To Sir With Love [PG]

Mark Thackeray, a dark-skinned, out of work engineer, takes a teaching position at a rough school in London’s East end. His class is filled with rowdy and uncouth seniors just on the cusp of adulthood. Determined to make the most of a bleak situation, Mark begins to teach his students the truth about the world and his teachings not only help the kids, but the teachers as well. 

This is such a lovely little movie. It’s a real classic from the 60s depicting the contemporary concerns and fears that the working class and particularly teenagers within broken or working class families faced. Its heart warming story about growth, truth, love, and opportunity plays beautifully against its uncouth characters making it a genetic splice between Sister Act 2 and Dead Poets Society with maybe a little bit of Educating Rita thrown in. The music, the performances, and above all the deeply touching story with its multifarious layers makes it a movie that stands the test of time even though the quality appears amateurish and bleak to the modern viewer. I adore this movie! 

Mark Thackeray, a dark-skinned, out of work engineer, takes a teaching position at a rough school in London’s East end. His class is filled with rowdy and uncouth seniors just on the cusp of adulthood. Determined to make the most of a bleak situation, Mark begins to teach his students the truth about the world and his teachings not only help the kids, but the teachers as well. 

The movies that stay with you are the movies that depict these strong characters going through a transformation and then bringing the journey to a climax by doing something so against their original nature. For Dead Poets Society the final scene where all the boys jump up on their desks and shout “captain my captain” is what sets it apart from all others and implants it in your memory. In the case of To Sir With Love there is a gift and a song and it’s just so beautiful. I’m literally tearing up as I’m writing this! That’s how beautiful and powerful this movie is. 

The story is truly touching. On the surface it chronicles the relationship between a teacher and his students, but underneath it’s a telling depiction of life in the 60s for the working class: where kids were raised in abusive or broken homes, where education wasn’t treasured, and where the future was something to be feared rather than embraced. What makes the story all the more emotive is the fact that the hero is a black man teaching a load of white youths etiquette, courtesy, decency, and respect. 

Sidney Poitier stars as Mark Thackeray and he’s just beautiful. There is something about Sidney that stimulates admiration from his audience. Even when he doesn’t say anything, he’s such a presence and here he delivers a memorable performance; beginning the movie without giving anything away but then also going through a transformation, like the kids, until it becomes impossible for him to retain his unreadable veneer. At the end of the movie, it would not surprise me if Sidney really wasn’t able to make a speech he was that overcome with pride, gratitude, and happiness. He’s wonderful to watch. 

Starring Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Ann Bell, Geoffrey Bayldon, Faith Brook, Chris Chittell, Adrienne Posta, Richard Willson, Anthony Villaroel, and Lulu, To Sir With Love is a truly timeless movie filled with drama, rebellion, change, truth, comedy, and love. For me, it stands amongst titles like Dead Poets Society and Educating Rita: it’s a real classic that truly has the power to warm the heart.

 If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters that would soar a thousand feet high ‘to Sir with love’.