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Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.
Synopsis Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) is a teacher at an inner-city school where the anti-social behaviour of the pupils, led by an African American student Gregory Miller (Sidney Poitier), holds sway. Dadier challenges both staff and pupils but the conflict results in anonymous threats against his family. Dadier suspects Artie West (Vic Morrow) as the one making the calls. Music and teen culture The film has also been credited with sparking the Rock and Roll revolution by featuring Bill Haley and the Comets's Rock Around the Clock, initially a B-side, over the film's opening credits, establishing that song as an instant classic. The music led to a huge teenage audience for the film: their exuberance sometimes overflowed into violence and vandalism at screenings.• In this sense, it has been seen as marking the start of a period of visible teenage rebellion in the late 20th century. In March 2005, the 50th anniversary of the release of the film, and the subsequent rise in popularity of Rock and Roll, was marked by a series of "Rock is Fifty" celebrations in Los Angeles and New York City, involving the surviving members of the original Bill Haley and His Comets. The film itself made its North American DVD debut on May 10, 2005. Genre Blackboard Jungle was the first of what would become a popular genre: the film in which an idealistic teacher is confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, who have disengaged from conventional schooling. As so often in later films, issues of race and class lie at the heart of the dynamics. Subsequent films that exploited the theme include: To Sir, with Love (1967; starring Poitier as a black teacher in a white school), Class of 1984 (1982), The Principal (1987), Stand and Deliver (1988), Lean on Me and Dead Poets Society (both 1989), Class of 1999 (1990), Dangerous Minds (1995), and The Substitute (1996). Cast The cast included: Awards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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