DANGEROUS MINDS

The inspirational drama DANGEROUS MINDS opens with ex-marine LouAnne Johnson visiting a suburban high school in northern California to inquire about a substitute teaching position. Teaching is Ms. Johnson’s dream, and to her elation she is offered a full-time job at the upper-class high school. This sounds great to the green recruit who never thought that she would walk straight from her first interview into the classroom. However, Ms. Johnson soon finds out that her group of children are jaded, rebellious “ruffians” who have absolutely no interest in listening to what she has to say. LouAnne soon seeks to overcome her frustration with the students by finding ways to get their attention. The teenagers slowly turn to exemplary students, but as the caring teacher seeks to make a difference in their young lives, she encounters opposition from the school’s authority figures, the student’s parents, the curriculum, and at times, the students themselves.

The acting is superb and the absence of nudity and sex, as well as the sparsely applied violence in this film, should be commended. While not denying the rough elements of urban America through course language, it actually provides a tasteful look of hope and the triumph of one person in the lives of many.