As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

it is easy to say than the performance of Albert Finney is brilliant. or, as teacher, the reality after decades in classes is not different nu the story from the film. in fact, the admirable details are the ways to build the atmosphere of an universal case. because, it reminds Ilya Ilich story. but could not be reduced at it. it is a simple story about the meaning of life . clear, precise, far to be comfortable. that is all.

Mike Figgis - Genius Director. Both this and Leaving Las Vegas are two of my favourite films of all time. The acting in this film is superb from everyone; the music as is usual with Figgis'films adds to the pleasure. Albert Finney who is surely one of the greatest actors never to have won an Oscar is quite brilliant at portraying the schoolmaster who quite literally is living out his own version of a Greek Tragedy whilst at the same time explaining the the death of Agamemnon to the Lower Fifth. Very few films are so beautifully put together these days, with the right pace and allowing the quieter moment to matter as much as what is being said. The point in the film when the young boy Taplow presents Finney with a second hand book is a wonderful few moments of acting/filming. Please watch this film and enjoy genius

It is a lousy remake of what was a superb original film.Certain films have a time and place and this one belongs in a post war grammar/private school and not in a current comprehensive school.The older British grammar schools had good and bad qualities but there was a general aspiration to Greatness. During the 1960s the left wing labour government destroyed anything that was good in British education and replaced it with bland "comprehensiveness". Last year (2004) they apologised and admitted the mistake – a bit late for the unfortunate pupils of the 60s and 70s who were stuck in their dreadful system.The remake is just like the school it is set in, bland and soulless – the ideal training ground for future telephone sanitisers.

The movie lives with the superior performance of Albert Finney, who puts Crocker-Harris alive so tremendously, that you can't help but suffer with him. So much that you nearly wish to jump into the screen… ...to support that poor man in his struggle against unfairness.Finney plays a senior teacher at an English elite school, who is not very popular, even addressed with the nickname "Hitler" of his form, due to his severe strictness and dry adoration for the classical, but dead poets of ancient Greek and Latin. As a perfect British gentleman he is tied by fully self-controlled formality, holding back all his emotions. He is totally obliged to conventions, always saying yes to everything. Except once.