Tag movie synopsis11/26/2023 A gang leader on campus gets arrested, and McKenna tries to help him. One smart young girl wants to leave the school and get bused to a safer school an hour away. Meanwhile, students are skeptical of the new principal. He tries to encourage a handful of teachers to do more for their students but meets resistance, particularly from a teacher named Ben Proctor (not a real person) played by character actor Richard Masur, known for TV shows such as “Rhoda,” “One Day at a Time” and more recently “The Good Wife.” The teacher expects McKenna won’t last and later reports him to the district on trumped-up charges. Within a few minutes of being at the school, McKenna has to break up a gang “jumping” ritual and literally put out a fire started in the hallway. (Whitfield later played the girlfriend to an LA Crips gang founder who came from the area around Washington High in the TV movie “Redemption: The Stan ‘Tookie’ Williams Story” with Jamie Foxx.) ![]() His girlfriend (played by Lynn Whitfield) hesitatingly drops him off at the school, which is covered in graffiti, as one of the students shouts profanity at her. The scroll states, “Based on a true story,” and according to McKenna himself, it’s all pretty accurate and happened just like it unfolds in the movie.ĭenzel Washington plays McKenna, shown in 1979 being driven up to Washington High School in South Los Angeles as principal. The movie kicks off with a funky, if not dated, original score written by jazz great Herbie Hancock. In it, the heroic principal sacrifices relationships, career and safety to do the right thing for public education. “He risked it all to make the grade,” is how the movie was advertised. ![]() The tag line of the film “ The George McKenna Story” (also known as “ Hard Lessons”) is a punny George McKenna-ism characteristic of the man it profiled. Football players help Principal McKenna paint over graffiti in “The George McKenna Story.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |