187 - a deadly number

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Movie
German title 187 - a deadly number
Original title One eight seven
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Kevin Reynolds
script Scott Yagemann
production Bruce Davey
Stephen McEveety
music Chris Couridas
camera Ericson Core
cut Stephan Wenzel
occupation

187 - A deadly number (Original title: 187 - One Eight Seven ) is an American film from 1997 , which can be classified as a drama with thriller elements. The director was Kevin Reynolds , the script was written by the teacher Scott Yagemann , who taught in Los Angeles for many years and worked through his experiences in the film. The main roles were played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Heard .

action

Trevor Garfield is an idealistic teacher at a predominantly black school in New York City . When he refuses to transfer one of his students, he writes "187", the California Police Code for murder, in Garfield's textbook. Shortly afterwards, the teacher is stabbed to death in the middle of the school premises and seriously injured.

After 15 months he tries a fresh start and moves to Los Angeles. He takes up his work as a substitute teacher at a ghetto school. But there he encounters no less desolate and violent conditions. But Garfield cannot watch his view of the world be destroyed before his eyes and counterattacked by opposing his old ideals and trying to beat the students at their own guns. This manifests itself in the fact that Garfield anticipates a student who had issued death threats to a colleague and brings him down. Another of his students is drugged and collapses near a highway. His index finger is severed while he is unconscious.

At the end of the film, the evidence against the protagonist intensifies , so that he is suspended from school work. On the same day, three of his students visit him in his house with the determination to murder him.

In this last scene, the meaning and purpose of existence as a gang member is illustrated and questioned by Garfield's alleged killer while they play a kind of Russian roulette , with Garfield and his adversary ultimately killing each other.

The number 187

187 is the number of the California Penal Code section that deals with murder. Youth and other gangs have picked up the code and are using it as a threat.

criticism

“A bitter, ultimately resigned stocktaking of everyday American school life, borne by an aesthetic based on music videos and effectively used music, the clichés of which the film adopts without reflection. The ambivalent portrayal of the teachers contrasts with a demonization of the youth. "

- Lexicon of international film

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “particularly valuable”.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for 187 - A Deadly Number . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2011 (PDF; test number: 78 284 V).
  2. ↑ 187 - A deadly number. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ 187 - A deadly number on fbw-filmbeval.com

Web links