Stand and Deliver (1988)

 It Delivers Alright... (Rating: 9 out of 10- -4.5 stars)
Saw this movie for class, and thought it was a very good movie. It's about a teacher who comes to teach at a school out in East Los Angeles, back in 1982. It focuses on students who have failed to receive proper education while they were at school for various reasons, mostly due to lack of motivation from prior teachers. The teacher, Mr. Escalante (spelling?), helps motivate the students to come to class everyday and learn. One day, he decides to teach Calculus to the class to help them pass a test that they are required to take. His hard work and motivation has brought the students together to learn and try to pass the test and graduate high school. Although there are many hurdles that he has to try to get over, such as teaching the class during the summer, he succeeds in many ways in reaching every goal that he has set out.

As for the acting of the characters, they were great. You can tell that the characters were pretty consistant during their parts, to make this movie convencing (since it is based on a true story).

This movie teaches many morals in life, such as motivation, planning ahead, goal setting, negative reinforcement, and a lot of other topics in organizational behavior. This is a movie I recommend everyone to check out, whether for a class or for leisure, because it's a good one. Peace. March 19, 2008

 If only I had their incentive...
I was first exposed to the story of this film as a sevnt grader. Strangely enough, it was first read to my classmates in paperback form (this book has elluded me for now). [I was part of a select group of midle school kids that were assigned to a "team" of teachers; they shared the responsibility of reading the story.] I naturally found it very moving, especially in the hands of my math teacher (the story is about students in accelarated math).

As soon as the teachers finished reading, we were given the pleasure of watching the film, itself. In fact, my father had already rented the movie for my personal viewing pleasure. While I didn't give it its due attention, the film was an undeniable influence on me as time passed. The year was 1994, and I was just begining to learn how to play music. The following year, I began playing the guitar. And though Jaime Escalante, himself has pointed out that he would never have obligated his students to sit the AP Calculus exam after only 2 years of study, the story was an underlying inspiration to me, as far as an interest in learning to play the guitar as swiftly as I could.

I just wish I could've applied that same incentive in my more traditional academic efforts. I was never a good schoolboy, even though I knew how much potential I showed. Even in college, when music was my major, I only ended with a C average. If I'd watched this film a few more times at that point, I might've been better motivated.

It was also great to see the on-set reunion of Lou Diamond Phillips and Rosanna DeSoto, who had both graced the silver screen in 1987, as key cast members of La Bamba. February 29, 2008

 To understand people who are different, you have to be one
Along with Music of the Mind, Dangerous Minds and Radio and others, this is the message. Real people are making real differences and it is on DVD. Play this at home, often. It has enough threat of violence to meet the average American mind, then slips the fact that an effort invested pays great social dividends; June 8, 2007

 Increasing Probability
'Stand and Deliver' is a ground-breaking true-life tale of determination and innovation. The film is based on Jaime Escalante (James Edward Olmos), a financially successful man who trades his profession to teach school in L.A. Not accepting failure, he earns the trust of his students whose cynicism is unmatched by everyone except the teachers. Using colorful tactics, toughness, and humor, he wins his mostly hispanic classes by bridging the gap between what they can learn and what they've despaired of ever learning. Using his own dedication to build confidence, he catalyzes his students to use the educational ticket out of despair and poverty.

Comparing Olmos performance to real videos of Escalante, the actor hit the nail on the head. All the young performers bring such likable and identifiable students that they make us forget the groundbreaking nature of "The Sweat Hogs" (from TV's 'Welcome Back Kotter'). Endearing from start to finish, the story and characters are especially lovable. Even the hard-boiled shell of students like Angel are particularly charismatic. (Lou Diamond Phillips became an overnight sensation for his performance here.) Similar movies like 'Freedom Writers' today wouldn't have been conceivable without it. April 17, 2007

 Stand and Deliver "stands and delivers"
I like this movie because it reminds me of AP Calculus and how hard that test was. I got a 5, but only because I took Algebra II, Geometry, Precalculus in the years previous to that. I can't imagine having to basically learn all the way from remedial algebra to Calculus in a 2 year span.

I was in a pretty low-income area too, but luckily the school wasn't so bad, and just as the movie suggests, Calculus is the key to move on to bigger and better things, and more interesing schoolwork, like University Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, etc.

It also gives you ability to improve your SAT Math score because you reinforce all the algebra trickery you may have missed in the previous years, because they are used in calculus too.

Even if you don't get credit for it at your college, having gone through the class helps to breeze through it in college. Even if you are not going to major in math and science, at least this will take care of any math requirements for your major, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you know way more (in terms of analytical skill and thought process) than the college remedial algebra they would otherwise place you in.

I highly recommend this to anyone in high school or eigth grade. When in doubt as to whether to take the AP class versus the Honors level class, I ALWAYS recommend to choose the AP level course; but take that with a grain of salt, that's just my humble opinion, and your situation may be different.

However, I think if the school's paying for the test, you may as well save the time and money in college it would require to take the course, and if it's too hard you can always not take the AP Test until next year. April 10, 2007

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