Ben Affleck Movie:

Editorial Review:
Brendan Fraser plays a student attending a wealthy boarding school on a football scholarship in the 1950s. When the other kids find out he's Jewish--a fact he's been hiding--his fortunes and relationships instantly change. The film is pretty much what one would expect with that scenario: a story of bigotry, conflict, the hero trying to hang on. In the end, good intentions are the driving force of the movie, but it is not much more than the sum of its obvious parts. Directed by Dick Wolf, creator of television's Law and Order. --Tom Keogh

School Ties [Region 2] Reviews:
3 stars out of 4
2009-04-04 - The Bottom Line:

School Ties sometimes feels episodic and not all of its scenes work (the bit with the evil French teacher falls particularly flat) but the core of the film is an interesting and well-told story about a Jewish boy in a Christian prep school; rarely less than engaging, if not riveting, it's a decent film.

Great movie about racism, tolerance, and honor.
2008-12-15 - This movie is simply great. The cast is great, the story is great, the message is great.

Great movie, great seller
2008-11-22 - I really enjoy this movie, ton of great actors, great plot. The seller sent the movie in a timely manor allowing me to enjoy my movie shortly after I ordered it.

A complicated movie about a comlicated subject
2008-09-15 - Watch this movie, and then talk about it with people whom you respect. When the movie ends, we realize the story isn't really over. Cinematically this forces us to question what's going to happen next, and should beg discussion by the audience.

If you read the other reviews (especially the negative reviews) before watching this movie you'll probably wonder how this seemingly formulaic prep-school movie could be as good as it is. Well, here's the answer: the movie was not meant to be a feel-good family movie with a happy ending. Rather, it was meant to make you squirm just a bit, and in the end question how we in the USA could possibly have come to a point of relegating ANY race or group of people to second-tier status. The movie simply offers that reality in counterpoise with the supposedly perfect world of an upper-class prep school, but you and I know it's happening around us right now, where we live and where we work.

Another reviewer took the sexual low road and railed against the shower scene. However, consider this: every time these boys hit the showers (they were football players, after all) one could reasonably expect this could be the place David Green's secret is discovered. Also, in a group shower situation one's defenses are completely down - there is nothing behind which to hide. For those of us who have been in the locker room, who have been part of a close team, the scene works and there is no more effective (and poignant) place for what is really the first of 2 climactic scenes in the movie. The scene wasn't sexual; it was revealing as a double-entendre: David's secret is out, and he can no longer hide who he is.

This movie was meant to be watched and then discussed; it's still not over.

By the way -- I gave this movie 4 stars because it isn't perfect; and because Ben Affleck proves in this movie that "Gigli" is really just about as good as he is going to get.


FREEDOM OF RELIGION?
2008-01-30 - This is a very fine movie,well acted, once one clears the initial premise:imagine a strict Catholic Prep School of the 1950's admitting anyone who wasn't Catholic regardless of his football prowess.Once past that hurdle, it's clear sailing for the viewer.Fraser,as expected, lives up to his reputation on the field and in the classroom, and also steals Damon's girlfriend. Damon comes from a long line of Harvard graduates,and in succession is forced to play "second fiddle" to Fraser on the field, in the social scene,in class popularity.Enter bigotry, exit Fraser's school standing. Only late in the movie is his Judaic background exposed, leaving him the scapegoat in a cheating scandal,facing expulsion. Only at the very end is Damon's virulent bigotry revealed, and Damon's true role in the scandal is exposed. Immediate expulsion follows. But, one is left with the clear distinction that the remainder of Fraser's Senior year, if not his entire life,will be forever changed, and not for the better.