Stand and Deliver in the Film Blackboard Jungle

“Killing Mr. Griffin,” written by Lois Duncan is a novel involving a group of teenage students at a New Mexico high school who seem to all despise their English teacher due to several aspects of his negative likewise rude personality. In an effort to gain the respect they believe they deserve, the students kidnap Mr. Griffin, their teacher. However, events do not follow as planned, leaving Mr. Griffin dead. A film was produced based on Lois Duncan’s novel in 1997, which shared the same title, and a similar plot.

Black and white teenagers listen alike to rock music on the radio and attended clubs to hear it, together. Rock ‘n’ Roll’s roots helped accustom white teens to black music through the lenses of white, male vocalists—a normalcy to ground these drastic changes in race relations. The stars, like Elvis Presley—know for his sexual and riveting performances—began to blur the line between different forms of music and more importantly, black and white music.3 Rock ‘n’ Roll music was a blend of these two different cultures, demonstrating the enormous consumer power of this emerging youth culture and giving it the power to unite an entire

The social and political context of the 1950’s is crucial to any understanding of the birth of rock n roll.

The story is a recount of bullying, told from the point of view of Davy Morne, who describes himself as one of the worst of the bullies. The victim is Herbie, the only indigenous kid at the school, who is brutally bullied for being noticeably different; because he has strong Indigenous features. He is described, “as black as a crow,” imagery which reinforces this difference, as does the language in words like “Boong”, “Nigger” and “Abo”, words which appear in the opening sentences, grabbing the reader’s shocked attention and compelling the reader to continue because how can anyone get away with such brazenly, racist language. Archie Weller excelled throughout the course of this story in his use of imagery: every sentence carried a vivid imagination, from the description of Herbie, his bullies or his torture and all this was cleverly done from the point of view of young Davy Morne.

The black characters in the novel are all victims of this “separate but equal” mentality; the younger characters yearn for real equality and the older characters have settled in to their lives by accepting their “fate.” The existing structures of society in Bayonne, Louisiana prevent black characters such as Grant Wiggins and Vivian from ever breaking out of their social class; both are forced to remain in their lives as teachers of young black children who will also grow up to live limited lives. Wiggins says of his classroom, “I’m the teacher... and I

Rock and Roll comes from the mid-1950s and is a combination of a blues, country music, and gospel music. Bill Haley and The Comets are considered the driving force behind the start of rock and roll. In the summer of 1955 Bill Haley and The Comets, had the first Rock and Roll song to be placed on the top of the Billboard best sellers, most played song on jukeboxes, and the most played by disc jockeys. Rock around the clock is a very iconic song written and performed by Bill Haley and the Comets, and is recognized as a timeless Rock and Roll song and showcases the bands western and country roots. Even though Bill Haley and The Comets had started the Rock and Roll genre, the audience wasn’t there and shortly died out. As a result, there

New and exciting technologies have always played a huge role in the culture of American people. When the motion picture came out it was no surprise that both consumers and producers were more than happy to get in on the action. Back in the 1920’s film was still pretty new and was only in black and white with no sound, but the films were always accompanied by orchestral pieces to help set the mood. The art of movie-making has come a long way since then with the addition of not only color and audio, but new techniques and new ideas. Both The Kid and Iron Jawed Angels are very popular films about the early 1900’s. Although they share some common thoughts, but because they were made in two completely different time periods their focuses are

The education system in Bayonne was also far from ideal, and Gaines shows the injustices Black children face versus their white peers. The students are forced to get down on their knees to use the benches as desks or do their work in their laps (36). The students are so incredibly disadvantaged that they do not even have desks to write on to do their work, whereas the White children presumably have a well furnished school. This clear distinction between children’s’ learning environments shows just how bad the racism in Bayonne truly was. They are merely innocent children and they are already treated differently from their white peers. Gaines describes Grant’s class to show readers the circumstances of the Black community in comparison to the White school district. Additionally, the school year, according to Grant is only,” five months, and when the children are not needed in the field” (36). Even though slavery had been abolished almost a century prior, the Black children were still deprived of a proper education due to the field work that they were forced to complete. Grant also has to attempt to ration his supplies, because the school board does not give him an adequate amount for the year and at one point tells a

Newsies, a classic musical based on the late 1800’s is a very entertaining and family friendly musical-- except for the few profane words. On a cloudy, partially rainy saturday morning, I laid out on the couch and watched the movie from the comfort of my own home. I was hesitant to watch this movie because I am not much of a musical person. About midway through I found myself at the edge of my seat hypnotized by the movie. As the movie drew to an end, I was completely sucked in and waited for something more. The movie I so dreadfully did not want to watch became something I did not want to end.  In this movie the director and composer correlated their scenes and music perfectly together to touch the thoughts and emotions of the audience watching.

Rock ‘n’ roll has played a major role in some known historical developments post World War 2. Music plays a significant part in America 's Cold War culture. Music gave us a sense of new technologies and helped the world to prosper. It also is linked with African Americans living in the South. Music was known for shaping the lives of the people during the 1950s and 1960s. Music was geared towards the youth, race, ethnicity, gender and class. “All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America” by Altschuler, Glenn C, tells us the story of the birth of rock and roll during the concrete years of 1955 to 1965. Altschuler gives us a overview of how rock ‘n’ roll has an historical context. “ For two years the Times printed dozens of

The musical film has always held a special place for me. From my time as a drama student in high school, my eyes have been opened to the amazing world of the musical and especially the musical film. The musical film is a film genre in which the characters sing songs that are integrated into the overall story. Since musicals first began in theaters, musical films usually contain similar elements. These elements often simulate that there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the film viewers become the audience members, at a theater production, as the actor performs directly to them. Due to the popularity of musicals in the theater, the style was quickly brought over into film. In 1927, the musical film genre began

We discussed in class how a movie made about eras past has twenty-twenty hindsight about what constitutes popular music, whereas if this film were made in the 1970s it might make some poor musical decisions. Anytime the radio is playing or non-diegetic music is used it is a piece of music that is still popular today. It is possible for a movie to successfully guess what piece of music will transcend generations, as was the case in the movie Blackboard Jungle, but the music might have been used to create a much different effect.

Throughout the book Black Boy by Richard Wright sheds light on the interesting life of the writers personal memories. Richard is living in a community coming out of slavery as a first generation feeling freedom. His life starts off at a young age and spans through till his days as a successful writer. Many motifs throughout his life repeats in his writing topics. During his years fire is a common perspection expressed in many metaphorical ways and physical, this expression extends to his educational, religious, and psychological mindsets.

For me, what’s interesting about School of Rock is not its relationship to countless other fish-out-of-water films, or even necessarily its relationship to other rock and roll films. It’s what I call the rock and roll rhetoric, the social assumptions about rock music that those who love it assert as a means of justifying their interest in it. According to Rock and Roll Rhetoric, rock sets you free from conformity, from boredom, even from the everyday, nine-to-five world. Rock and roll, Dewey tells the kids, is about “stickin’

The release of Gordon Hollingshead and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the new age of synchronised sound in cinema. The feature film was a huge success at the box office and it ushered in the era David Bordwell describes as ‘Classical Hollywood Cinema’; Bordwell and two other film theorists (Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson) conducted a formalist analysis of 100 randomly selected Hollywood films from the years 1917 to 1960 in order to fully define this movement. Their results yielded that most Hollywood made films during that era were centred on, or followed, specific blueprints that formed the finished product. Through this analysis of Hollywood films the theorists were able to establish stylised conventions and modes of