Synopsis
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the line.
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Cast
- Morgan FreemanPrincipal Joe Clark
- Beverly ToddMs. Levias
- Robert GuillaumeDr. Frank Napier
- Ethan PhillipsMr. Rosenberg
- Lynne ThigpenLeonna Barrett
- Michael BeachMr. Darnell
- Tony ToddMr. William Wright
- Karen Malina WhiteKaneesha Carter
- Alan NorthMayor Don Bottman
- Robin BartlettMrs. Elliott
Recommendations
- 70
Variety
Morgan Freeman's inspired performance as Joe Clark, the New Jersey principal who uses controversial methods to clean up a drug- and crime-ridden high school, makes it easier to forgive John Avildsen's rather glossy and simplistic treatment of a serious dilemma in the public school system. - 70
The New York Times
Audiences are apt to root for the film's Mr. Clark even when they aren't entirely enthusiastic about what he's doing. Much of this is attributable to Mr. Freeman's fiery and compelling performance, but a lot of it also comes from the director John G. Avildsen (''Rocky''), who has stacked the deck in every way he can. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
Lean on Me wants to be taken as a serious, even noble film about an admirable man. And yet it never honestly looks at Clark for what he really is: a grownup example of the very troublemakers he hates so much, still unable even in adulthood to doubt his right to do what he wants, when he wants, as he wants. - 63
Boston Globe
Avildsen's - and the screenplay's - blatant manipulations make Freeman's job harder. To his credit, Freeman not only sustains the level of fever pitch at which Clark operates throughout, but succeeds in making him seem admirable, if not exactly likable. A well-meaning steamroller is still a steamroller. Are people who question Clark necessarily wrong? And why, for instance, do the students have to be presented with an either-or picture of Mozart and gospel music? Why can't they have both? The script to Lean on Me plays like something written by the Reagan administration. It supplies a rationale for white-controlled governments to ignore the educational needs of largely black school districts that need funding most. With Freeman breathing inspirational fire, Lean on Me is never dull. But it sidesteps some troubling questions. [3 March 1989, p.43] - 63
Chicago Tribune
The ability to subjugate everything to the story is both Avildsen's strength and his weakness. Lean on Me, with its warts-and-all hero, its driving rhythm, its carefully calibrated climaxes, is a finely tuned machine. It also happens to be a steamroller. [3 March 1989, p.Q] - 63
Miami Herald
Lean on Me is one of those movies that you know is swollen with hyperbole, but that you want to like anyway. Freeman provides a big reason. [3 March 1989, p.5] - 60
Empire
An unsatisfying conclusion, but an inspirational story deftly handled by Freeman. - 60
Los Angeles Times
The problem with Lean on Me is a stripped-down script with no room left in it for complexities, and revved-up direction that makes it move anyway.
