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One Eight Seven (1997)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 4/19

187
4/19: One Eight Seven is a rare 90's film with Samuel L. Jackson in the leading role.

That being said, the story is so compelling that I can tell a teacher wrote the screenplay. It's of the same kind as Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, Class of 1984, and Lean on Me. Good intentions remain the same for teachers, but the students are edgier and harder to reach and the administrators are more impossible to rely on.

I completely get it for Samuel L. Jackson's character, but why can't he work in an easier environment with well-behaved students who want to learn? It'll cut down the aggravation. Plus, killing or doing harm to students won't solve anything.

Clifton Collins, Jr., plays a wannabe gangbanger so convincingly well that he can easily pass for one in real life. His character talks about demanding respect, but look at him: who can take him seriously if he acts stupid, treats his mother like trash, and can't follow directions? Sadly, many students nowadays are exactly like him.

The last fifteen minutes may look absurd when the guys were copying Russian roulette from The Deer Hunter which never happened during the Vietnam War, but this is the truth: the film influenced a lot of people taking on the game while it was shown in theatres during 1978 and 1979 and they continued to do so afterwards.

By the way, Samuel L. Jackson wore a sweater that read Morehouse College which is located in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from there in 1972, majoring in drama. But he, as part of a group, was kicked out in 1969 for taking board trustees and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s father hostage and locking them in an administration building in exchange of meeting four demands including a new black studies program. Talk about irony.

All in all, One Eight Seven is an underrated movie that speaks well to many who have been in the trenches.