The Principal (1987) TriStar/Action-Comedy-Drama RT: 109 minutes Rated R (strong brutal violence including attempted rape, pervasive strong language, drugs, alcohol abuse) Director: Christopher Cain Screenplay: Frank Deese Music: Jay Gruska Cinematography: Arthur Albert Release date: September 25, 1987 (US) Cast: James Belushi, Louis Gossett Jr. Rae Dawn Chong, Michael Wright, J.J. Cohen, Esai Morales, Troy Winbush, Jacob Vargas, Thomas Ryan, Reggie Johnson, Kelly Jo Minter, Ruth Beckford, Julian Brooks, Joan Valderrama, Rick Hamilton. Box Office: $19.7M (US)
Rating: ***
I’m not privy to inside information, but I can guess that The Principal must have been a marketing nightmare for TriStar. How do you sell a movie that doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre? It stars former SNL cast member James Belushi, but it isn’t a comedy. It touches on serious issues like violence in schools, teenage motherhood and alcoholism, but it isn’t exactly a drama. It centers on Belushi’s character’s efforts to rid his school of a dangerous, drug-dealing gang, but it’s not really an action movie either. It could be argued that it’s a mix of the three, but it’s an uneasy one with its awkward tonal shifts.
I recall the ads promoting The Principal as a comedy which can only mean studio execs opted for the easy way out. It’s little wonder audiences were baffled as they left the theater. Count me among the confused. I’m still not exactly sure what director Christopher Cain (Young Guns) is going for here. He probably had a clear notion of the kind of movie he wanted to make at first, so its problems can’t be blamed entirely on him. It belongs elsewhere. I see evidence of script rewrites and post-production editing. I remember there were scenes in the trailer that aren’t in the movie. Maybe it was an attempt on the part of the studio to make The Principal more commercial? I can’t say for sure. What I do know for sure is that I like it despite its flawed nature. I like it in the same way a pet owner can’t help but love his big, dumb, shaggy dog that knocks everything over.
Rick Latimer (Belushi, About Last Night) is the perennial screw-up. He’s an alcoholic and recently divorced. His ex-wife is tired of his immature, frat boy ways exemplified by his drunkenly smashing up her new boyfriend’s car with a baseball bat. This lapse in judgment costs him his cushy teaching job at a safe suburban high school where he spends his days looking up the skirts of female students with a pair of binoculars he keeps in his desk. Instead of firing him outright, the administrators transfer to him to inner city Brandel High (in Oakland) as the new principal. What looks like a promotion turns out to be punishment. It’s where the district sends all their outcasts and incorrigibles.
Brandel is the worst school in the district. It’s the type of school that could easily be converted into a state prison just by throwing some bars on the windows. The student body consists of gangbangers, thugs, drug dealers and other undesirables. The kids carry knives and guns instead of notebooks and pencils. Brandel makes The Blackboard Jungle look like Romper Room.
Rick receives a memorable reception to the hallowed halls of Brandel when he breaks up a fight between “Baby” Emile (Winbush, The Replacements) and White Zac (Cohen, 976-EVIL). He quickly learns the reality of his current situation when informed that calling the police would produce no results. They’d only ask him why he stopped the two thugs from killing each other.
After a tour by head of security Jake Phillips (Gossett, An Officer and a Gentleman), Latimer decides he’s going to turn things around. He calls an assembly to announce his one simple directive: “NO MORE!” Effective immediately, there will be no more fighting, no more dealing drugs, no more cutting classes, etc. What he doesn’t understand is that the entire student body (and faculty) lives in fear of Victor Duncan (Wright, The Five Heartbeats), the leader of the school’s main gang and caller of all shots. It’s his school and he’s not about to relinquish power to this white guy from the suburbs. It’s only the start of a violent power struggle between Latimer and Victor as they fight for control of Brandel.
Latimer has quite a challenge ahead of him. The students aren’t very receptive to changes like clearing the halls between classes and being “escorted” to their classes by security. The teachers don’t like it much either. To them, it’s disruptive and prevents them from doing their jobs. One of them, Miss Orozco (Chong, Commando), tears him a new one. His efforts interfere with Victor’s criminal enterprises throughout the school. You know he’s not going to take it lying down.
There are a few good apples in the rotten bunch. Little Arturo (Vargas, Ernest Goes to Camp) has a crush on Miss Orozco who’s teaching him to read on her own time. Raymi (Morales, Bad Boys) has a talent for creative writing. They’re scared all the time of Victor and his gang. They hide out on school property after dismissal until they’re sure it’s safe to walk home. Latimer tries to help Treena (Minter, Summer School), a teen mom who drops out of school after getting caught dealing drugs in the men’s room. She repays him by setting him up to be beaten by Victor and his boys.
So far The Principal sounds like a routine idealistic teacher at a tough inner-city school drama, but like I said earlier, it’s NOT. Take the scene where White Zac attempts to rape Miss Orozco as revenge for making him look bad in class. Latimer turns into some kind of hero, riding his motorcycle through the halls to Orozco’s classroom where he beats the hell out of White Zac. WHOA! Where did that come from? The same goes for the scene where a bat-wielding Latimer interrupts a drug deal (off school property) and gets chased by Victor and his gang. Who is this guy, Mr. Kotter or Charles Bronson? This scene is the source of a major plot hole. You’d think that Latimer would be targeted by Victor’s big-time associates for his costly actions. He’s not. In fact, it’s never brought up again. In real life, he’d be dead. That being said, I like The Principal best as an action movie with a fed-up principal turning crimefighter to remove all the trash from his school.
The presence of Belushi would seem to imply The Principal is a comedy, but it’s impossible to laugh at scenes of strong violence and attempted rape. Sure, the idea of putting a clueless white guy in the middle of an urban jungle might sound funny on paper. I’m sure a different movie by a different filmmaker could find the humor in that situation. It doesn’t happen here. There are a handful of scenes that can be described as humorous, but Animal House it’s not. It falters as drama due to its failure to explore any of its serious issues with any real depth. While it’s clear to us Latimer is an alcoholic, the movie doesn’t even acknowledge it. The result is an extremely uneven movie that you’re never sure how to take.
The Principal has a noticeably incomplete feel to it. The narrative leads me to wonder what was left on the cutting room floor. For example, Morales receives fairly high billing even though his character isn’t in any of the crucial scenes. In fact, he isn’t in very many scenes at all. It’s possible most scenes featuring his character were cut in post-production. There’s some mention of an arrangement between White Zac and Victor that would enable them to rule the school together or something like that, I can’t be sure because it’s never made clear. Then there’s Miss Orozco’s intention to quit Brandel for a job at a Connecticut boarding school. It’s understandable why she’d want to leave. HOWEVER, she changes her mind the very next day. What brought that on?
Belushi makes a pretty good leading man, but he’s much better as a supporting actor. He’s good in this movie, but looks like he’s struggling to find that delicate balance between comedy and drama. Gossett is very good as the no-nonsense security head who knows just how to handle the rougher students. He’s a graduate of Brandel himself and understands their mindset. As an action team, the two men are an odd pair. The viewer keeps expecting Belushi to make wise cracks, even when he’s being held at gunpoint. Chong does a good job in her role, but I have a question. What’s a classy, educated lady like her doing at Brandel? Obviously, it’s not for the money. Could it be that she actually cares? Perhaps, given how she’s trying to help an illiterate student. I just don’t understand how her particular character fits into a situation like this. Wright is scary good as the vicious and cocky Victor who thinks he’s untouchable. He thinks there’s nothing the new principal can do about him. He never counted on a tenacious adversary like Latimer who has something to prove to himself and everybody else.
J.J. Cohen is very, very good as White Zac which, according to one student, is short for “White Zac of S***”. It would have been cool to see him go up against Victor in a big fight for control of the school. That’s another missed avenue. The racial divide between the various groups in the school is touched upon briefly, but again not fully explored. In any event, why would Victor even bother to make an arrangement with White Zac when it’s perfectly clear which race is the minority at Brandel High School? Cohen makes the character more interesting than he should be. It would have been more interesting if knew more about his character. While Minter (an amazingly talented actress) does a good job as Trina, her character disappears soon after the assault on Latimer. Again, her role might have been reduced during the post-production phase, I can’t say. The Principal doesn’t bother to tell the audience too much about the students at Brandel even though it takes the time to introduce them.
The Principal is a reasonably entertaining movie and I like it despite my confusion regarding the maker’s intent. I really don’t know what to make of it. Even the soundtrack is bizarre. It features generic inspirational-type 80s music, the kind you expect to hear during a training montage in some dopey sports movie. It sounds out of place in a movie that mostly takes place in an urban high school where hip-hop appears to be the music of choice judging by what’s coming out of students’ boom boxes. I’d call The Principal a guilty pleasure. It’s schizophrenic to be sure, but it’s also interesting. It’s a narrative mess, but it tells a compelling story. The climax is totally bad ass. If not for that, The Principal would have totally pointless. Totally!
