School Ties **** (1992, Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O’Donnell, Ben Affleck, Randall Batinkoff, Ed Lauter, Peter Donat, Kevin Tighe) – Classic Film Review 384

The involving, polished 1992 American drama film School Ties is notable for providing some of the first cinema lead roles for Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Cole Hauser.

Dick Wolf and Darryl Poniscan make a fine, intelligent, quietly passionate job of the literate screenplay for the involving, polished 1992 American drama film School Ties about the anti-Semitic persecution of a Jewish boy in an elite New England high school in the Fifties.

The story is based on the personal experiences of writer and TV producer Dick Wolf, who is credited for the original story and co-author of the screenplay. Though set in an American prep school long ago, its message is still timely and universal.

Brendan Fraser (already far too old at 24, though he looks right) stars as David Greene, a 1950s Pennsylvania working-class Jewish student awarded an athletic scholarship in his senior year in a prestigious New England Christian prep academy.

He is being admitted solely because of his exceptional football prowess as star quarterback. They need him to help their football team to beat the school’s old rivals. Fraser doesn’t measure up academically to the other boys.

Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970).

Because of his background, he’s an outsider, but he is charismatic and good at making friends. He feels he keep his religion a secret from his new school friends for fear of being rejected as they ridicule Jews. But then a jealous bigot, Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon, aged 22), forces him out in the open. And the headmaster catches Fraser praying at church after curfew in observance of the Jewish new year.

Director Robert Mandel’s moving, good-hearted film will appeal to fans of the similar Dead Poets Society (1989). Though it has an important message to convey and is issue led, it is made with as careful attention to the well defined drama and characters as to the period detail and school atmosphere.

Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) .

The handsome young Fraser holds centre stage securely, putting in his bid for stardom by smiling through adversity and cannily underplaying the big scenes. A clutch of young stars on their way up, including Fraser, Damon, Ben Affleck (as Chesty Smith!), Chris O’Donnell and Randall Batinkoff, all make an extremely strong impression. It’s quite a showcase for their young talents. It didn’t immediately turn them into stars, but it definitely helped them into the game.

And there is guaranteed good work in the cameos from the older character actors, especially Ed Lauter as the father of Fraser, Peter Donat as the headmaster Dr Bartram, and Kevin Tighe as the coach. All of them turn their stock characters into living people.

Director Mandel stirs up plenty of tension and passion in a series of strong scenes and makes sure that Wolf and Poniscan’s ending is satisfying and potent. Damon’s character gets the last bitter word to Fraser: ‘I’m still gonna get into Harvard, and you’ll still be a Jew.’

If you want to pick holes, you could say the story follows a traditional arc, so perhaps there aren’t really any surprises. And there may be the odd inevitable cliché just occasionally in some of the dialogue. But nothing’s perfect and these little flaws don’t matter against the film’s huge merits. And this powerful, urgently felt movie is definitely a class act with class acting.

Unfortunately, good work doesn’t always get its just rewards. It flopped on its US cinema release, grossing only $14.7 million at the box office against a $18 million budget. It the UK it was wasted. Shamefully, though School Ties was screened in London at a preview to just a couple of critics to test it out, it failed to go on to enjoy a cinema release in Britain.

John Cunningham plays Damon’s father, which he also did in Mystic Pizza (1988). Damon made his film debut at 18 with a single line of dialogue in Mystic Pizza. He had entered Harvard in 1988, appearing in student plays, and went on to act in the TNT film Rising Son and School Ties. He left Harvard in 1992, a semester short of completing his Bachelor of Arts in English to act in Geronimo: An American Legend.

Giving School Ties the thumbs up on TV, the late American film critic Gene Siskel recalled experiencing anti-Semitic prejudice during his time at prep school. He was once being handed piece of toast with the jam in the shape of a swastika.

Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts.

The campus scenes were shot at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, and the gym scenes at Worcester Academy prep school, Massachusetts.

The cast are Brendan Fraser as David Greene, Matt Damon as Charlie Dillon, Chris O’Donnell as Chris Reese, Andrew Lowery as Mack McGivern, Randall Batinkoff as Rip Van Kelt, Cole Hauser as Jack Connors, Amy Locane as Sally Wheeler, Peter Donat as Dr Bartram, Željko Ivanek as Mr Cleary, Kevin Tighe as Coach McDevitt, Ed Lauter as Alan Greene, Michael Higgins as Mr Gierasch, Anthony Rapp as Richard “McGoo” Collins, Ben Affleck as Chesty Smith, and Peter McRobbie as the Chaplain.

Peter Donat (1928–2018).

RIP veteran Canadian-born character actor Peter Donat, best known in recent years for playing Agent Mulder’s father William Mulder on The X-Files, who died at the age of 90 on 10 September 2018. He was the nephew of Oscar-winning actor Robert Donat.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 384

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