One Eight Seven (1997)

Fantastic!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Samuel L Jackson excels in this movie as do all the cast. The script is well penned setting the scene perfectly.Some of the cinematography is excellent displaying some fantastic views of the streets of Los-Angeles neatly inter-spliced with subtle atmospheric music. In fairness seven out of ten is a touch conservative as I don't think there is any area where this movie could have been improved. Certainly one of Samuel L Jacksons finest underrated gems.I would definitely watch 187 again if for no other reason then to see some of those sumptuous camera angles once more.

A powerful story about urban violence and how it can affect inner city schools, this is an excellent little film. Samuel L. Jackson shines as the teacher fed up with his class who eventually begins exact his own kind of justice by bumping off the problem pupils. An atmosphere of simmering violence is built up along with a lot of suspense in a tale that had me hooked. The reliable Jackson puts in an excellent performance as the bitter teacher who has been driven to the edge.The rest of the cast do their jobs well, especially the actors playing the loathsome pupils. What I liked best about this film was the surprising ending, which sees Jackson and his adversaries playing Russian Roulette round a table. A superb ending to what is an interesting, sometimes difficult to watch but still important film. Forget the watered-down crap that most television stations show, this is raw, forceful viewing which asks questions. In fact it reminded me of some of those gritty '70s films, as it has the same hard edge.

At the end of 1960s the ideal teacher faced his students' disturbance by good understanding and sympathy, then at the 1990s became the only way for the ideal teacher to face his students' savagery is a more wild savagery. So it's not (To Sir With Love) anymore...It's (The Count of Monte Cristo) or (Psycho) ! (187) is the satirical movie in a form of a horror, or it's the case of our nightmare factual life already, or maybe it's one of the most melancholic "what if" movies ever. But anyway its highest point was that concept of (meet violence with violence) whereas the chaos will bring nothing but chaos, the blood which leads to more blood, and the ultimate havoc will be definitely for the both sides (The teacher and the student) as long as the previous side (the system) is absolute free at decision and insanity ! This is the message of this movie, its good premonition, and its discrete antecedence despite its own exaggerations and its too melodramatic ending.Actually (Kevin Reynolds) made solid, turbid, and dismal atmosphere out of this story by using a lot of elements to express such a dreadful experience. For instance you'll find so many red (blood) and blue (grief) all over the screen, or varies between sick yellow and gloomy black with a hot image in a sweat all the time like they're all (teacher and students) in one cell and no one will let the other live, but that desire was importunate to the extent that you may feel – especially with the drastic events and that Russian roulette's end ! – That the movie nearly sunk under it. Although I believe that not all the movies must be dreamy with happy ending but I believe also that the exaggeration of a message can powerfully destroy it, so I think the main problem here is that the well meaning statement became unintentionally overstatement.

There has been quite a number of movies made on this particular subject, some like the Sidney Poitier one, are classics, some like the one with James Belushi is just plain repetitive and there are some that are mocking the above, like the one with Jon Lovitz, for example. I thought I had seen them all, but this one, I believe in the just purpose of making a point that there is an ever growing part of the "civilized" world that society has completely lost grip of, manages to almost transcend the genre. Almost because after a gritty opening this one completely loses it's voice in the roaring noise they call score, which is inappropriate, and cheap stylistic bravado like the slow-mo. The accentuation of ever growing anxiety and build-up of retaliative power of the main character, however, plus the gratification of, admittedly this viewer's, too, desire to see some sort of retribution, on the other hand, proves it made its point.