YKWIM #72: Forget About It Friday: Hard Lessons (1986)
Baby Denzel is here to take attendance
Happy Friday! That’s right, back on my usual baloney. It’s been a minute since we’ve taken a good look at a movie.
Based on a true story, this was originally a CBS TV movie released as The George McKenna Story (you knowww I love when movies have two titles!). It was directed by Eric Laneuville, who starred in St. Elsewhere at the time with a young Denzel Washington. When Denzel blew up a couple years later, this was re-released as Hard Lessons, which is what it’s called on Netflix even though the original title shows up on screen, so that’s what I’m going by.
As for me, I just ate three little cutie oranges and I’m going to do a Ponysweat Aerobics video after this. Whatever helps and these help. Take care of yourselves and do whatever little things help.
Forget About It Friday
A look back on films, both theatrical and made-for-TV, that have slipped from the pop cultural collective consciousness over the last thirty or so years. Most of these will be from the late 70s through the 90s, though not exclusively. Do these movies hold up? Have we forgotten them for good reason? Will the plots get weirder and weirder? Stay tuned!
Hard Lessons (1986)
Provided description, typos and all: This drama based on real-life events tells the story of George McKenna, a tough, determined new principal of a notorious Los Angeles high school.
Where to watch: Stream on Netflix or $5.99 rental on Amazon
We open on a sunny day at George Washington High School in Inglewood, Los Angeles. Some kids are heading into the building while many others loiter outside in front of a spray-painted fence. A sedan pulls up with George McKenna in the passenger seat with his girlfriend, Bobbie, at the wheel. It’s George’s first day and he looks nervous but thanks to his mustache, he also looks determined.
“You’re going to be a great principal,” she tells him.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” he says, clutching his briefcase and a cardboard box
A guy with a head full of Jheri curls walks in front of the car as Bobbie’s about to pull away. “Watch where you’re going, woman!” he yells.
George asks a kid with a receding hairline to show him the way to the office. Shouldn’t the principal report to school a bit earlier than the kids? Or know where the office is??
On his first day alone, George gets pelted with an egg, berated by a concerned parent, ignored by his faculty, sassed by a couple students, and informed that the quad is “no-man’s land” to teachers in some “unwritten law” after he breaks up a gang initiation fight. To end the day on a high note, a fire breaks out and it’s a complete disarray.
After decompressing with his girlfriend, George holds a meeting with the faculty and unveils his big plans for attendance, homework, and dress codes. The teachers do not take this very well. “I’m paid to teach, that’s it.” “We’re not trained for combat duty.” “You’re kidding if you think these kids will care.” They’re not optimistic.
George reaches out to the students on a one-on-one level— literally, he plays a one-on-one pick up game with an illiterate student, Kelly, over tutoring him in reading. He gets the football team to help him paint over the graffiti fence and touches up any additional markings. He even tries to reach out to neighborhood kids that take the bus to a different school in the Valley to convince them to transfer back to Washington.
Unfortunately, two major gangs get in a giant fight on the quad and Kelly gets shot trying to break it up. He holds Kelly as they call for an ambulance Later, George attempts to convince a good student not to transfer to another high school but he can’t even blame her when she says, “I don’t want to feel unsafe going to school.”
George has a few teachers over to convince them to go through with his plan of adding a homeroom with an attendance policy at the start of every school day. The Denzel Washington charm wins them over. The students are confused at first, especially when they’re given “WE ARE FAMILY” buttons in the two main competing gang colors. “Do I not go to first period first??” one student asks. “What’s a homeroom?”
Sidebar: Was homeroom not a thing before the early 80s, or just this school? It was so engrained into my morning in high school, though I went to a pretty strict Catholic school that controlled where we were at all times. We weren’t even allowed to leave the cafeteria at lunch to go the bathroom (seriously, I got detention over this), much less get into a car and drive off-campus.
Back at Wash High, our boy George holds a big parent night and barely anyone shows up. He’s bummed out and Bobbie is feeling neglected from all the time he spends at the school. To top it off, a couple of the teachers are bitter over George’s attempts at change and try to get him in trouble with the school board over “falsifying student attendance” by taking roll call. A representative from the Department of Education comes by (“Mr. Hatchet”) and warns George that he’ll be closely monitored.
But George is not backing down! He announces the dress code changes at an all-school assembly and hires a new drama teacher. Some of the teachers do outreach in the neighborhood and get parents to sign contracts agreeing to being an active part of the school. George himself goes to Jheri Curl’s house and finds the kid’s dad playing dominos in the front yard. The dad seems oblivious to his son’s needs and it really bums out George. Still, they get over 100 contracts, so they’re off to a good start.
George gets more and more enmeshed in the lives of his students. It all comes to a head when he picks up Jheri Curls after being chased by a rival gang and takes the kid home… where Bobbie had made them a romantic dinner. She lists a whole bunch of ways he’s gotten too involved (including keeping a kid’s dog for a couple days?!) and then breaks up with him.
It figures there would be a big gang show-down on campus at the same time as the city Shakespeare Festival, especially since George had to pull a bunch of strings to hold it at Washington High. Instead of listening to the kid with a receding hairline recite a monologue from Othello, George is too busy keeping the two groups from going at each other. The two gangs, decked out in super corny red and blue clothes, finally listen to George and part ways.
Jheri Curls gets picked up for killing a rival gang member and George tries to convince him that he has a future, but the kid just goes on about what he’ll do when he’s out of prison. As George walks down the hall, a flashback of the entire school year plays by, a real look back on the highs and lows of the last hour and thirty-five minutes.
Flash forward to graduation and George is presenting the graduating class of what is now George Washington Preparatory High School. The busted school sign has been replaced and the school is looking good. To a song called “You’re My Hero,” kids walk in slow-mo across the stage in their cap and gowns and give George a plaque: “My Hero - George McKenna.”
The very end, the real life George McKenna has a brief voiceover on the positive changes at the real life George Washington Prep and that change is possible when we believe in the future. THE END!
Highs
As far as TV movies go, there are just a few cringe-y moments, a true achievement.
Some real sweet costumes.
They got Herbie Hancock to do the score and it’s incredible. The only missed opportunity is no one breakdances to the breakdancing music.
Denzel Washington’s mustache is a character itself.
Lows
It’s a made-for-TV movie in the mid-80, so of course it’s corny and earnest as all get out.
This isn’t the place to look for a complex depiction of race relations.
The real story of George McKenna is much more complicated than a TV movie can convey. It might be nice to tie it all up in a pretty bow, but nothing is ever that simple.
Final Verdict
Honestly, it’s not that bad. Yes, it’s super dated and cheesy at moments, but considering how straight up offensive some older movies can be, I’m way more open to cheesy and dated. May Denzel Washington’s mustache live on.
Thanks for diving into Denzel’s cinematic past with me! Please ignore the typos. Links to my social and website can be found below. You can buy me a cup of coffee here or here to keep me buzzing. If you really like this newsletter, please tell someone else who might really like it too. Feel free to send along any questions or comments.