To Sir, With Love (1967)

Engineer Mark Thackeray arrives to teach a totally undisciplined class at an East End school. Still
hoping for a good engineering job, he's hopeful that he won't be there long. He starts
ipleenting his own brand of classroo discipline! forcing the pupils to treat each other with
respect. "nevitably he begins getting involved in the students' personal lives, and ust avoid the
advances of an aorous student while winning over the class tough. #hat will he decide when
the engineering job coes through$
Sidney %oitier ... Mark Thackeray
&hristian 'oberts ... (enha
)udy *eeson ... %aela (are
Su+y ,endall ... *illian -lanchard
.ulu ... -arbara '-abs' %egg /as '.ulu'0
1aith -rook ... *race Evans
*eoffrey -ayldon ... #eston
Edward -urnha ... 1lorian
*areth 'obinson ... Tich
*rahae &harles ... 1ernan
1iona (uncan ... Miss %hillips
%atricia 'outledge ... &linty
2drienne %osta ... Moira )oseph
2nn -ell ... Mrs. (are
&hris &hittell ... %otter /as &hristopher &hittell0
(irector! )aes &lavell
'untie! 345 ins
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'ecorded on a budget of just E7=4,444, To Sir, #ith .ove was drafted, as with .ilies of the 1ield,
to give Sidney a share of the gross profits to account for his diinished fee. #riterCdirector &lavell
also received the sae arrangeent, a writer who was chosen for his love of the source aterial.
The rights to the source, an identicallyCnaed novel by E. '. -raithwaite, had passed fro studio
to studio, and been offered to nuerous stars before finally getting the green light when in the
hands of &olubia %resident Mike 1rankovich.
%oitier noted in his autobiography the siilarities in ters of racial issues between 2erica and
England. 1iled in .ondon, the picture featured a nuber of inorities, any of who, he
observed, would be unable to find work outside of the confines of the ovie. However, for his
tie spent with the cast, he was delighted with their copany. Sidney played Mark Thackeray,
one of his ost faous characters, an engineer taking a teaching post as a stopgap between
jobs. Eventually the relationship he develops with the students causes hi to Fuestion his loyalty
to the profession.
To Sir, #ith .ove is often frowned upon nowadays due to its sentientality. #hile not wholly
condened as a fil, it is certainly regarded as the poor relation of %oitier's three 3?7: works.
This is an unfair assessent of a ovie that coits the only crie of having its heart on its
sleeve. 2nd, though the late siDties would see an increase in the political situation, To Sir, #ith
.ove was the only one of the three %oitier vehicles that year that did not rely upon his colour for
its subteDt. "nstead, a few bigoted rearks were inserted, largely fro a fellow teacher /*eoffrey
-ayldon as Mr. #eston0 than the pupils. &opared to his other overshadowing works that year,
direction paled, too, the caeraCwork at ties alost static. However, the scope for %oitier as an
actor was broader than in the other '7: roles, and certainly broader than in the 3??7 T; seFuel.
#here there the plot would be propelled largely by one pupil, here ultiple characters would be
guided through nuerous situations over an entire ter period. Gver the course of the lengthy
fil the viewer can feel as though they have eDperienced the tiescale too. 2nd who would argue
that the sheer aount of silly oves Sidney and )udy *eeson perfor in the final ball didn't
directly influence Travolta and Ha Thuran in %ulp 1iction$
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Sidney %oitier's eDceptional lead perforance anchors this touching fil about that special
person who changes your life. 2s the first tie teacher to a group of undisciplined -ritish youth,
%oitier is in virtually every frae of this picture. "t is a role that calls for a high degree of character
developent, and %oitier eets and eDpands the challenge by totally inhabiting the character he
is playing. " honestly cannot think of any way his perforance could be better, and this is a huge
coplient for any actor C even one of Mr. %oitier's iense talents.
#hile not in the sae league, the young cast of thenCunknowns also perfor Fuite well.
%articularly effective of the young cast ebers is freshCfaced )udy *eeson, who brings
uneDpected depth to the stereotypical role of the young schoolgirl loveCstruck over Mr. %oitier
/who could blae her0. (irector6writer6producer )aes &lavell avoids overCsentientali+ation by
inject his wellCwritten script with a healthy dose of realis. The fil ay not be particularly
striking, in the visual sense, but &lavell is a perfectly copetent fil aker, and his love of the
aterial is evident throughout the entire picture.
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2 perfect classic that instantly eseri+es. 'eade 9D in the 3??4s! first as Sister 2ct8 /3??90B
followed by (angerous Minds /3??50B and finally as To Sir #ith .ove8 /3??70, the adeCforCT;
seFuel with the aging Sidney %oitier. Ione of these reakes hold a candle to the beaing
lighthouse of the original. -ased on the genteel E' -raithwaite's own eDperiences in 3?74s
England, the screenplay is a prier in social psychology.
Mark Thackeray /Sidney %oitier in his signature role0 is a struggling Elec.Eng. graduate who can't
get an engineering job, so he answers an ad for a teacher in the East End /a chronically run
down, industrial part0 of .ondon. He's a decent an who's nevertheless et the any faces of
rejection, of prejudice, of poverty, yet noCone has anaged yet to break his spiritCotherwise he
couldn't have brought hope to the East Enders the way he clearly did. He's about 94ish, and
single. Ha, as he hiself observes to his new students, JMarriage is IG way of life for the weak,
the selfish, or the insecure.' 2en to thatK Spoken like a an " wouldn't ind /eDchangingCshhh0
for a husband.
Mr Thackeray is a very cluey guy. He Fuickly reali+es that the Jra++ing' he's getting fro his illC
educated, brutish students is courtesy of their need to doinate the syste to SH&&ESS1H..L
coverCup their acadeic incopetence. Moreover, the push for this always coes fro the
biggest bully /ie who rules the school0, because the b>>>ard always has enough cunning to reali+e
he can't afford to show any weakness, for fear of getting toppled by his own. ;ery priitive
behaviour, baboons do the sae thingK
2nyway, things coe to a head 8?ins into the ovie. 2lready eDhausted after just a few weeks,
Mr Thackeray walks into his classroo and instantly sells a foul stench eanating fro the
soking stove. J2ll you boys, GHTK The girls stay where they areK' he barks. He waits till the boys
eDit, then rounds on the girls! JThere are certain things a decent woan keeps privateB only a
filthy slut would have done thisK 2nd those who stood by and encouraged her are just as bad, "
don't care who they areK' He thinks it was a girl who threw a soiled sanitary pad onto the fire /this
is never spelled out0, but " disagree. *irls don't have 2IL fascination for such things, only
iature, brutish boys do. My point being, that, of course, it was the boysB but the accusation
was eDtreely effective against the girls nevertheless, because it instantly drove a wedge
between the genders. The girls didn't appreciate being huiliated by the boys in the first place,
but to be accused of their guilt was now -ELGI( what they're prepared to tolerate.
That was the watershed for JSir'. -y the tie he reCenters after having deanded they clear the
air, he's figured out how he should treat his students, and deonstrates his seriousness as he
just junks all their teDtbooks. Gbviously, it's the right techniFue at the right tie, because it starts
to work /they don't always0. His students begin to trust hiB especially the girls who have found
their independence fro the boys. Soon the class goes on a field trip to the useu. Matched to
.ulu's glorious alostClullaby of a thee song, we watch a ontage of heartCtugging stills /by
.aurie 'idley M (ennis Stone0 of the students wideCeyedly enjoying their first useu
eDperience, as they reali+e that their od hairstyles and fashions really are just retreads fro
history.
There "S another watershed scene that sees to shock all the kids, in the yard, when (enha
/&hristian 'oberts0's girlfriend %aela (are /)udy *eeson0 rounds on Seales /2nthony ;illaroel0,
the only black student in the class, for Jnever speaking up'B who then publicly adits J"' not Sir. "
only wish " was'. "t was what they were all thinking about theselves, but Seales is the only one
who blurts it out.
The politics between (enha and his girlfriend shift again, because she develops a probably lifeC
altering crush on Sir. " always sirk at the scene where -abs /.ulu0 defends %aela! JLou lay off,
(enha, you sonova bN' as her voice is drowned out by a passing train. "t ust be in large part
due to this ovie that people now *'G2I at objections to interracial relationships /so do "Cto
objections " ean0, and no wonderCSir is Jbig, broad, handsoe, clean, intelligent...', as the
(eputy Head, Mrs Evans /1aith -rook0 describes hi. %oitier is never better than in the scene
with Mrs Evans where he is tortured and at a loss at %aela's crush. His other delicious scenes
include being ebarrassed at the bawdy candor of soe others on the bus during the opening,
and at the final dance when he gets tongueCtied and alost bursts out crying. " have no doubt
that the entire cast had a deep caaraderie.
Sir is IGT %E'1E&T, though. Soe of his attitudes are unjust. He's too aloof as he kept
whitewashing the world's continued right to chronically disadvantage his students. He refuses to
discuss Fuestions of justice eDternal to his classroo. This sees like insensitivity to eK -ut
he'd apparently put in enough work to have his students trust hi, although it was a fine line that
could've still gone wrong. (enha, the brewing stor, to our astonishent, actually feared the
power that teachers had over his eployent prospects. %erhaps he figured he shouldn't really
antagoni+e Sir, who at that stage still tolerated (enha's brinkanship.
Gne final #2'I"I*! the cineatography just ight blow you away as you watch stills of Sir's
students flash by, interrupting a decision he has to ake. JSo long as we learn, it doesn't atter
#HG teaches us, does it$', rearked a colleague in the teachers' lounge when he first started. "f
you can stand this scene without it alost breaking your heart, then perhaps you've learned that
lesson a long tie ago. 34634.
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> The fil was held fro release for ore than a year until &olubia %ictures decided to open
it in #estwood, &alifornia in the suer of 3?7: where it really broke through.
> The fil did so uneDpectedly well in 2erica that &olubia %ictures did arket research to
find out why so any people had gone to it. Their answer! Sidney %oitier.
> The .ondon bus that appears in several seFuences at the start of the fil, ..H <8?, and in
soe later seFuences, still survives today as a preserved vintage vehicle, and can be seen at the
East 2nglia Transport Museu, &arlton &olville, .owestoft, England.
> )udy *eeson and .ulu were both reunited with Sidney %oitier in the T; seFuel To Sir, with
.ove "" /3??70 /T;0 directed by %eter -ogdanovich