Worst Robin Williams Movie

Rating: 1/10 (7 March 2006)

This movie could have been an interesting cultural and social statement about students attempting to study literature and to be creative in their own individual ways. But that is not what happens in the movie. Based on my observations of the teacher's attitudes and techniques, everything starts on the wrong foot.
Now, the teacher played by Robin Williams proclaims to the students that one should be free-spirited and to be a seeker after art and truth. That is one of the purposes of poetry. There is nothing wrong with that at all. However, that is not what happens in the movie. The teacher played by Robin Williams encourages students to tear out part of a textbook because he disagrees with the author's comments. When I was a student, there were things that I disagreed with in some books, but I would never tear out the pages. How does tearing out pages of a book with which one disagrees encourage creativity and learning ? Moreover, how does such an action teach a student to respect the views of other people, whether you agree with them or not? This type of action tends to foster intolerance rather than creativity. In addition, in the film, the students are encouraged to "find their own space" by wandering around or by standing on top of their desks? This seems to have some value in a psychology experiment, but may have dubious value in a course of English literature.
There is a difference between being "free-spirited" on one hand and rebellious on the other. Being "free-spirited" implies a desire to explore the unknown and to seek truth and beauty. This does not happen in the movie. Rather, the students decide to use some of the comments that they heard in the class to rebel against and provoke the administration. In once case, one student gets paddled. And for what purpose ?
Next, the film could have been an interesting experiment in synthesizing the different approaches to pedagogy when comparing the "old school" structured techniques of the school dean with the "free spirited" techniques of the teacher played by Robin Williams, but once again, this does not happen in the movie. Rather, a full-blown adversary relationship develops which ends tragically. As mentioned earlier, the two points of view and systems can be brought together in harmony, but a meeting of the minds does not happen in the film. A vicious spirit of intolerance develops among the protagonists on both sides, not just with the school dean, but among the students as well.
What later develops in the film is a total disaster as the two systems of pedagogy remain at enmity with each other as Robin Williams is eventually forced out of his position at the school. (One reviewer of this movie stated that the Robin Williams character was trying to use the students as "cannon fodder" in order to wage some sort of battle with the conservative administration for reason that were unclear. Somehow, I did not pick up on that. If true, then the Robin Williams character deserved to be terminated.) Worst of all still, death becomes a reality when one of the students commits suicide, something which should never have entered the plot. The student commits suicide because of his father's objections over his extracurricular thespian activities. Here, one could have come to some sort of common ground between the "old school" attitudes of the father vis-a-vis the "free spirited" lifestyle of his son. But, once again, this does not happen in the movie. Instead, the son kill himself, a cowardly act to be sure, something which should never have happened. From here, the plot degenerates at an accelerated rate. The film at this point becomes totally unwatchable.
The teacher played by Robin Williams is not the direct cause of the suicide, but his approach to unrestrained, unstructured pedagogy that borders on nihilism is a factor that leads up to the events that precede the plot's tragedy. I would like to think that the teacher portrayed by Robin Williams had good intentions that went wrong.
Robin Williams has been in better films such as "Patch Adams" and "Goog Morning, Vietnam". But this film represents his cinematic nadir.
I rated this film 1 out of 10. I would have rated it a total 0 because of the direction of the plot. However, I think 0 out of 10 would still be too generous.
Dan Basinger