LEAN ON ME Movie Reaction! | First Time Watching

[@ChefPatrickChase]

interesting how when Joe Clark is walking down the hallways of the school for the first time since he left you can hear the opening bars of the school song being played in a rather disjointed manner

[@jerseyjon73]

I was a high school student in the late 1980s, living a couple of towns from Patterson and East Side High. It was a ROUGH school back then. And by the 1980s, it wasn't far off from what they showed. (Although I don't believe it was a graffiti post-apocalyptic war-zone look as depicted.)That part of Patterson had seen demographics change from the 1950s/1960s to the 1980s with the ending of blue collar jobs in that area leading to anyone who could afford to move...moving. The "based on a true story" needs to be taken into account. I liked Joe Clark. But he was a polarizing figure nationwide. I remember him on the cover of time magazine holding the baseball bat. He did throw out about 300 students who weren't at school to learn. And he improved the physical building and created a much safer learning environment for the students and faculty. However, reversing a trend given the socio-economics of the area takes time. Unfortunately for Joe, the test scores (unlike in the movie) didn't improve. And by 1991 he was fired with the school being taken over by the state. But as many people have said, when you have a school in this bad of shape, you need an authoritarian first to clean it up. That was Joe. Once it is cleaned up, then you can switch your approach and focus on education. Unfortunately, the public has little patience and thinks there is a Superman to fix things overnight. Unfortunately, Eastside is ranked around 370th our of 376 public school is New Jersey.

[@ccjtv809]

Members of my family are fortunate enough to be friends with the Clark family

[@joshandcasey]

Oh wow! That is very cool!

[@user-zp6kq9sy9b]

mr clark gave that dude a right cross

[@ChefPatrickChase]

i went to two different highschools both had a flight song one was the same as the Notre Dame university song “Beer Beer” this school also had its school Hymm the second highschool i ended up graduating from only had a flight song “On wisconsin “

[@curtisberard7831]

WE DON'T WANT A GOOD PRNICIPAL! WE WANT MR. CLARK!

[@joshandcasey]

Yes we do!

[@geeskin5750]

Unintentionally funny lol

[@blueberryrazz8637]

The woman who was against Joe Clark did so because her kid was one who was expelled at the beginning of the movie, so she has a grudge and a lot of time on her hands.

[@joshandcasey]

Right thanks for clarifying! Too much time on her hands

[@scottarooni]

Thanks for your reaction, guys! One question you asked that you may not have had answered is what was in the envelope that Ms. Levias crumpled at the "pep rally" for the test. Mr. Clark granted her the transfer she requested. In the previous scene, she asked to be transferred out of Eastside High because she could not take Mr. Clark's cruelty anymore. Her words finally got through to Mr. Clark and he acknowledged her publicly during the assembly. This made her change her mind about the transfer, so she threw it away. Director John G. Avildsen has at least two other popular "underdog" films under his belt: "Rocky" (1976) and "The Karate Kid" (1984). In many ways, "Lean on Me" follows this same feel-good format. He and writer Michael Schiffer definitely took some dramatic license to create villains to increase the conflicts in the film. However, as you discovered in your research after the film, the real Joe Clark said that 95% of the film was accurate. I'm actually glad to know that the mayor of Paterson, NJ actually supported Joe Clark at the time. The audience will always buy a corrupt politician in a movie, though, right? LOL Mr. Clark's method was "tough love." Sometimes, he concentrated too much on the tough and not enough on the love. That's a good lesson for all of us to learn, I think, even if it was overdramatized for the movie. 🙂

[@joshandcasey]

Thanks for the background and recommendation Scott! This was a great watch and is definitely a classic feel good movie, Morgan Freeman killed it

[@jennifergrove2368]

So, the reason why a lot of the adults butted heads with Joe Clark is because he was hard headed, stubborn, and didn't give any respect to them. And that he would do obnoxiously drastic things to get what he wanted, like put chains on the doors to keep the drug dealers out even though that was violating the fire codes. So then the people he disrespected retaliated against him. They ound every fault in what he was doing in order to do so. But he got that school into shape, so he did end up meeting his goal.

[@joshandcasey]

That was my issue with him, he genuinely wanted to help and I’m sure that there were teachers causing problems but he treated the teachers in the same way he did students in many cases

[@wilsonsmanz]

You guys were way too harsh on Mr Napier. Look, Joe did some things that were problematic even though he was trying to turn the school around. You cannot just "fire" a teacher like that, especially because you felt she didn't take you seriously enough. Then he suspended the black teacher for picking up a piece of paper. There were a lot of complaints coming from all directions and some of them were legitimate. Dr Napier has to deal with that as the boss or supervisor of Mr Clark. So you guys are down on him as if he didn't believe he could turn the school around but he always believed in him. He had Joe's back at the very start of the movie.

[@visaman]

Too bad you cut out the HNC scene. That was the best part of the movie.

[@joshandcasey]

Sorry, we’re still working on how to get all the best scenes in. Hope you’ll stick with us and thanks for watching!

[@powerof3ozzyluver2]

I was bullied by teachers and kids all through school and jobs

[@joshandcasey]

Sorry to hear that, must have been hard to go through

[@johnWilliams-nn2iv]

President Trump is Joe Clark America is east side high

[@visaman]

Joe Clark was also the Canadian Prime Minister in 1979.

[@MisterR82]

U know nothing of impoverished communities nor what Eastside High was really like back in those days. Be thankful you have the luxury of not knowing… Trump? Pffft….he was a rich kid stealing from normal everyday folks like yourself 💯

[@EricCartmanez125]

Trump is no closer to Joe Clark

[@ghostsquirrel8739]

Uhhh no.

[@ChefPatrickChase]

hell yeah