April 7 - Lean On Me

Today’s movie is a drama with a scene that happens on April 7.

LEAN ON ME     

Drugs, gang violence and low test scores trouble Eastside High School in Paterson New Jersey. It is going to be taken over by the state unless the scores go up. In desperation the Mayor and his education director Dr. Napier bring in Joe Clark a straight talker to be principal. He begins by throwing all suspected drug dealers, users and gang members out. This causes outrage in parts of the community and Clark gets an enemy in Leonna Barrett. After the students fail a practice Minimum Basic Skills test and a drug dealer gets back into the school and assaults a student, Clark orders the doors padlocked from the inside. Clark motivates the teachers and students to improve. Barrett threatens the mayor with political defeat if he does not get rid of Clark. On April 7, 1988 [1:14:15 to 1:20:20] Joe Clark, makes plans to thwart efforts by those who oppose him to have him arrested for violating the fire code by planning to remove the chains if the fire marshal appears at the school. The students take the real test after a motivational speech by Clark. Then he is arrested for padlocking the doors and trying to cover it up. The school board, now led by Barrett meets to fire Clark, but all the students converge on the meeting demanding Clark be released. Then word arrives that the school passed it goal in regards to the test, justifying Clark and his methods. 

At 0:38 we are told it is 1967 and at 5:17 that it is 20 years later making it the start of the 1987-1988 school year. At 24:35-36 Clark says that the basic skills test is on April 13. At 1:14:15 the sign says 6 days to the test, meaning it is the 7^th. At 1:17:30 the wall calendar is for April, 1988.

Producer - Norman Twain

Director - John G. Avildsen

Screenwriter - Michael Schiffer

Released - March 3, 1989

Runtime – 2 hours 4 minutes

Starring –

Morgan Freeman as Joe Louis Clark

Beverly Todd as Mrs. Joan Levias

Alan North as Mayor Don Bottman

Robert Guillaume as Dr. Frank Napier

Ethan Phillips as Mr. Rosenberg

Lynne Thigpen as  Leonna Barrett

Robin Bartlett as Mrs. Elliott

Michael Beach as  Mr. Larry Darnell

Sandra Reaves-Phillips as  Mrs. Powers

Tony Todd as William Wright, Dean of Security

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015