I hate Dangerous Minds

[Spoilers for Dangerous Minds if you care about watching it]

Okay, for context, me and my mom are suckers, absolute suckers, for feel-good motivational biopics, specifically focusing on Latin/Spanish people. My favorite in this trend is Stand and Deliver (which if you have not watched yet I highly recommend it), but things like Flamin' Hot (on the story of how Frito-Lay got the spicy flavor) are also really good watches in my book. The problem is that eventually, you get to talk about Dangerous Minds, and that infuriates me.

To summarize the movie a bit (ain't like y'all are gonna watch it), the story focuses on Louanne Johnson, a Marine-turned-teacher, and her class of rowdy outcasts, mostly of Latin & black backgrounds. In order to get their attention, she ends up having to use language and media that would be more relatable to them; she uses Bob Dylan songs to start teaching poetry, and uses eye-catching phrases like "I choose to die" to teach them about what makes up a sentence. The problem is that she has to deal with the school telling her to stick to the curriculum, despite her methods working with the kids.

Before I continue with the summary, why in a class of Latin and black students would you use Bob Dylan songs? The movie shows them playing rap songs, 2Pac would've definitely been alive and/or popular by this point in history, fucking Gansta's Paradise is the main theme of the whole movie and that has no swear words! Apparently the IRL story the movie's based off of had rap songs, but man, this movie doesn't do kids justice.

The main problem however is Emilo [don't remember his last name]; best way I can describe him is a fuckboy. He's tough, the most popular kid in the room, and is willing to put up a good fight even if it isn't in his best interest. He finds out that a guy who recently came out of jail believes Emilo stole his girlfriend, which makes Emilo prepare himself for a gunfight. Johnson tries to tell him to talk to the principal to suspend the guy based on the fact he used drugs on school grounds; Emilo tries that but is sent out of the principal's room because he didn't knock. Because of that, Emilo ends up dying in a gunfight against the guy, which makes Johnson want to leave. However, because of the kids convincing her that she can't just go out without doing something, she decides to stay at the school.

Now, the next question on your mind is going to be how she deals with these situations; how does she help the class and/or family with the death of Emilo, how does she deal with the very obviously malicious school staff, or maybe she disproves her coworker friend's (Hal Griffith) assumption that anyone who stays teaching there is crazy?

The answer: nothing. Her staying at the school is where the movie ends.

Now, I imagine the book has more details about it; maybe the movie had to cut time to make it not 3 hours long. But this is so unbelievably unsatisfying, so anticlimactic, that it surprises me they even went with finishing the movie.

Is Griffith right about Johnson being crazy to stay there for her kids? Surely, the viewer would say no; there's potential in these kids far beyond the limitations of their neighborhoods, and although they wouldn't do it themselves, Johnson is right in staying with the kids until they graduate. The movie ending before graduation, however, seems to pretty much confirm Griffith's point, that she is crazy for staying.

Or what about Emilo's death? Johnson and the kids are happy to stay for each other, but losing someone who was a pretty integral part of the culture (even a kid that he beat up grieved over his death) has to have some kind of effect on the kids, especially his girlfriend who originally warned him to not go fight. And don't even get me started about the school staff!

If you couldn't tell by this point, the movie infuriates me. It builds up so much into promising these kids to blossom and become amazing people, but the movie cuts us off before we can get past the promise. I won't even get into how much they ham up the stereotypes in this movie, cause trust me, they ham it the fuck up.

I'm gonna watch Stand and Deliver again to relax myself.