Product Description

A vicious high school student is dead. A gang hit? An act of sudden rage? Or did a once-idealistic teacher finally snap? The issues and the tension hit home when Samuel L. Jackson stars in a gritty urban-school thriller that's "gripping, high-octane entertainment" (Newhouse News Service).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10589 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2000-02-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Great Movie About Teaching!
I have been very fortunate to have a great job as a teacher. I have been lucky enough to see all different types of schools: rural, suburban, and urban. My three years in a Bronx high school were some of the most challenging, frustrating, rewarding, scary, funny, heartwarming, and gutwrenching of my life. Inner-city teaching is truly one of the toughest jobs in the world.

There have been many movies about inner-city teachers: Dangerous Minds, The Substitute, Teachers, The Principal just to name a few. While none of those movies are terrible and some were fun to watch, none of them really showed what it is like to be a teacher. 187 is the only teaching movie I have seen that captures the emotions a teacher goes through teaching in that environment.

Now parts of 187 get carried away. I won't deny that. But the basic theme of what can happen if a teacher takes a situation to the level of the students is universal. No teacher is going to hunt down his/her students like in the film but again the basic idea of how to handle a threat or violence in a school is universal.

I also like how the film discussed how Samuel Jackson's character is trying to regain his desire to teach and playing that off the young idealistic teacher and the burned out teacher. These are real characters and I felt the comparisson and outcomes was extremely credible.

Bottom line is this, I do not think non-teachers will love this movie they might like it. But this is a teachers movie. Again, its goes over the top at times but the basic themes and emotions are extremely accurate.

This is a powerful and realistic film.

Rare glipse into latino gangster life with powerful ending.
Other than its obvious telling from a teachers point of view, it gives you a rare glipse into latino ganster life in southern california(something not seen much in non-underground films.) It gets a bit unbelievable with the idea of a teacher going after his students outside of school when they push him over the edge, but that may be how some teachers really feel in that same situation. The ending is powerful because of how Samuel L. Jacksons character gets a hardcore latino gangster to break down and admit a sincere reason why he lives the type of life he does, also because of what Samuel L. Jackson is willing to do to himself for the life this gangster has had to lead and to prove a point in how unnessary it was to live that type of life. This movie really relates to me because I am someone who use to hang around latino gangs but gave it up realizing it was the wrong way to go.

LIKE THE READER FROM NEW YORK SAID
Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez really does bring out a dramatic and interesting character in this story and i personally think this movie is two times better than Dangerous Minds. That movie doesn't have anything on this one. Samuel L. Jackson put forth a great effort and he came out on top an even better actor after I saw this. I really don't think he got enough credit for this movie and I don't think enough people have seen it, but everyone should. This movie has alot of emotion and the end is surprising and heartfelt. See it.