Fact: Lean on Me is Not the Same Movie With the Naughty Language Bleeped
Nearly twenty years old, everybody dressed in late 80’s fashions, an overly dramatic happy ending, and Lean on Me still gives me goosebumps every time I see it. When Mr. Clark gives Sams the crack speech, when he tells Kid Ray he’ll be dead in a year, when the boys in the bathroom (which would be an awesome boy band name by the way) sing the school song, my heart flutters. It’s just downright sap-tastic.
The fact that the movie has held up so well with time, proving itself every bit a classic, that’s the good news. The bad news is BET is just as bleep happy as every other quasi-cable channel. You know, quasi-cable… those stations that cost a little more to get in your cable package than basic, but are still commercial-supported and therefore subject to basic cable laws – no nudity, no gratuitous sex, no naughty language. I know, I know. Why bother watching?
The simple truth of the matter is that Lean on Me just isn’t the same movie without the bleepable language. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a damn good movie. It’s just not the same movie. A big for instance –
You simply can’t have this scene with bleeping.
For all my love of this movie, though, I must say, it does have one major downside. It gave me totally unreasonable expectations. Throughout my entire high school career, I kept waiting for the big, inspirational group sing. It never came. Apparently, this only happens in movies.
Bummer.
Oh man, I love that movie.
Morgan Freeman and Benson Yes! I love that movie, too.
Here’s an idea for the suggestion box. How’s about a ‘Top something List’ of your favorite high school movies?
Like movies that are set in high school? I can do that. Of course, if it goes anything like my last list, it could take until the end of the year or longer 🙂
Yes, that’s what I meant. Movies set in high school. 🙂
Take your time with it. Because I want it to last. 😉
For inspiration, in no particular order, here are three that would make it on my list. (not that you have to agree)
-Fame
-Breakfast Club
-To Sir With Love
I don’t think we did anything like that in high school, unless it was audience singing along to the student talent show. I do remember in junior high the entire school was sitting on the floor of the gym, watching some sort of yearly PSA film, anti-drug or some such nonsense, and it had a ton of contemporary music, (I remember Beck’s “Loser” was one of them) and almost everyone was singing along to the songs they knew. Totally not the point of the film, and the supervising teachers looked amused, because it was pretty much the only thing the school did together as a group. Most of the people in junior high hated about 80% of their fellow students.