Tim – I don’t disagree with any of that. And again I really do like the movie and think this is all pretty academic. Nevertheless, if you figure that only, say, 1 in 10,000 relatively dedicated kids have any real success in rock & roll you have to assume as a matter of statistics that most of the kids in his class won’t make it. In other words, these promising kids have been given the false hope and impractical ambition to become rock stars. If this was a movie about inner city black kids being told by their teacher to stop studying math, english, history etc in order to “stick it to the man” and become basketball stars, I think my point would be more obvious. Also, the personal growth Black enjoys is basically irrelevant since A) there’s no evidence that he ever gave up his “rock is everything” mantra B) and his after-school program is more likely a sop to the parents since it’s not like Jack could keep teaching rock to the exclusion of all other subjects.
But look (and I’m addressing persnickety readers now), the point of my comments could — and rightly should — be taken just as much as a caution to conservatives who want to blow every movie out of proportion. Sure, the message in School of Rock is problematic, but it’s still a lot of fun. And if, say, Pat Robertson were going batty about the movie I would be saying, lighten up it’s only a movie.