This was the message shown in this week's movie, Blackboard Jungle. First and Foremost the movie starred not one but two great actors, Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. Glenn Ford played as an inspiring teacher(Richard Dadier) that fights to gain the respect from an African American boy named Miller(Sidney Poitier) whom he believes to be the source and leader of juvenile delinquency in an all boy high school class. Later in the movie Glenn Ford character realizes that he sought this respect all for the wrong reasons and realized flaws within himself that he changed, thus, allowing him and the student, Miller, to become friends.
The overall movie was entertaining to me. It had a lot of aspects that we look for in movies today. It was a mixture of drama and comedy. Besides that the main purpose of this 1950's "B" movie was to attack social and ethic clashes and anxieties going on in America such as:
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: As early on in the movie the camera constantly focuses on the African American student whenever something bad happened. For example, while having his back turned Dadier gets a baseball thrown at him, immediately the camera focuses on Miller. After class, Dadier holds Miller back to talk to him and accuses him of throwing the baseball even though he had no real proof of him doing it. In this case, the movie uses Glenn Ford's character to symbolize the "color blindness" in white middle class Americans. Dadier's constant negative attention towards Miller proves to be racist and this is clarified in the scene where Dadier explodes and screams at Miller "Why, you black . .." but immediately realizes what he said and apologizes.
AND,
SEGREGATIONIST ANXIETY: At the time, Americans had the idea that African American males longed for white women. Thus, white females avoided African American males due to the fear that they would be raped. The reading discussed this anxiety as well as a social structure called, Triangulation. This triangle structure consisted of a white male, black male and white female. It stated that in order for a black and white male to become friends the white female has to be removed from the equation. This relates to, Blackboard Jungle, because for Dadier and Miller to become friends Wes, the white delinquent that takes the role of the female in the triangulation, had to be removed. This was evident and proven to be correct because when Dadier finally realized that it wasn't Miller that was causing him stress and that it was Wes, and when Miller realized that the real racist was Wes and not Dadier, the two were then able to oppose Wes, thus, making their bond stronger.
