187
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 7/30/97 (wide) Running Length: 2:01 MPAA Classification: R (Violence, profanity, brief nudity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez, Karina Arroyave, Jonah Rooney, Lobo Sebastian Director: Kevin Reynolds Producers: Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety Screenplay: Scott Yagemann Cinematography: Ericson Core U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
187 (ONE EIGHT SEVEN), the new film from WATERWORLD director Kevin Reynolds, lies somewhere in the murky gray that separates the exploitation revenge flick from the serious urban drama. Simply put, this film is too good to be lumped together with DEATH WISH, EYE FOR AN EYE, and THE SUBSTITUTE in the latter genre, but not good enough to share the shelf with BOYZ 'N THE HOOD and MENACE II SOCIETY. 187 offers some thought-provoking ideas and several effective performances, but the script ultimately lets down both the actors and the audience members who are watching them.
Public education today isn't what it used to be. Many urban schools have metal detectors, and the threat of violence, either by student on student or by student on teacher, hangs in the air. Newspaper headlines shout out stories of children gunned down in bathrooms or stabbed in halls or classrooms. Discipline has become a joke; students and teachers alike are more concerned with surviving the school day than following a cirriculum. So it's not much of a stretch to accept that the environment presented in 187 is closer to reality than to some nightmarish fantasy.
"187" is the police code for a homicide. It's also the terse message science that teacher Trevor Garfield (Samuel L. Jackson) finds scrawled in a textbook meant for his eyes only. When Garfield goes to the principal of New York's Roosevelt Whitney High School to report what he believes to be a threat on his life, he is calmly informed that he's overreacting. Moments later, Garfield has been stabbed ten times in the back by an irate pupil.
Fifteen months later, Garfield is returning to teaching, but this time as a substitute, and no longer in New York City, but in Los Angeles. John Quincy Adams High, however, bears a striking resemblance to Whitney. Gangs and violence are pervasive, and a greater percentage of the students are at school to kill time rather than to learn. Garfield is tentative about returning to work, but he's an idealist who loves his vocation, so he accepts a four-day assignment for an absent science teacher. Almost immediately, his disciplinarian stance makes him a target for the verbal abuse of some of the class' most tough trash-talkers. He also learns that one of his fellow teachers, Dave Childress (John Heard), keeps a gun in his desk, and another, Ellen Henry (Kelly Rowan), has received death threats.
For better than an hour, 187 treads the delicate line between the gratuitous violence of THE SUBSTITUTE and the schmaltz of DANGEROUS MINDS. In fact, for more than the first half, this movie takes a frank, hard look at the difficulties facing teachers in urban environments today -- how helping a student can be misconstrued, how law suit-fearing administrators are rendered impotent, and how peer pressure can drive otherwise-studious teenagers out of the classroom and into gangs. Garfield is an idealist, and he's fighting a losing battle, but, because he believes in the cause of education, it's a war that he's willing to participate in. And, for different reasons, he's an inspiration to both Dave and Ellen.
Then, as seemingly must happen in films of this sort, Garfield goes too far, and someone wants to kill him. The last forty-five minutes of 187 play like a condensed, low-key version of FALLING DOWN. And the conclusion, aside from being unremittingly bleak, is horribly written. The characters' motivations in the climactic scene make no sense whatsoever, and the viewer feels profoundly cheated by events.
A saving grace of 187 is the performance of Samuel L. Jackson, one of today's few "can't miss" actors. No matter how uneven the script, Jackson always manages to shine, and, since he's on screen for almost every frame of this film, his forceful screen presence compensates for numerous weaknesses. He's supported by a fine cast, including Heard and Rowan as fellow teachers, Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez as his chief student nemesis, and Karina Arroyave as a young woman whom Garfield takes under his wing.
Nevertheless, while Jackson's performance is enough to keep us engrossed for most of the running time, even he can't do much with the unfortunate resolution. It's here that 187 comes apart at the seams -- the conclusion will disappoint those who love revenge fantasies and those in search for something more thoughtful. Indeed, with a different ending, 187 might have been a truly powerful motion picture. As it is, it has its compelling moments, but, overall, it's flawed and dissatisfying.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
"A film is a petrified fountain of thought." - Jean Cocteau
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