To Sir, with Love | | Cast : | Sidney Poitier, Judy Geeson | | Director : | James Clavell | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 14, 1967 | | DVD Released Date : | February 01, 2000 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Portuguese (Subtitled), Thai (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | An unforgettable icon from the sixties! | Content
 | This film under the elapse of time of almost forty years dated, to be honest. The film reflects the hard times of the convulsed United Kingdom the febrile anguish of the young people, somehow this picture had in Blackboard Jungle an acclaimed pioneer that shadowed , considering that Blackboard was filmed in the middle fifties.
Obviously there is a touching performance of Sidney Potier, the great actor who opened the gate for future actors such Freeman, Jackson, Washington, Fishburne, Smith and Snipes.
In the other hand the famous soundtrack sung by Lulu was a true hit in those ages and contributed in high degree to impulse this picture.
An old fashioned picture that keeps captivating kind hearts,generating tears in the audience.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 15, 2005 | | Summary | Poitier's Best | Content
| Many of the other reviews capture the essence of this film. Needless to say, there is very little to add. But rest assured, you'd be hard pressed to see Poitier do any role better than he did as Mark Thackery. As a plus, where else will you be able to see Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders in action, unless you happy to see old footage of Ready-Steady-Go. And if you look closely, you'll see Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt's "odd" English neighbor in her youth, the adorable Judy Gleason. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 14, 2005 | | Summary | Small film, big soul | Content
| To Sir With Love was part of a 1967 trifecta for Sidney Poitier including In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. This was the small film that could.
Based on a book by ER Braithewaite on his experience as a teacher in inner city London. This is a film that has soul.
Sidney is a new teacher who is assigned to an inner city school. Of course the kids try to take advantage to the "new meat" but they go one step far. But instead of going off the deep end, he decides to make a difference in their lives.
What happens is a beautiful transformation. This is a film that shows that if someone wants to change and are given a the chance, they can.
All of these films are as timely now as in 1967. This is definitely a must see for all teenagers. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Powerful, sentimental, wonderfully done | Content
| Somehow I just missed this one when it came out during my youth. I recently caught it on Satellite and immediately ordered the DVD. This is a wonderful, powerful film featuring a fabulous performance by Sidney Portier. I have caught Portier in a few other films, and he was excellent in all of them, but his performance in this film is quite simply magnificent. His class, intense intelligence, and talent all shine through in this moving story of a teacher who touches a classroom full of lower-class Brits and leaves them the better for it.
The storyline is well-known, so I shan't dwell on it in this review. Who among us has not had the good fortune of encountering, in our young years, a particularly gifted teacher who perhaps sets us on the right course despite ourselves? That is what this story is about. Portier (playing Mr. Thackary, to be addressed as "Sir!") is assigned to teach a tough classroom of young working class Brits, who are about to graduate and enter the workforce. The pupils are poorly educated and thuggish. Thackary quickly realizes that their real problem is that they lack a moral and social compass, or any appreciation of the value of an education. He confronts the class, and inspires most of them to steer a more proper course in life. This is a fine story of teenage angst, growing up, and the important role that a gifted teacher can play in a young life. An underlying and inspiring theme, of course, is the fact that Portier plays a black man immersed in a nearly completely white school at a time when Western society had a long way to go as regards racial equality. He encounters prejudice, but transcends it by his talent, intelligence, and force of personality. Eventually the class comes to fully appreciate the extraordinary nature of their teacher. Similarly, Mr. Thackary, who originally had accepted the teaching post while searching for a job as an engineer, comes to know that his true calling and talent is teaching. It does not matter how hard-boiled the viewer, no one can fail to be touched by the ending of this superb film.
This is a stylish flick set more or less in the Beatles age of the 1960s. The British nature of the film, the British setting, etc. has a special fascination to the American viewer, and of course when this film was released, the British pop "invasion" was in full swing. This, combined with Portier's incomparable performance, the solid storyline of this film, and really good acting by an appealing British cast, made this low-budget film a smash hit. Of course, the theme song "To Sir With Love" by Lulu is a sentimental and touching component of the film, which became a top rock tune in the States.
I purchased my DVD in May 2005. Some reviewers apparently received copies that erroneously had a Japanese monster movie on Side B. My copy did not have this error, so the publisher has evidently corrected the problem. The sound and colors on my copy are excellent; the remastering was well-done
Too many films are rated 5 stars here on Amazon, but this is one for sure. One indicator of a truly fine film is how it stands the test of time, and whether the viewer returns to it repeatedly. This film passes these tests with flying colors (or should I say "colours"?).
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| Rating | | | Date | April 30, 2005 | | Summary | I love this film | Content
| I purchased the VHS version from Amazon a few years back and watched this film again today. Here are my directions for viewing this film:
1. Suspend your disbelief
2. Check your cynicism at the door
3. Watch this in a place where you can clearly hear the dialogue.
I know the complaints such as it's from a different era, it's corny, it's old, it's unrealistic. Well yeah, it's from another era, one where we were all less jaded and perhaps more naive or idealistic. But this film is a gem. I especially love Sidney Poitier and Judy Geeson, but the entire cast is great, I love the Mindbenders and Lulu, and I especially love the dialogue. It's thoughtful, intelligent, plain wonderful. This movie is one more reason I like to consider my culture as English not American. It is a joy, and a great time capsule of London during the Swinging Sixties. Buy it, you'll love it. |
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