Very disappointing...

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

Excellent but underrated film

Plot This film, which Escalante himself said that was 90% truth and 10% drama, is a biopic of high school teacher "Jaime Escalante" whose method is to teaching his students and colleagues. He left his job as an engineer in private industry, a better paying one, in order to get a job at Garfield High School. The school is on the edge of being decertify due to poor academic results by the school district and Escalante's viewpoint is that students will appreciate the opportunities and those at the school are so dejected that they behave poorly. What does Stand & Deliver Stands for? According to Wiktionary, which is a dictionary belongs to Wikipedia, "Stand and Deliver is a phrase traditionally used by a highwayman commanding victims to hand over their valuables". We can compare Escalante and a highwayman in two negative and positive aspects. Perhaps, the reason behind choosing the name is because Escalante was performing similar to a highwayman telling the students to give him their most valuable thing which it could be called 'Time'. If the students wanted to pass the "road", which was an exam to pass in the movie, they had to hand over their valuables which was their summertime. Summer is the most pleasurable time for all kids, moreover because of the poor conditions they had to work as well so if they accept to attend the summer classes they had to surrender. The second aspect (the positive one), which was contradictory to the highwayman act was he gave them, with training them during summer, a chance to attend the collage and change their poor conditions to a better one in lieu of the leisure, fun, diversion, job and to sum, their summertime. But in return he gave them the most valuable thing they could ever achieve. As far as I understand, the writer was too intelligent to choose the name Stand and Deliver of this true story.Fight against Racism Ethnic and Racism discrimination in the United States has been a foremost issue since the colonial and slave era. Legally sanctioned rights and privileges were given to white American which were not granted to African Americans, Native Americans and Latin Americans, and even non protestant like Irish people, Italian and poles. Stands and Deliver seems to portray this racism within the educational system. When Educational Testing Service department have announced that the Garfield High school student cheated due to a same mistake that all had, Escalante did his best to prove that this is a sort of racism which accused his students and call them cheaters. In one scene he expressed that "in this country one is innocent until proved guilty, not the other way round and if this was Beverly Hills High School they wouldn't have sent the investigators" and he continued "no one would have questioned the scores if my kids didn't has Spanish surnames and come from barrio schools! Something is going on that nobody is talking about and you two (investigators) know what it is! I thought this was over long ago. Why do this to my kids? One of them said "there are two kinds of racism: singling out a group who are members of a minority and not singling out a group who are members of minority and continued "No one has the right to accuse me of racism. NO ONE HAS THAT RIGHT! This conversation revealed that there was something behind all this happening and this was Racism which all know it occurred within the country that has a long history in this field. At the end Escalante and his students surrender to accept the retest. It divulged that there is no simple way to fight with this system. Unfortunately, similar story was happened to a Hamedany student who could pass the University Entrance Exam successfully in two subject and then Ministry of Science, Research and Technology announced that there is a suspicion about his test so it is decided for him to do the test again. During that time many believe that if he is from Tehran the result never been questioned. Maybe we can consider this as a kind of discrimination.

Movies are in many aspects like books. There is said that you can't judge a book only by its cover. It seems that in these days you can judge a movie by its trailer because there are many movies that they are like each other in the story. But when you look at some movies such as Stand and Deliver which is written and directed by Ramón Menéndez, you can see even in stories that is very similar to other movies you can find new things to watch and learn. Stand and Deliver has a very simple plot. It is about a teacher that has unbelievable power in making friendly relationship with his students and convincing them to study and gain great success in their lives. In other words he can change his student's lives and can change his society norms in this way too. We can see this story in many other similar works but this is a spectacle phenomenon in reflecting the Hispanic students' problems in American society to gain success and treated equally to other people, white people. The story takes place in Los Angeles, In the Garfield high school. A school full of students that the school's administration thinks they are losers. They are students from lower caste and Hispanic immigrants, many of whom are involved in gangs. But after a while they all determine that in spite of their financial circumstances and their social classes, they share one thing in common: having a talent that had to be finding by a hard-working teacher. However, no one except the teacher, believe them and their talents. Although the 18-member group of the students can pass the most difficult test in calculus, the whole world is mobilized against them and claims that they have cheated in the exam. At the end, the result changes after the resistance of students and then they are faced with a new world that they and their talents should be respected.The movie's background According to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates as of July 1, 2013, there are roughly 54 million Hispanics living in the United States, representing approximately 17% of the U.S. total population, making people of Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic or race minority. Although these people don't have many problems of African – American people in the United States they have their own problems in American society. Discrimination, looking at them as criminals and illiterate people are the most problems that they have in the United States. Characters As we can see in many movies and serials which are made in the United States, putting name on different people is a common culture among the American people, especially between students and teachers. They heaped the most important attribute of everyone associated with this trait called him by that name. Selecting Names for different people in this movie aside from their original names is an interesting point. Class's evil person who tries to misbehave with different gestures and show his power to the teacher, called by Escalante (the teacher) as 'finger man' and in the meantime the tradition of making fun of students because of the different attributes changes to mock students who refuse to do their homework this shows that teacher in this society not only should change the behave of students, but also should change the wrong cultures that exist in the context of this society. The old pattern for the still fresh phenomenon If this movie has made in the recent days and years it would be more exciting in the scenes about exams or the day before it when students are going to be prepared for exam. The music in these scenes is in the background or we have not any music at all. You hold your breath to see if the teacher is right and students didn't cheat or the school administrations and ETS authorities were right. But in these scenes there is not any excitement and there is only a boring moments that you should wait and wait. You should watch the kids yawning and their sleepy positions in an exam session that is very important for them. In this movie there are elements and incidents that audience can guess it very easily and quickly. When you see that in the first day of school, the car stereo of teacher's car has been stolen, you can guess through the next behavior of students that they will compensate this act in future. Maybe if people like me in the year 2015 watched this movie in 1988 they would be shocked by some events but through these years many movies have been made that had the same story and plot about a tough teacher and his students, a very important exam or match and their try to be successful. So the plot may be is very repetitious for the audiences in 2015 but the main theme of the movie (try to eradicate discrimination in American society, especially among Americans and Latinos) is still fresh. Conclusion Stand and deliver at first is a story, a real story about immigration, inequality, view immigrants and especially Hispanics as criminal people. On the other hand, the film is a story about honesty, trying hard, resistance to insult and slander and the ways to overcome the widespread view about minority communities. I guess we can briefly say that the whole message of this film is this sentence: "Don't tell me what I cannot do , whether I'm an African-American or Hispanic or immigrant , whether you see me as a foreigner or not, I can do every things I want and I do it in front of anyone that don't believe me!"

Stand and Deliver is a 1988, Ramon Menendez movie staring Edward James Olmos. Olmos depicts an eager teacher, Jaime Escalante, who has given up a high paying job to go back to teaching with the hope of making a difference. He is appointed to a school were almost all students are of a Hispanic origin. Having the encouragement and a great deal of patience to deal with his students' shall we call, rudeness and lack of interest in interacting with anything related to education and studying, he actually becomes successful in gaining their attention and trust. What is significant to his method for the students-and the viewer for that matter- is that he connects wit the students in their own level, using examples of their own lives and even using words out of their jargon. The students who have finally found someone who believes in them and does not look down onto them, show a great deal of perseverance and spending a great deal of effort they all pass the very difficult exam successfully. The movie tries to show in detail the different aspects of a minority group's life in the 80s America. Mr.Escalante an educated man with a job at a corporation feels something lacking and so quits his job to do something for his society. He has to fight for his place at the school, and to be taken seriously for what unique work he wants done. The life of the students and what they are struggling with, however in short, passing scenes has been shown perfectly. Most of them are from families with low income, a number of siblings, parents working shifts round the clock. Absorbed in the social conventions and highly accepted stereotypes no one in the community and among the young people themselves imagines a different scenario. According to Mr.Escalante the students have stopped trying because they are treated as inferior. It has been a presumption that they are lazy, or are not smart enough to receive a good or high level of education. The pattern has been repeated for so long that the students themselves have actually believed and internalised the situation. To remember the historical context, the 80s is usually remembered as America's flourishing years, the years which showed what America was meant to, and was going to be. After the uneasy days of the 60s, with struggles for civil rights and reaching a considerable amount of the goals; after the 70s and putting behind the economic problems and recession, 80s was considered a time that people could pursue more personal interests rather than trying to solve the general problems of the public. This is visible in the culture of the decade, TV shows showing "happy days", the revolting rock music of the 70s was now changed to folk music, and computers became available to the public. But as seen in the movie, it is not the case for all. The group presented in the movie, still struggles with economic problems, has issues with inferior treatment from the majority because of race, cannot gain access to computers at school let alone having personal computers, and so does not find the time or chance to get involved with the new culture developing in the country. The situation depicted in the movie can be explained to a good deal according to the standpoint theory, which is assumes people's experiences, knowledge and opinions are shaped by the social groups to which they belong. To draw and example from the movie, one can observe easily the different meaning various concepts have for the people, for example a boy sees future success in being able to repair and fix cars rather than studying. Or that the role of the female in the society is suggested to be one who has a skill and therefore a minor job and will marry and bear and rear children. In the end, I think the movie has done a splendid job in showing to the core what a minority group went through trying to survive the pressures and difficulties imposed on it. The human factor shown through the connection between Mr.Escalante and his students, however sentimental, showed a great deal can be done through mutual understanding and effort.

(Plot) This is a true story about a teacher named Jamie Escalante, a high school teacher who manages to defeat the odds, to teach a bunch of unmotivated students Calculus, and change Garfield High School foreverThis movie really hit home with me. I struggled to stay interested in school, because my teachers weren't very interesting. I just wasn't very motivated at times. Jamie Escalante gave me newfound hope that teachers actually do care about giving their students a memorable education. He was a courageous and pugnacious man who would stop at nothing to make sure his students knew the value of education. Edward James Olmos's portrayal of Jamie Escalante gives Jamie the justice he deserves. It really is a magnificent performance. He manages to maintain Jamie's tenacity, and never give up attitude. He made me fully believe that he really was Jamie Escalante. I can't praise his performance enough. All of the students in this movie had something interesting about them, but Lou Diamond Phillips (Angel Guzman) stuck out like a sore thumb for me. I find the man to be rather dull in a lot of things, but he really impressed me in this movie, with his performance. I dug his conflicted character. His interactions with Edward James Olmos were a treat to watch. I'd have to say this is Edward James Olmos's show. He runs with it, and never looks back. If you don't feel inspired or happy when this movie ends, I don't know what to tell you. It just goes to show you. Even if the world is against you because of your race, your reputation, etc. Hard work and determination can take you to new heights you've never dreamed of. I wish I had a teacher like Jamie Escalante. Final Thoughts: It's a really moving film that should inspire students around the world. If I saw this back in high school, I would strive to get better. This movie comes highly recommended by yours truly8.5/10