Teachers [Blu-ray]

Director: Arthur Hiller Arthur Hiller

Overview

Arthur Hiller directed this satiric look at contemporary urban high schools, examining disillusioned teachers who try to regain their idealism. Nick Nolte stars as Alex, a teacher at John Fitzgerald Kennedy High School, who was once an idealistic teacher but whose main concern now is sobering up before the next class session. The high school is headed by ineffective principal Mr. Horn (William Schallert) and an imperious vice-principal named Roger (Judd Hirsch). When a recent graduate of the high school sues the school because it graduated him illiterate, Alex finds himself in conflict with the hard-nosed school superintendent Dr. Burke (Lee Grant). The high school heats up even more when Alex falls in love with Lisa (JoBeth Williams), the attractive lawyer who was once one of Alex's honor students.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/28/2015
UPC:	0887090098601
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	R
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	12,687

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Nick Nolte	Alex
JoBeth Williams	Lisa,Attendant
Judd Hirsch	Roger
Ralph Macchio	Eddie
Allen Garfield	Rosenberg
Lee Grant	Dr. Burke,Actor
Richard Mulligan	Herbert
Royal Dano	Ditto
William Schallert	Horn
Art Metrano	Troy
Laura Dern	Diane
Crispin Glover	Danny
Morgan Freeman	Lewis,Brinkman
Madeleine Sherwood	Grace
Steven Hill	Sloan
Zohra Lampert	Mrs. Pilikian
Mary Alice	Linda Ganz
Katharine Balfour	Theresa,Theresa
Virginia Bonnell	Nurse,Nurse
Virginia Capers	Landlady
Ellen Crawford	Social Worker
Terry Ellis	Tim Hahn
Patricia Gaul	Lowe
Anthony Heald	Narc
Ronald Hunter	Mr. Pilikian
Julia Jennings	The Blonde
Stephen Mendillo	Lecture Cop
Jeff Ware	Malloy
Richard Zobel	Propes
Da Nang McKay	Wounded Kid
Virginia Smith	Lee
Ray Noch	Dan Hall
Maria D. Magisano	Alvado
Bill Marinella	Paller
Andrew Ream	Henson
Jennifer Quilty	Sarah
Kimberly Pullins	Guard
David Caltrider	Guard
Marvin Morgan	Guard
Donte St. John	Guard
Ken Feil	Guard
Vicki Lynn Puzinas	Guard
Danny Levinson	Guard
Shantel R. Chappel	Guard
Tony Lincoln	Guard
Wilbert Bradley	Guard
Roy Dean	Guard,Guard
Jamie Newell	Guard
Ronald Merians	Guard
Zaid Farid	Cop
Bernard Canepari	Cop
Will Zahrn	Cop
Paul Zegler	Attendant
Dick Sollenberger	Attendant
Phillip Wilson	Teacher,Teacher

Technical Credits

W.R. McKinney

Arthur Hiller	Director
Irwin Russo	Executive Producer,Producer,Producer
Chuck Schulthies Jr.	Special Effects
W.R. McKinney	Screenwriter
Jerry Jost	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Arthur Hiller's Teachers contains -- or more appropriately, fails to keep contained -- every single issue that could conceivably face the contemporary high school. In turn it serves as a preview of the feverish sensationalism otherwise known as Boston Public, David E. Kelley's overly topical TV drama that would arrive 15 years later. But, earnest moments aside, Teachers is more clearly a satire. One teacher makes his students face the opposite direction and quietly work while he reads the paper; a second attacks her colleague with the squirted blue ink from a mimeograph machine; a third carries a gun in her briefcase. And did we mention there's an escaped mental patient working as a substitute? Teachers stays on top of this messy abundance of subplots by way of its good humor, plus an all-star cast fronted by Nick Nolte and JoBeth Williams. Solid professionals like Judd Hirsch, Morgan Freeman and Richard Mulligan also keep it from going off the rails as issue after issue collide. At the same time, Teachers can't be taken seriously enough to work as a real inspirational film, which it also wants to be. Nolte's best efforts aside, Teachers is working too hard at grappling with its spectrum of hot-button educational issues, featuring all the character archetypes required to dramatize them, to seem like much more than a highlight reel of disastrous incidents. The standard components are shoe-horned in with a basic competency that sometimes approaches real likeability. But Teachers' enduring role is more academic; it's as a first-rate example of a certain catch-all philosophy popular in 1980s filmmaking.

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