Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is a very underrated and under-appreciated film based on a true story of a New jersey school principal who is faced with the task of trying to turn a struggling school back around.This concept has been done many times before like in dangerous minds and other alike movies but this movie is different as it came first, is based on a true story and lastly that Morgan Freeman absolutely nails this role. All of the acting is strong in this film, even though there are a lot of no name one time actors in this movie the main characters are strong and again Morgan Freeman gives the performance of his life.If you are a Morgan Freeman fan and have not seen this movie you need to watch.... NOW!!!!

"This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, how can you teach? Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm!" In the 1980s, Joe Louis Clark became the new principal of Eastside High School, located in Paterson, New Jersey, which was one of New Jersey's toughest inner city schools. He managed to turn the school around, despite the people who criticized him and tried to stop him. It's no wonder that a few years later, in 1989, a film version of his story was released. The film, which stars one of the best actors alive, Morgan Freeman, managed to gross 3x it's budget and became a big success due to it's storyline and characters. How does the film hold up twenty-six years later? Lean On Me follows a former teacher at Eastside High School who comes back twenty years later as the Principal, and finds that the school is in need of dire help in order to keep the state from gaining control of the school.I first heard about this film due to my mother, who watched it several times when I was younger, and that was how I remember scenes like the ending and the song, Lean On Me. So, when I saw the film was going to be on for the last time for a while, I recorded it and sat down to watch. Man, this is a pretty good film.The acting is phenomenal, most notably from Morgan Freeman. I have no idea how Freeman didn't get nominated for Best Actor for his role as Joe Clark, because he does a fantastic job, what with all the speeches and the powerful scenes he has to carry. Beverly Todd does a great job as Mrs. Levias, and the best scene she does is one toward the end of the film, fighting against Morgan Freeman's character about what he's supposed to be doing with the kids at the school.Alan North does a fine job as the Mayor. Robert Guillaume does a phenomenal job as well as Dr. Napier, and his best scene comes about midway through the film when he and Clark argue about Clark's methods of controlling his students. Lynne Thigpen does a deliciously evil job as Mrs. Barnett, a parent who doesn't agree with Clark from the beginning and does her best to get him fired.The music in the film was great. The instrumental music, composed by Bill Conti, was fantastic and fit all the songs they were used in. The other songs, which were songs like Welcome to the Jungle and of course, the titular song, Lean On Me, all worked very well. The cinematography, and set design, especially in the shots of the rundown Eastside High all look very convincing and the school looks even better when it's redone.The script was very riveting and was great at really portraying how these kids acted and how Mr. Clark was going to deal with them. It was all very refreshing, a script that really showed the reality of these kids and didn't just demonize them or praise them to make things more dramatic or interesting. Perhaps my only issue with the film is that the whole film feels very brutal, never really slowing enough to let some of the more emotional moments sink in.Overall, Lean On Me is a fantastic film. While I did have some issues with the overall brutal feel of the film, the acting, music, cinematography, set design and script are all fantastic and work about as well as they could have in this setting. I'm honestly shocked Morgan Freeman didn't get an Oscar nod for his revolutionary performance here. If you haven't seen it, go see it if only for the amazing performances that definitely should have received some Oscar nods.9/10. | Grade: A-

Lean on Me (1989)A rousing movie about possibility and overcoming obstacles. It's an uncomplicated movie, telling in a linear way about the six month hard core reform of a very troubled inner-city high school. But it will make you feel good if you have any sentiment in you.Morgan Freeman is the newly installed principal with an idiosyncratic zeal that is perfect for this rough and tumble school. He tactics are severe—and seemingly heartless— kicking out hundreds of kids and punishing countless others for seemingly small offenses. But he certainly takes charge, and that was foremost. The students respond. Test scores improve.One of the messages here is still pertinent, and he puts it well to the whole group. If you are failing, it's not the fault of your parents, or the white folks. It's your fault. And so personal accountability is step one, then and now. The teachers seem mostly on target, though they get some abuse from his as well. (The chorus teacher in particular seems brilliant, but since she is teaching Mozart instead of the school song she is on the wrong side.) And so it goes, piece by piece, person by person.I say uncomplicated, but simplistic might be another word. This kind of reform must have been even more complex and stressful and painful than the movie shows—this isn't a documentary one bit. In fact, this is more of a fable, a kind of message driven tale of a man with a mission who overcomes the odds. That it's rooted in fact is only a small tweak to the larger point.

Based on the true story of Joe Clark, 'Lean on Me' features Morgan Freeman as the controversial teacher tasked with recovering Eastside High, a decaying school that has become a den of violence, drug abuse and all-around despair. While inspirational teacher dramas are nothing new ('To Sir, with Love' comes right to mind, as well as that same year's 'Dead Poets Society'), 'Lean on Me' is uncommon in how the teacher is depicted. True to the real-life Joe Clark, Freeman portrays a tough, quasi- tyrannical teacher that is not afraid of taking extreme measures to keep (or instate) the discipline in the school. There is no idealistic, fantasy-esque 'talk settles everything' development here; Clark is brutally realistic in his views of the school's problems and is not afraid of answering in the same way rather than smooth-talking and merely 'putting his faith on the goodness of the delinquents'.Another good anti-cliché is that the other teachers are not exempt from this. Most school dramas seem to base themselves on the premise that 'everyone is a genius, they just need to be listened to'; in other words, if you teach discipline to the students or give them support them they will automatically ace all tests/recover their grades as if on a miracle. 'Lean on Me' shows that bettering the behavior is a step on the right direction, but is not everything; Clark demands from the professors the same hard-work, dedication and discipline he does from the students.After all, how can you help them if you don't lead by example?This screenplay is not perfect though: the ending seems to flirt with the idealistic feel of other school dramas, and there seems to be plot contrivances. The supporting characters are mostly underdeveloped, and small subplots brought up here and there are either barely touched upon or made irrelevant in light of the focus on Clark's story. It doesn't help, or maybe it does, that Morgan Freeman gives one of his best performances and outshines everyone and everything in here, making these subplots easy to forget.All in all, a remarkable drama with one of the best Morgan Freeman performances I've ever seem. A great watch, and a refreshment for the 'teacher drama subgenre'. Now, if only more real teachers would not be afraid to act out like him...