Conrack

You Can't Believe How Good This Movie Is

Having seen this gem in college, in a cinematography class, I will never forget it. Possibly one of Voigt's best ever. Compare this character to the part he played in "Enemy of the State" and you'll be amazed at the spectrum of his acting skills. The only thing BAD about this movie is the administrator character who is an evil person. I think he was played by Hume Cronyn. But his performance, too, is outstanding. I saw this just recently on one of the oldies networks like AMC. And I was able to share it with my family who came to love this move. DO NOT miss this one. And why is it not out on DVD? It was a GREAT social commentary of the time. Scratch that...it IS a great social commentary of the time. The acting is more than good, it is pure and very real...by all parties. I highly recommend CONRACK. July 22, 2008

Lost classic but still relevant

I was a Peace Corps volunteer high school teacher in Central Africa in the early 1980s, and Conrack comes closer than any film I have seen to capturing that kind of inimitable life-altering experience. I show the film (VHS only, alas) every year to my first-year college students, many of whom will become teachers themselves, as an inspirational example of how to become your own best resource for imaginative teaching, even in this electronic age. As I predicted, THEY LOVE IT!! WHY OH WHY is this film not yet on DVD? We must start a campaign to pressure the studio to transfer this gem as it deserves. September 17, 2007

absolutely Voight's best performance

It is hard to whittle down the best of the best of these tour-de-force performers, but Conrack HAS to be either 1 or 2 TOPS of Voight's career. Stunning, captivating, stirring, thought-provoking...if I haven't given you enough adjectives, you are not worthy of watching....one of the Best of the best. July 31, 2007

A little-known classic starring the young John Voight

Based on Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel "The Water is Wide", this seldom-seen film is well deserving of a DVD issue from the only current available VHS release of this 1974 film starring a very young John Voight in the lead role. Set during the height of the Vietnam War, he plays a teacher sent to a tiny island elementary school, where he finds a group of young black students deemed as "slow" by their parents and peers, the principal in charge of the school, and his great nemesis, the school superintendant, brilliantly played by Hume Cronyn, who ultimately fires him for his insubordination in teaching the kids too well. Definitely one of Voight's greatest roles ever, this beautiful film should not be missed. April 16, 2007

"Against-all-odds" teacher on a time-forgotten island

EDUCATOR'S OF THE WORLD....WATCH THIS FILM IF YOU ARE THINKING OF THROWING IN THE TOWEL!!!!If you liked THE HISTORY BOYS,DEAD POET'S SOCIETY,THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE,EMPEROR'S CLUB or FREEDOM WRITERS,then you will love CONRACK.Teaching is a tough profession,and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.What Pat Conroy undertook to educate the disenfranchised and forgotten black children on a small island a stone's throw from the white elite cities of Beaufort,Savannah and Charleston will amaze and astound.Jon Voight captures the screen with his performance as the "against-all-odds" teacher Pat Conroy (later author of PRINCE OF TIDES).What I find still sad at the time of this review is that similar conditions in educational racial lines still exist (and I am a Northerner!)The only knock with this film is the director Martin Ritt's choice of using some of the white Beaufort townsfolk for very minor roles.They are perfectly stiff and downright laughable!!!!Other than that,this film should not be missed by anyone. January 26, 2007

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