filled with incredible adventures. And in the third part, the teacher will fight to the death with the laziness of his students before the final exams.
The Chorus, 2004.
Clément Mathieu is a music teacher and hapless who lost his job. And that’s why he was happy about the vacancy at the Bottom of the Pond boarding school, where disadvantaged teenagers live and study. The director, Rachin, supports harsh measures towards his students, but the more he punishes them, the more they misbehave.
Mathieu is a kind and open person, sincerely passionate about his work. Despite the ridicule of teenagers and the icy skepticism of his colleagues, he organizes a choir at the boarding school. It unites children, infects them with a common idea, allows their creativity to emerge, and lets them outgrow the hooligan period. The Chorus is one of the touching movies about teachers helping students for me.
Coach Carter, 2005.
Coach Carter is a teen sports biopic about the real-life Carter, who coached the Richmond High School basketball team. Ken Carter played for the same Richmond Oilers team 30 years ago, and after becoming a coach, he confidently led his guys to victory. After half the season, they are invincible and are eager for new brilliant battles.
But suddenly, Carter ends his team’s winning streak by refusing to field them for the following games. And all this is due to poor overall performance at school. This decision caused heated debate in the United States, where there is a long-established tradition of forgiving good players for their extreme ignorance and low scores.
Rita, TV series 2012-2020
Rita is an acclaimed Scandinavian series with five seasons about a teacher who tries to balance her work and personal life, constantly confusing the two.
Rita is a non-trivial teacher. Her motto is: “Protect students from their parents.” She tries to be a friend to her charges, approving and supporting the teenage free spirit. But she has a lot of problems with raising children, frankly difficult teenagers, with smoking, which she is not able to quit. And there’s no need to talk about discipline, responsibility, and pickiness in relationships.
Renaissance Man, 1994.
Renaissance Man is a funny family comedy starring Danny DeVito. He portrayed Bill Rago, an unemployed man who was asked to teach basic literacy to American soldiers in 6 weeks.
At first, Bill is sure that this is an easy task, but he quickly finds out, to his horror, that most of the privates are almost illiterate. Moreover, they are not going to study. Bill finds a way out of the situation – he gets young people interested in Shakespeare’s heroic opuses, which soon become firmly part of the daily routine of the Fort McClain military base. This film is hilarious!
Dead Poets Society, 1989.
It is an award-winning dramatic film with a powerful ending, one of the best works in Robin Williams’s career. The story follows John Keating, an idiosyncratic teacher who joins the traditional American Wellton School one day. The institution operates under inflexible rules for teachers, while students are expected to be diligent and obedient.
Keating turns the life of the prim society of the school upside down and reveals in the students a thirst for knowledge and a thirst for pioneering.
Precious, 2009.
A 16-year-old black schoolgirl from Harlem named Precious is obese, does poorly in school, and lives with a mother who beats her for any offense. The family exists on a tiny allowance from the state. Precious already has a daughter with Down syndrome, but she becomes pregnant with her second child, which is why she is transferred to an alternative school with equally “prosperous” schoolgirls.
It seems that she can no longer get out of this, but the heroine meets a person ready to lend a helping hand – a teacher at an alternative school.
Take the Lead, 2006.
This last film is for music and dance fans! A professional dancer decides to teach his talent to students at a New York public school. At first, his idea of dancing differs from the preferences of his young charges, but soon, they create an entirely new dance style.
This energetic movie is so enjoyable to watch. Watch more tango scenes in movies if you like this sensual spin.
Final Words
I believe that teaching is a magical profession. After all, you can take and give the world a new Einstein, Marie Curie, an excellent aircraft designer, or a divine musician. Or you can raise children to be thinking, kind and open-minded. And we don’t even know whether the first or the second will change the world more!
