The Emperor's Club (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: BONFIRE OF THE HUMANITIES
Review: This excellent movie about education in a private prepratory academy centers on the period of the mid 1970's, when the value of a classical education based on a knowledge of Greek, Latin, Literature, Philosophy, History, Mathematics and Religion was coming into question and eventually were surrendered to our modern day cirriculum. This movie is a reflection of a nostalgic past when educators were confident that a true gentlemen could not be moulded without these essentials. The main character, a History teacher, strongly believes in honesty and is dedicated to the classics only to end up feeling betrayed and shaken when he is countered by characters whose only concern is worldly power and money. He proves just how out of touch he is with the world when he visits a Politician in an attempt to motivate his son who he is having trouble with at school. The politician brushes off his objections and essentially tells him the limits of his authority over his son. He is further shocked when he discovers the son cheating in a contest and informs the principal, who tells him to ignore it. Not ready to stand against his beliefs, he goes off the cards and asks a question that he realizes the son can't possibly know in order to end the contest. In the end, Mr. Hundert's rigid dedication to honesty is somewhat hypocritical, because the mission to motivate the politician's son was at the expense of someone else!The dictum centers around how one "little sin" causes a tidal wave of destruction in the future, as he is first, rejected to be the headmaster at the academy in favor of another younger man who he went out of his way to get hired in the 70's, then called to re-enact the contest again, as the now adult son of the politician promises an endowment if Hundert will participate to "restore his honor". He agrees but fails to see that the son is an image of his father in all respects, and only uses people for greater selfish objectives. In the re-enactment of the contest, Hundert once again realizes that the son is cheating and goes off the cards to ask a question that he can't possibly answer. Standing up for "what is right" , taking the high moral ground. It is then he must face his "little sin" and confess to the student that he denied a place for the sake of the rotten/selfish politician's son. After confession and a realization of the limits that one can't make everyone see the light, he returns to the old academy as a new man, refreshed and willing to just do what he is best at under a new set of pupils of every race, sex and creed in the modern era of the 90's. One of the best pictures in recent memory.

Rating:
Summary: Watch it, and Watch it, and Watch it Again......
Review: I saw this movie in the theatres a couple years ago and have longed to watch it again. Today was the magical day - my twelve year old daughter and I cuddled together on her bed and watched this beautiful, evocative story unfold before us.

It covers many of the larger themes, the over-arching one to be the virtue of Character, especially through using a Western Civilization prep school classroom as its context and a passionate, well meaning (and human) teacher and his students as our models.

All said and done, the greatest teacher of character is Martin Blythe, in my mind the strongest character in the entire story, closely followed by his classmate Deepak Mehta, who shows us how victory with grace is a valuable way of being.

Kevin Kline portrays beloved teacher, Mr. Hundert, with the same passion that his character holds in his skin, his breath and his being. There are several places I noticed subtleties this time around which made me wonder about his relationship with his father - seeing even more clearly how it may have mirrored Sedgewick Bell's relationship with his Senator father.

The opening segment is one I will watch over and over and over and over. There is so much depth there, so much richness: and the entire movie may be viewed again with a notepad in hand to capture the quotes from ancient thinkers sprinkled throughout.

If you have a child in junior high school, get your hands on this movie. It sparked great conversation between my daughter Katherine and me. (We especially liked that there was a character in the final classroom scene whose name was "Katherine Scott".) It was watching it with her beside me that really aided me in "getting it" even more this time around.



Rating:
Summary: Inspirational
Review: Whereas Dead Poets' Society inspires us with the Latin phrase, "Carpe Diem" - Seize the Day, Emperor's Club bombards us with many inspiring phrases that towards the end, I can't remember any of them. Yet, this movie is inspiring to watch. In this instance, Kevin Kline plays Mr. Hundert, a well-read and serious but patient history teacher who is not only passionate about Roman and Western civilisation but interested in well-being of his students. Mr. Hundert finds it essential to mould the character of the students at first for the end depends upon the beginning. Naturally, the coccoon of respect between the teacher and his students would be undone with arrival of the son of a Senator who seems to have a chip upon his shoulder. Yet, he's charismatic and his misdemenours would be overlooked by everyone except Mr. Hundert who refuses to give up on him, to no avail as we would find in the end. To cut the story short, the movie would gradually fast forward to twenty five years later & the Senator's son would break Mr. Hundert's heart once again. Even that is so, he learnt a lesson from his students that whilst there might be failure in our lives, one should always remember to take the good with the bad, for the good deed that he's done would most definitely surpass the deed that he could have done better. This movie is directed in a straight-forward manner, no going off a tangent and it slowly unfolds itself as an adult movie is expected to do. There is a subplot about love interest of Mr. Hundert but it rarely lifts as time allocates to develop that is rather scant. It's really unfair to compare this movie against Dead Poets Society as they have very different premises. The only similarity is the dedication and the faith that the teachers have endowed upon their students. A good movie but somehow, it is lacking of that X-factor which would make it an instant classics. A great movie to be shared with family and friends.

Rating:
Summary: A tribute to teachers.
Review: William Hundert (Kevin Kline) is a 'traditionalist' teacher of Ancient history who believes that teaching is a means of moulding the character of young men and women. His view is challenged when the brash young son of a senator comes to the School and decides to upset the discipline he has worked hard to instil in his other students.

Hundert doesn't give up on the young man and hopes that by believing in him, he can gradually mould him into a better person. Unfortunately the child's father has no time for him and believes that teachers should stick to teaching facts rather than trying to mould children. The rest of the movie deals with how the different young men (it was a boy's school at the time Hundert was first teaching) turn out. The Senator's son, now a successful grown man, invites his old classmates and history teacher to restage a contest that he had lost when he was in school. Things turn out unexpectedly at this meeting.

I wont say anymore on that as it will spoil the rest of the film. What I found interesting was the idea that teachers have a responsibility to do more than just teach facts. It left me wondering whether it was desirable for our education system to mould the children rather than the parents, and as the film shows, many times children aren't given adequate attention by their parents and so pick up their life-skills and values from elsewhere. This movie was a tribute to teachers, but it is also a reminder to the rest of us that we have a responsibility to those we bring into this world.

Hopefully I have not given the impression that this is a moralizing tale, it isn't, well not primarily anyway. There are moments of drama and for those (like me) who have lived at boarding schools, it will bring back some memories. I'd recommended this movie to anyone interested in a good drama.

Rating:
Summary: The Moose Hole - Dead 'Emperor's' Society ... I mean, 'Club'
Review: ?Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you??

As we draw ever closer to the first day of summer, high school seniors across the country, quite possibly even the world, will be reminiscing upon their four year high school careers wondering what impact it, as well as the numerous individuals involved, has had on them and the people they hope to become in the not-too-distant future. Though many don?t see it now, there will be a time when they will hearken back to their freshmen Latin I or junior U.S. History classes and wonder whether the decisions they made in those times had the lasting contributable factors that their teachers had hoped they would have on their students. No one can call themselves a valuable educator unless they are willing to do what ever possible to make their students? futures all the more fulfilling by focusing on the people they will become rather then their ability to pass. If that is not the case amongst many educators today then they are no better then most of the present MPS teachers in that they are only setting their students up for continued failure. There must be more to it then that.

The story centers on a teacher who, at a fork in the road of his life, worries that his thirty-four year teaching career may have been worthless as he may have had little impact on the students he had hoped to enlighten in that time period. The film begins with a narration by Arthur Hundert, a Classics professor who has taught at the elite St. Benedict?s prep school for over thirty years, exclaiming, ?A man?s character is his fate? and questioning if his teaching career lived up to the values he had set for his students. In his mind he travels back to the early 1970s at a time that would prove the most challenging of his entire teaching career, all in part to one student named Sedgewick Bell. Sedgewick is the incompliant and pigheaded son of a Louisiana senator who cares more about his son?s ability to pass to graduation rather then the impact this prep school may have on the man he will turn out to be in the real world. After seeing a connection between Sedgewick and himself, both the products of busy and often absent fathers, Hundert takes it upon himself to rear the stubborn child by doing everything possible to fully prepare him for the Mr. Julius Caesar Contest, a test of ancient history and classic literature knowledge in which the winner will be declared Mr. Julius Caesar, the most prestigious honor St. Benedict?s can bestow on a student. But when Hundert discovers that Sedgewick cheated during the contest, his teaching career goes into precipitated tailspin which leads back to the present where he has been invited by the now grown up Sedgewick Bell for a rematch of the Mr. Julius Caesar Contest in order to reclaim his intellectual honor. When, once again, Bell fails to put real invest in the contest and cheats, Hundert now questions whether he contributed anything at all to the students he had so much ambition for. The story for The Emperor?s Club is a entertaining drama for a rainy-day afternoon but disappoints in the fact that it demonstrates nothing that hasn?t been done before in films like Goodbye Mr. Chips and Mr. Holland?s Opus. What makes this vastly inferior to Dead Poet?s Society is that it spends too much time focusing on the teacher rather then the singular students of his class and how his teaching has impacted them as individuals and the choices they make in life as a result. The story also lacks the emotional depth that made Dead Poet?s all the more enduring and thought provoking.

When it comes to famous, or even recognizable, performers, this film has few to offer but it doesn?t seem to matter as much with Kevin Kline?s performance alone making up for the lack of distinguishable talent. Kline works the character of Arthur Hundert perfectly and never seems too lax in any scene that he is present in. And his work opposite Emile Hirsch, who plays Sedgewick Bell, showcases tremendous effort especially in lines that are suppose to have immense impact on events later on the film, such as, ?Aristophanes once wrote, roughly translated; ?Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but STUPID lasts forever.?? But Kline?s performance, as laudable as it may be, doesn?t save the character entirely as certain actions as well as characters that surrounds him. As is seen often in Shakespeare plays like Hamlet and Julius Caesar, which is slightly touched on within the film, the lead character has the opportunity to set things right, in this case revealing Sedgewick as a cheater, but fails to do so and, as a result, causes further damage then if he had just done something earlier on. What makes this situation even worse with Mr. Hundert is that he is given the opportunity twice and still refuses to do anything. Although money is often involved in these situations, nothing should come before a man and the principles he stands for. For a man who talks so much about virtues and principals, Hundert hardly follows up on what he preaches.

Overall, The Emperor?s Club, as ambitious and well-intentioned as it tries to be, delivers on Hundert?s opening statement on being ?a story without surprises? and results in nothing more then a regurgitation of all the teacher/coming of age dramas that have been done to death in the past. In the end, despite the hard intentions of the filmmakers to wrap things up in an appropriate manner, the emphasis on the film?s story is lost and the audience is left thinking, ?So what?? The main problem is that there is no emotional connection with any character, including Mr. Hundert, to really drive home the point that the filmmakers present at the end of this film. They spend so much time focusing on the solitary conflicts between Mr. Hundert and Sedgewick Bell that, in a way, they contradict themselves in the statement, ?The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success?. Had they followed up on that line, it would have resulted in a look into all the lives of the students rather then a specific individual. Although that too would have been nothing different from Dead Poet?s Society, it is admirable for a film to be bland and predictable then to contradict itself on the message it tries to express. That is not to say that The Emperor?s Club is not entertaining, Kline?s performance and James Newton Howard?s memorable musical score prevent it from being a total wash, but film expresses thoughts on a subject matter that has been done numerous times in the past without divulging on anything new or thought provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Enigmatic Emperors
Review: The Emperor?s Club, starring Kevin Kline was quite a good story, but the writers missed a great opportunity to inform and surprise the viewer. Kline?s character teaches at an exclusive all-boy?s school and uses the emperors of ancient Rome as examples of how one obtains greatness. The problem is that he never lets the audience know any of the great accomplishments of the supposedly great men. He says several times that greatness without contribution is meaningless.
A plaque over the professor?s classroom door mentions the name of an ancient king whom no one supposedly ever heard of, yet his name has survived centuries and is mentioned in this film. One also wonders what Caligula and Nero contributed to mankind, yet they are remembered. I also wanted to hear exactly what does make an honorable man. The film was pleasant enough, but it lacked fullness, layers.
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