Great Performance By Morgan Freeman Overcomes Flaws Of The Film

Desertman84

Lean On Me is a film loosely based on the story of Joe Louis Clark,an educator known for his unorthodox means,who was assigned to become high school principal of Eastside High School.He was given the impossible task of reforming the school as it is at the risk of being overtaken by the state government.It stars Morgan Freeman,who portrays Clark,in his ascent to stardom.John G.Avildsen,who is known for underdog films in movies such as The Karate Kid and Rocky,is the director of the movie.

Back in 1987,Joe Louis Clark was assigned to become the principal of Eastside High School,the worst known school in the state that is located at Paterson,New Jersey.The students have done poorly at the state test of minimum basic skills since their average scores hovers around 33% - way below the 75% minimum passing rate.The students have been known to be using drugs and involved with gang violence.When he arrives at the school,the radical Clark reprimands the entire faculty for their inability to control the students and their failure to do their job.Then,he dismisses hundreds of students that are identified as drug dealers and abusers as well as troublemakers.Despite his tyrannical approach and hard-line policies that he implemented that caused a lot of tension and alienation from his fellow faculty members and parents of the students,Clark was able to achieve results as he was able to straighten out Eastside High School later in time and he was able get the school's basic-skills test scores up.This led him to have the the job at the institution permanently. Although his tyrannical approach and hard-line policies alienate many members of the staff and the community, his uncompromising campaign gets results.This make him popular to the dismay of his critics and powerful enemies.

Morgan Freeman provided a great portrayal as Joe Louis Clark that the viewer of the movie would somehow overcome the film's flaws such as predictability and having a formulaic screenplay.Aside from that,it was also cheesy.Although the viewer knows that that Clark will be able to achieve the impossible task of reforming Eastside despite his unorthodox methods and the tensions that were created by the people - students and faculty members - in the school,one will definitely enjoy and get entertained by his interesting peroformance.I could have given this film a rating of 8 BUT Freeman was simply excellent and remarkable that the viewer will definitely care more about his character as well as the actions he has taken instead of the flaws of the film as a whole.

score 10/10

Desertman84 5 May 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3010581/