First let me start with a review of reviews of British filmmaker Tony Kaye's Detachment (click here to watch it free with an Amazon Prime account). I've noticed tropes of movie reviews: a tendency to be very specific about some aspects and very general about others. The NPR review noted the chalkboard scribbles between each scene but stated that the main character, Henry Barthes, is Christlike, unrealistically perfect among imperfection. However, I remember moments when he was rude, broken down, vulnerable, and selfish. Just because he was Adrien Brody and dressed well, does not mean he was not realistic.
Another trope of the reviews is being critical. Psych studies have shown that people who criticize are seen as smarter. However, Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project and Happier at Home) has convinced me that being positive is underrated: "It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light." She also says when you frame something negatively you will find evidence to support it, as the reviewers somewhat sloppily do. When you frame something positively, you can also see it that way (Happier at Home, p. 75). So in that vein, I'll start with the common ground that Hollywood filmmakers and educators likely share:
1.) Improvement is needed in education. Heightened public awareness of the problems can lead to action toward a solution.
2.) There are a variety of causes of educational problems, and home lives of students and staff are a major cause.
The second point is why I am amazed that critics were annoyed that Detachment blamed parents as a cause. The movie's writer, Carl Lund, was a former public school teacher. Isn't he a good authority? The movie even focuses more on the home lives of the teachers - which are alternately abusive, lonely, and unsupportive. The staff seem to find support in one another, however. Better staff and parent support is a possible solution for the first point - that improvement of schools is needed.
Reviewers also thought that the movie was exaggeratedly bleak - disillusioned staff, detached teachers, suicidal teens. I agree that if we are to heighten awareness of problems, they should be accurately portrayed. And overplaying the issue could lead to overwhelming the public into inaction. But the movie doesn't overplay the level of students aggression, staff instability, and parental neglect in many schools. I've never worked in schools that are quite as desolate but some of my teacher peers have. And in every school, there are students whose lives could be the subject of a cinematic drama. To say it is unrealistic is to dismiss the bleak reality of some actual students.
Furthermore, I think the response to the trauma in the movie was both inspiring and useful. Henry Barthes walks into a room, and with what one critic called his compassionate detachment but which I'll less confusingly call his respect-gaining calm, proceeds to engage the students. I've found that being calm really can be the key to great teaching - your mood affects the kids and staying calm helps you think clearly and be present with the kids. He even formatively assesses their knowledge with a writing assignment - Write what someone would say about you at your funeral. What a great, personalized, provocative and creative assignment. I might even use it! I also liked his advice to a self-loathing girl: "Stick it out. It will be okay" and "People who make fun of you just lack self-consciousness. There will always be those people." These are wise words and I am convinced that curriculum-wise, more emphasis should be put on teaching self-consciousness and metacognition rather than covering content. Sadly his wise words aren't enough to prevent tragedy, which is another truth of education: You can't save every child.
The reviewers also seemed the miss the probably intentional connection between Henry and Roland Barthes, the French linguist and literary theorist. Henry states that literature allows him to imagine other possibilities in a world of suffering and manipulation; it helps him think for himself. What a brilliant and motivational reason for teaching English - the movie proves the fact that good teachers have personal relationships with their content area and are knowledgable.
The only unrealistic part of the movie was the fact that the movie didn't show Barthes lesson-planning - which is integral to remaining calm! A movie that shows the power of empathetic (Barthes himself had the mother of all bad home lives), calm teaching with scenes of lesson-planning would be the perfect educational film. Detachment comes closer than reviewers think to being a helpful message about the education system.
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