One Eight Seven

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Collins Jr., Tony Plana, Karina Arroyave, Lobo Sebastian, Demtrius Navarro, Dominic Hoffman, Method Man
Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
1997

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A high school teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to teaching after being stabbed by a student 9 times. He struggles with his desire to influence the next generation and questioning if some of them are worth saving.

Review:

Tim: There are some interesting ideas in Kevin Reynolds' One Eight Seven. There are certainly aspects of the movie I appreciated. However, it also gives into some of the worse aspects of 1990s films and it ultimately feels a bit too extreme to be all that effective. I found the film to be decent, but it certainly has some flaws.

I did thoroughly appreciate the exploration of violence in American schools. This feels like a very 1990s issue (violence in schools is still prevalent in the 2020s as I write this, but it's evolved to mass shootings, sadly). The movie does examine big questions- how can teachers cope with students who don't want to be there, who refuse to learn, whose only purpose is to disrupt and distract? How can these ill-prepared teachers work within a system that doesn't support them, that cannot keep them safe? I do believe that with even the greatest teachers, you need willing students. What happens when you don't have that? When students come from backgrounds of economic depression and violence. When they can't (or won't) focus on learning because it seems pointless in the face of a life that could end at any moment. There aren't any easy answers to this question. The film does a good job of establishing this, of showing what this inner city, gang-ridden LA schools had to deal with.

While this is good, the film does routinely succumb to 1990s excesses that don't help the story. There's definitely an MTV music video vibe to Reynolds' film. It certainly wasn't designed just to be a meditative drama about violence in schools- it's also very much a thriller. This is where the film loses focus a bit. I found the dramatic elements to be excellent- scared, helpless teachers in an enclosed environment with dangerous, fearless students with nothing to lose. Those scenes were oftentimes infuriating and nerve-racking. The issues come more when you try and add the thriller aspects to the story. They're just harder to believe and often take the drama and push it into melodrama. The conclusion of the film is memorable and powerful, but it feels too over-the-top. Logic and believability go out the window just to make a point. None of this is ever bad, but it's enough to pull the film below the "good" line. It doesn't quite get there (although it's close).

The cast is fairly good, though. Samuel L. Jackson can do just about anything and I appreciated his performance here. It's definitely a more reserved and restrained performance from him. I believed him as this troubled, haunted teacher trying to make a difference in a world that mostly doesn't want his help. His acting was effective from beginning to end. John Heard adds a strong supporting performance. I was surprised by how memorable and effective Heard was with a minimal amount of screen time. I certainly think about what Heard did here as much as I do Jackson. Kelly Rowan felt a few tiers below these two. She has a few nice moments sprinkled throughout the film, but her performance was forgettable more often than not. She was average. On the other hand, Clifton Collins, Jr. was excellent. What starts out as a seemingly periphery role grows as the film progresses and Collins takes up more and more space in the film. It's a mesmerizing, raw performance that was perhaps the best of the entire film. For an actor still early in his career, it's impressive work. He'd done quite a lot of acting at this point and that experience shows. Karina Arroyave was good, too. Her performance kind of sneaks up on you as the film progresses.

One Eight Seven certainly has a lot going for it. As the movie progresses, it did feel like Reynolds made decisions to increase the stylish entertainment value at the expense of us taking the movie seriously. The desire to be a real thriller, to surprise the audience, to shock it- that hurts the movie in the end. At just under 2 hours, the film was likely a good 10-12 minutes too long. It starts to outstay it's welcome a bit. Going into inner city LA schools isn't a fun experience and before the movie ends, you're ready to get out. So, while I didn't quite like the movie as much as I needed to, I acknowledge there's more than a few strengths present here.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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