An old school classic

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" proved to be a complex character study of a woman who instills confidence and nonconformist qualities in her students, yet who abuses her position of power by espousing radical ideologies and reprehensible manipulations. Here's what our group concluded about this film:

WHAT OTHER FILMS ABOUT TEACHERS, SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS DOES THIS MOVIE BRING TO MIND?

·       Dead Poet’s Society

·       Mr. Holland’s Opus

·       Goodbye, Mr. Chips

·       Dangerous Minds

·       Stand and Deliver

·       The Corn is Green

·       The Browning Version

·       Oleanna

·       The Emperor’s Club

·       To Sir With Love

HOW IS THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE DIFFERENT FROM MANY OF THESE OTHER MOVIES ABOUT TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS?

·       Brodie is presented as a more motivationally ambiguous figure:

o   She’s liberal, but Fascist in her views in that she believes there are born natural leaders who should enjoy privileges greater than the average person, for whom rules don’t apply.

o   She appears to use her pupils like pawns in some manipulative game, yet she seems devoted to them and their development.

o   Her encouraging of students to have affairs with teachers and such is morally reprehensible, yet espouses a strong feminist viewpoint that would have been radical and socially progressive for the 1930s, in which this story is set.

o   In short, Brodie’s personality, and Maggie Smith’s portrayal of her, makes this more of a credible, human character than some stereotypical hero/saint-like instructor we’ve seen many times before. She’s got serious flaws that make her interesting.

·       This is arguably a cautionary tale about the corrupting nature of power and the dangers that certain people in positions of power and authority have over society, including teachers whose corrupting influence can negatively affects students’ lives.

·       This film doesn’t try to romanticize or oversentimentalize about the bond between teachers and students, as other films like Mr. Chips and Mr. Holland’s Opus might.

·       It’s also not predictably bright, cheery and boring—instead, it delves into dark territories by virtue of Brodie’s teachings and manipulations. Yes, there is a dash of melodrama and soap opera-ish romance, but it’s also a dark drama.

·       The film makes Brodie a sympathetic character, despite her bold teachings and Fascist inclinations, in that she’s such a charismatic, multilayered, free-thinking, rule-breaking, revolutionary, autonomous, complex personality who men and students equally admire. It also gives us a strong antagonist to root against in the form of the school’s headmistress, whose personal vendetta against Ms. Brodie endears the teacher to us.

·       This is also arguably a more a fascinating character study than it is a satisfying yarn with an absorbing plot.

·       We know that Brodie is imperfect and misguided in her beliefs because:

o   She idolizes fascist leaders who will later (this is set in 1932) be exposed as tyrants.

o   She encourages her student Mary to go off and join her brother in fighting for Franco, but the brother was fighting for the other side; Mary threw her life away needlessly, and Brodie doesn’t want to accept responsibility for it.

WHAT ARE SOME PRIMARY THEMES EXAMINED IN THIS FILM?

·       The responsibility teachers have in guiding their pupils and the limits to which they can become personally involved with them.

·       Comeuppance and karma: Brodie had her downfall coming to her.

·       Knowledge is power, but power has a tendency to corrupt.

·       The concept of “being in one’s prime.” Brodie seems to boast of a prescience as to knowing when someone’s prime is or will be, but what gives her the right or the talent to decree this? For that matter, why can’t one’s prime be anytime? She dangerously tells her students when their prime will be or what their future will hold, but she’s no fortune teller mystic, and she’s certainly wrong about Mary.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT JEAN BRODIE IS A SYMPATHETIC OR A DESPICABLE CHARACTER, AND WHY?

·       It’s possible to feel that she’s both by the end of the film, as she’s dug her own vocational grave by going against standard curriculum and putting dangerous ideas in the heads of her students, yet we also admire her moxie, fighting spirit and nonconformist ways in her battle with the headmistress. Still, getting her comeuppance at the hands of a shrewd pupil she underestimated—one who exposes Brodie for morally reprehensible adult she is—feels like a satisfying vindication.

OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY RONALD NEAME

·       Scrooge

·       The Poseidon Adventure

·       Hopscotch