How sad is this?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

As a public high school teacher, I will never forgive Viola Davis for shilling for the Education for Profit corporate machine. The film was an excellent piece of propaganda that would have made Goebbels proud. It is clear that for profit schools do not improve student outcomes. The only charter schools that have been successful are the few not-for profit charters where students come before profit.

On the surface, what we have with "Won't Back Down" is yet another "fight the system" movie, and another one that deals with problems in schools - schools that are run by administrators and school boards who really don't want to listen to parents and their concerns, and filled with unmotivated teachers who are there to collect a paycheque and who, for the most part, don't really care all that much about the students they're supposed to be teaching. That's a pretty standard story. Like most of them, this is "inspired by true events" (another line that by now produces mostly a barely stifled yawn from me.) Now, in truth, this is based on actual events in the sense that the fictional John Adams Elementary School is a sort of composite school, with the teachers and parents also being composite, and the movie depicts the kind of struggle that went on in several schools in California (although, intriguingly enough, the movie is set in Pennsylvania) as parents tried to take advantage of new laws to allow them to essentially take over schools that were underperforming.The whole "charter school" thing is foreign to me, since I'm not an American. I can imagine that trying to do this would be a difficult undertaking, and the movie points out (probably accurately) the roadblocks put up along the way by school boards and teachers' unions. The leads were Maggie Gyllenhall as Jamie Fitzpatrick, whose daughter is dyslexic, and Viola Davis as Nona Alberts, a teacher at Adams with a learning disabled son, who becomes convinced that Jamie is right. The two form an alliance to convince teachers and parents to sign on to the idea to force a vote by the school board on the takeover. Gyllenhall and Davis were both very good in the roles. The movie does what most "fight the system" movies do - it gets the viewer rooting for the underdog who's taking on the evil system.This does, however, come across as heavy-handed and politically motivated, and certainly it's completely unsympathetic to unions. In fact, I spent most of the 2 hour run time feeling as if I was watching a never-ending conservative TV commercial, blasting away at the evils of unions and big government. The movie makes some valid points and raises some valid issues. What do we do about public schools that just aren't turning out educated kids? What do we do about unmotivated teachers who are protected by their union at the expense of their students? What do we do about school boards (or other levels of government) that just won't listen to concerns and follow their own agendas? All valid issues to discuss and debate. But they took this movie over in a way that made this whole movie seem too political, and in the end it turned out to be not so much inspiring as irritating to be perfectly honest. (4/10)

A two-hour-long movie would be expected to have its high points and low points, but KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Anthony Aranda says his favorite "part" is, actually, the entire two hours. The 10-year-old sees this as a film that, he says, "can teach people a lot."And this Twentieth Century Fox release has sparked some discussion by parents who, also, want to make sure their kids' schools are the best they can be. In today's economic climate of budget cuts, it's a strong reminder of how important education is.Won't Back Down Reviewed by Anthony Aranda See his full review on video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_M4vA7r20This movie is awesome. I love it because it has lots of emotion and it's all because a kid has a terrible school and needs a new one so his mom and a teacher help, and I think that is great. This movie is all about a kid who has a terrible school. So her mom and a teacher who works at the school NEWSLETTER BREAK think it's a bad school, so they go against the school to try to make a better one. They have to go through a lot to help the mom's daughter as well as the other kids at the school.Some of the main characters in the movie are Jamie (the mom, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal), Malia (the daughter, played by Emily Alyn Lind), Nona and Michael. My favorite character is Jamie because she cares so much about her daughter that she works very hard to make a new school for her daughter and to shut down the other school named Adams. How she does this is by writing down tons of paperwork, and instead of sleeping she has to go to every house to see if they could team up with her. Luckily, she has a partner named Nona.I could not pick a favorite part because the movie is so good that the whole movie is my favorite part. If I have to pick a favorite, I would probably say when Jamie has a big party to try to convince people to go against the school. There are cookies, a news team, shirts, FREE rulers and, to top it all off, Jamie gives a speech on why they should shut down Adams and build a new school.I would recommend this movie for ages 7 and up because it's really made for an older audience. I still like it a lot and I think that my brother might like it, too, and he's 7, so 7 and up is good. The moral of the movie is really good and can teach people a lot. Go out and see this movie; it comes out in theaters on Sept. 28.

I was attracted to this movie by the power of the trailers, and the movie didn't disappoint. It is an excellent depiction of the problems in an overly regulated and protected public school system, and more importantly, how parents will fight to get a quality education for their kids.Many of the scenes are heart breaking. Why is it that parents have to struggle to get a proper education for their kids.Viola Davis and Maggie G. both give very powerful performances. Davis' performance is as good as her role in 'The Help'. The viewer really feels the pain she has endured personally, and how she has slipped from her early passion for teaching. Glyenhaal's energy is infectious. No problem she faced discouraged her. She was masterful in how she turned each parent and teacher 'no' into a 'yes'.