Who payed the critics

Lack of good storyline.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Blistering performances.

We all have secrets, most often the concealing of a minor infraction. However, what if the secret concerns someone's identity or ethnicity among his or her peers? If the secret was revealed, would his opportunities be jeopardized? This is the plight David Green (Brendan Fraser in a fine performance) must face in "School Ties". In the 1950's, a prestigious college prep school, St. Matthews (modeled probably on Exeter Academy in New England) has been losing football games year after year, and the alumni is at their wits' ends. The alumni concoct an interesting strategy: put together a football scholarship and use it to compel an outstanding athlete to enroll in their school and improve their team.They find a crack-jack quarterback from Scranton, Pennsylvania, David Green, and compel him to attend their school for his senior year of high school. However, there's one catch: Green is Jewish, and St. Matthews is a private Anglican school where students are required to attend Christian services. Green decides to conceal his Jewish heritage and "play" along by attending services and hiding a Star of David necklace. He makes friends, and as the new quarterback, the football team becomes a success.However, Green's appearance at the school causes disruption in the tried-and-true storytelling device of "a stranger comes to town". He has knocked Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon in an outstanding supporting performance) out of the quarterback spot, and the latter will now play running back and blocker. Green becomes the star player. In one interesting scene, Dillon makes the crucial difference in a score but Green receives most of the credit. However, things continue to get worse for Dillon. His "girlfriend" Sally Wheeler (Amy Locane) begins to fall for Green at a school dance.Dillon has only one trump card to play against Green to undermine the latter's meteoric rise to the heights of school super-stardom, potentially the turning point of the story. A thoroughly compelling film from beginning to fade out. The cast is excellent with many young actors who will become name talent in their own right: Fraser, Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O'Donnell. And the story asks the question: will ethnic prejudice or individual character win the day?

This movie has its comical points like how in the beginning David, played by Brendan Fraser, makes a crack about a bikers sister. However the film takes too much time to get to the main problem and it seemed as though the director had to wrap it up really quick due to the extensive amount of time spent opening the story and building up the friendship of the main characters. Then at the end many people hate the character of Rip for not speaking up to defend David at the student hearing despite having seen Charles, played by Matt Damon, cheat and laying the blame on David. But despite these issues I still enjoyed the film and plot as a whole but the ending could have easily been done better.

One in ten thousand films concerning discrimination against Jewish people that did not end tragically. Unfortunately it is also about one in ten thousand films of the sort that is not based directly on actual events. The question then becomes is it better to have an unlikely story that ends happily or a truthful one that ends tragically, it is up to the individual viewer to decide. Personally I love a great victory story, the oppressed gaining ground over the regime which oppresses it, no matter how unlikely. It presents a sobering message cloaked in the guise a coming of age story filled with the up and coming actors of the time, making it all the more accessible to various audiences and thereby spreading the message of equality further than other related films due to the seriousness of the subject matter. There were plenty of great zingers and the spot on acting of the main cast makes many scenes of the film memorable.

David Greene (Brendan Fraser) is a Jewish high school senior who transfers to a New England prep school upon being awarded an academic scholarship for football. He is an amiable guy, if you're on his side, and doesn't look to hurt anyone, but the albatross around his neck is his religion in a sea of Catholic teenagers.David is told to keep his religion on the down-low by his coach, but it winds up slipping out through another kid in a drunken haze right when he is starting to fit in well with the other kids. One person intimidated by his presence and disgusted at his Judaism is Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon), the football team's quarterback who comes from a prestigious legacy family like many students at the school. Once David's secret is out, he is the target for religious bigotry and hatred and becomes a target for immature male aggression.Robert Mandel's School Ties is a strong showcase of hypocritical religious practice and the stupidity of religious hatred in general. Writers Darryl Ponicsan and Dick Wolf smartly structure the picture to show the behavior around David (who I wouldn't believe has a coincidental name if you assured me) prior to him being revealed as a Jew before the ball is dropped. Having David enter the prep school an outspoken Jew would've destroyed one of School Ties's immediate impact as a film that showcases the inanity of religious intolerance.Case and point, upon entering the prep school, David is accepted despite coming from a working class town and family. He theoretically should be an immediate outcast not for his religion but his socioeconomic status, but thanks to his charm and easygoing nature, he is accepted into the school's most popular circles among entrance. Once his religion is revealed, however,the boys at the school no longer judge him as a character but a low-level, subhuman piece of waste that seemingly wandered into the school one day unaware of what he got himself into.In this depiction is where the forces of Mandel, Ponticsan, and Wolf come together to create an important film about how many of us inherently accept new people with open arms, judging on good character and friendliness, until we find a disagreement in their personal politics, values, or religion to ostracize him. David himself is understandably confused here. They liked him before they even knew he was a Jew, and saw him as an intelligent friend to value. But because he has different religious beliefs, he is given the cold shoulder by his peers.For this, School Ties deserves praise. On the other hand, it adheres to a lesser-seen, methodical formula about fitting in and not fitting in in a new school and the mental, sometimes physical torture that ensues. It would be a hard cliché to subvert, but this is made a lesser-known feature thanks to the believable acting of Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser, and Chris O'Donnell, all of whom saw their careers take off upon the release of this film. If there were ever a film to show why I shy away from a religious bias and find its social reception to be baffling, School Ties is it.Starring: Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser, Chris O'Donnell, and Amy Locane. Directed by: Robert Mandel.