To Sir With Love (DVD)

To Sir, With Love' has to be one of my favourite films of all time and I have watched it more times than I can remember. If I ever feel in need of uplifting, watching this film on DVD is sure to leave me with a feel good feeling!

The film, which is based on the novel by E R Braithwaite, tells the story of Mark Thackeray, played superbly by Sidney Poitier, an out of work engineer from British Guyana, who takes a temporary job in a tough ...
...fifteen year olds just waiting to leave! No other teacher has managed to last the distance with them, and when Mr Thackeray first enters the classroom he is faced with sullen demotivated young people who are not prepared to give him a chance. He takes all sorts of flack as he attempts to teach them in a conventional way, with nothing seeming to work. He is almost at the point of giving up on them himself, something he desperately does not want to ... more

To Sir, With Love' has to be one of my favourite films of all time and I have watched it more times than I can remember. If I ever feel in need of uplifting, watching this film on DVD is sure to leave me with a feel good feeling!

The film, which is based on the novel by E R Braithwaite, tells the story of Mark Thackeray, played superbly by Sidney Poitier, an out of work engineer from British Guyana, who takes a temporary job in a tough secondary school in London, whilst waiting to secure an engineering post. He is given the worst class in the school - a bunch of fifteen year olds just waiting to leave! No other teacher has managed to last the distance with them, and when Mr Thackeray first enters the classroom he is faced with sullen demotivated young people who are not prepared to give him a chance. He takes all sorts of flack as he attempts to teach them in a conventional way, with nothing seeming to work. He is almost at the point of giving up on them himself, something he desperately does not want to do, until the final straw when he discovers that they have done something quite unspeakable with a sanitary towel!

At this point in the film Mark Thackeray really is at a crossroads - he either turns his back on these kids or he radically rethinks his approach! He opts for the second choice and suddenly hits on what is at the heart of the problem - everyone thinks of them as children when really they are young adults and need to be treated as such! The rest of the film follows what happens once he starts treating them as adults - and best of all, all the class start treating each other with respect too! By the end of term, miracles have been worked and a once demotivated set of youngsters are now fresh faced and full of optimism for the future.

In my view, Sidney Poitier really makes this film. His portrayal of the young teacher is incredibly moving - unassuming, caring, determined all at the same time! He plays this role in such an understated way but is so convincing as well! There is also an excellent supporting cast too particularly the young set of actors who play the class pupils. This was the film that actually introduced Lulu and she plays a down to earth, hard faced school girl. She also sings the wonderful title song which her character also sings to Mark Thackeray at the leavers party! A very young Judy Geeson also appears playing another wordlywise young girl who ends up having an enormous crush on her handsome teacher. Other well known names include Adrienne Posta (another of the classmates) and Christian Roberts as Denham, at first Mr Thackeray's biggest adversary until even he is turned around!

There are also a set of teachers who share a few staff room scenes and are quite incredulous of the new teacher's approach! These include Patricia Routledge and Suzy Kendall, who plays a young teacher and there is a bit of a love interest there as well!

The film also has excellent background music as well, and particularly memorable is the title song which went on to be a hit for Lulu. This comes at both the beginning and end of the film and I think the lyrics are very moving as they describe how these pupils would do anything for their very special teacher!

As the film was set in the sixties it is also great to watch to see the fashions of the day and also hear some of the music - the Mindbenders are heard at the discos they hold!

I think that some people might look on this film as sentimental, and there is a certain amount of sentimentality there, agreed! But I also think there are some important messages that can be gained as well particularly in the way that the teacher starts to treat the pupils with respect. I'm not too sure that his approach would work in our comprehensive schools these days - but you never know whether there might be some food for thought there for some disillusioned secondary teachers!

The film was actually made in 1967 so it is 40 years old this year, but in my mind it has certainly stood the test of time, and if you have never seen this film I do thoroughly recommend it!

My DVD does not actually seem to have any extras beyond the basic menus but that is probably because it is such an old film now. The upside of this is that it can be bought quite cheaply - at present Amazon is selling it for £2.18!  

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