School Ties (1993, VHS)

School Ties (1992) is really a pretty fantastic movie that helped begin the careers of several young actors. Ironically, Brendan Fraser stars in the leading role as David Greene, a Jewish teen from Pennsylvania who gets a scholarship to a pre-Ivy league high school so that he can play quarterback for their football team. Matt Damon comes second, as he stars as Charlie Dillon, a jealous rich brat who tries to have David expelled from school. Ben Affleck has a constant role in the film, yet with very few lines. He is a just another student at the school. My, how things have changes for the three actors since 1992!

We re back to the 1950 s, and David Greene is a football star in his hometown of Scranton, PA. He s has a very good offer to attend a prep school on an athletic scholarship, and in taking it he realizes that he s the only Jew at school. The WASP pre-ivy snobbish boys are curious about David, and he neglects to tell them of his religious heritage. As they make joke after joke about Jews, David keeps silent and hides his Star of David neklace in his dresser drawer.

David performs very well on the football field, but quarterback hopeful Charlie Dillon has a jealousy streak, and things start to go bad for David. David falls for Charlie s friend Sally Wheeler (Amy Locane),(who Charlie says is his girlfriend). When Charlie finds out David s religious affiliation he takes pride in telling all of his friends who previously welcomed David into the fold. Even David s kind roommate Chris (Chris O Donnell), is angry with David because he feels like David had lied to him by not expressing the fact that he was Jewish.

Things really start to heat up when Charlie cheats on a test and blames David. Their classmates must stick to the strict code of honour the school promotes, and decide who really cheated on the test. Their decision will seal the fate of either boy.

I absolutely love School Ties, primary because of all the cute boys in the film! We see Matt Damon when he was short, and a young Ben Affleck before he became even a little famous. Brendan Fraser does a very nice job in the lead role as hunky quarterback and ladies man. Fraser was tall, great looking, and he even dances like a stud in School Ties.

I think this movie does a unique job in portraying prejudice in the 1950s. We struggle with David to keep his faith secret so that he can fit in, yet we feel his pain when he hears his friends talk very derogatory about Jews. There is one scene (and a perfect line), when David feels obligated (partially because his Dad laid a guilt trip on him) to go to temple on Rosh Hashanah. David had to play football earlier that day and so he went to temple in the evening and Head Master, Dr. Bartram, (Peter Donat) finds David in church. He makes some kind of comment to David about how His people are steadfast. Then, he asks David if he thought it was worth breaking years of tradition (the football game), obviously to attend church. David replies Your tradition or mine, Sir? It was a very poignant line in the movie and I thought Fraser delivered it perfectly.

There are all sorts powerful scenes and phenomenal 'young man/teen' acting in School Ties. In a sub-plot, Mack McGivern (Andrew Lowery) gives a magnificent performance as a sub-par French student who has so much pressure to get a good grade that he loses his mind.

School Ties is a very good story and it s filled with good performances. It never lags, it s wonderfully entertaining and I can t think of any reason why someone might not enjoy the film (other than it s a little depressing). It s kind of neat to see Affleck and Damon at their greenest, although Affleck doesn t say much, but you can certainly tell it s him in the film. I d recommend this to younger kids (boys would probably like the film more than girls because of the football theme), and all adults.

5 stars