Better by a class
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Better by a class |
| Original title | Won't Back Down |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Daniel Barnz |
| script |
Brin Hill , Daniel Barnz |
| production |
Micheal Flaherty , Amanda Morgan , Ron Schmidt |
| music | Marcelo Zarvos |
| camera | Roman Osin |
| cut | Kristina Boden |
| occupation | |
| |
To Classes Better (Original title: Won't Back Down ) is an American drama from 2012. Directed by Daniel Barnz , who was also responsible for the script with Brin Hill . The main roles are Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jamie Fitzpatrick, Emily Alyn Lind as her daughter Malia and Viola Davis as Nona Alberts.
The film premiered on September 28, 2012 in Canada and the United States . The German-language premiere was on August 8, 2013.
action
Malia, daughter of single parent Jamie Fitzpatrick, is assigned to read a text from the blackboard in the second grade of Adams Elementary School in Pittsburgh . Because of disturbances by classmates, e.g. B. playing a shooting game on a Playstation , and the shown disinterest of the teacher, she is typing on her cell phone, she cannot concentrate and so has problems reading the text. In the course of the film it also becomes clear that Malia and her mother have dyslexia .
Cody is the son of Nona, a teacher at Adams Elementary, and Charles Albert. He has problems doing his arithmetic tasks. Cody also suffers from the separation of his parents. During a smear campaign it is revealed that Nona and her son had been involved in a drunk driving accident while driving her son to a hospital, in which the son sustained possible brain trauma .
Both mothers recognize that further schooling at Adams Elementary leads to a dead end. So they try to get one of the coveted places at the Rosa Parks Elementary School . There the 40 available places will be raffled among around 400 applicants. In the opening speech before the raffle, the headmaster Thompson explains that " ... every fourth child [grows] up without learning to read properly ... ". He is also a massive criticism of the school administration. At the end of the draw, neither of the two mothers got a place for their child.
Jamie visits Nona and together they start planning to take over the school . For this they need the consent of half of the teachers and half of the parents. Within the school authorities it is quickly made clear to them that it is not an easy undertaking, as they reckon with a planning horizon of five to six years. For Nona and Jamie it is clear that this should deter potential parents and teachers. In the period that followed, they started advertising campaigns, including advertising flyers, house calls and demonstrations, in order to find more parents and teachers for their concerns. Once launched, the Teacher Association of Pennsylvania (TAP) begins a counter-campaign to discredit the project.
In the course of the film, the union chairman Evelyn Riske doubts the course of her union TAP. She criticizes, among other things, the counter-campaigns that were started by her assistant. At the same time, however, it has to defend the union’s stance towards the teachers, but they do not accept this without protest. After the music teacher Michael Perry announced that they too, as trade unionists, were human and should therefore also act humanely, Evelyn's doubts are increased.
At the beginning of their endeavors, Nona and Jamie repeatedly come across staff within the school administration who are open to their concerns. This gives them tips on how to submit their application without errors, for example, or receive an appraisal of their work. At the final hearing, the application is to be rejected because there is a single twist of numbers in the 400-page work. After this attempt to prevent the hearing has failed, the final vote takes place, with a result of 4: 3 for the conversion to a charter school.
In the final panel, Malia appears in the full auditorium of the school and reads from a sheet of paper with almost no errors.
production
The film was shot in Pittsburgh in 2.35: 1 format and Dolby Digital . Working titles were: Learning to Fly , Steel Town and Still I Rise . For the production took over film production companies Walden Media (19 million US dollars ), Gran Via Productions and Lemodeln Model & Talent Agency US dollars, the remaining six million production cost of 25 million US dollars. Polyband took over the film distribution in Germany . With box office earnings of around two and a half million US dollars in 2515 cinemas, it was the worst result of a premiere weekend in the United States ever. A total of 120 million US dollars could be achieved through the exploitation rights sale.
background
The billionaire Philip Anschutz , owner of Walden Media, tries to use the film to convey his crusade against unions with a " big screen ". He also propagates the expansion of the charter schools . He also found support from the Heritage Foundation , FreedomWorks, and other conservative lobby organizations . With the film, a campaign in the United States was started by the United States Chamber of Commerce , among others , to advertise the Charter Schools.
Awards
Viola Davis was nominated for the Black Reel Award for her acting achievements and won the Image Award . The film was also nominated at the MovieGuide Awards for Best Film for Families and Faith and Freedom Award .
Cast and dubbing
The synchronization of the film was done by taurusmedia synchronously . The synchronous Director took Kathrin Simon , the manager Alexander Schulz and the editorial Ina Banzhof . The translation was done by Evelyn Köstle .
Web links
- So much better in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Better by a class. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on July 17, 2017 .
- So much better at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certificate of release for a class better . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2013 (PDF; test number: 138 248 V).
- ↑ a b c Won't Back Down. In: BoxOfficeFlops . 2012, accessed July 17, 2017 .
- ↑ Stephanie Simon: "Parent power" film stirs hopes of education reform activists. In: Chicago Tribune . September 28, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Better by classes. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on July 17, 2017 .