In a cast of emerging stars for the time, including Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell and Ben Affleck, a Jewish high school student gets the opportunity to enrol at a prestigious preparatory school on an athletic scholarship in the 1950s.
The premise for this film is highly unremarkable, and doesn't exactly hold too many narrative surprises. Some of its thematic work around a working class student adjusting to an elite school, and his difference in perspectives with the established students, doesn't really scratch too much beyond the surface, but it succeeds in telling its story with solid execution.
A lot of what helps this is the performances from the main group of boys. Brendan Fraser as David Greene holds his own in the lead role, whilst Matt Damon as Charlie Dillon is confident alongside him. The camaraderie of the whole group helps you to stay invested in the characters even if only a few of them are actually given distinct personalities to work with.
Whilst there isn't too much conflict for the first hour or so, the film just unfolds at a pleasant pace as David establishes friendships with those on the football team and deals with the traditions and rules that the school upholds.
What ends up making the narrative a lot more involving later on is when it's revealed that David is Jewish, which he had hidden when he first joined the school due to some anti-Semitic jokes that had been casually bandied around by his teammates. This coupled with David succeeding romantically with Charlie's romantic interest Sally (Amy Locane) sets the two at odds with one another, as well as the whole team treating him differently.
This anti-Semitism angle makes the rest of the story a lot more engaging for me as it adds an extra element to the fairly standard drama that had come before it. David effectively becomes an outcast, and is subjected to some horrible abuse. The transition of his teammates from being great friends to bigots over this is quite shocking and serves as an effective critique of attitudes from that time period.
David and Charlie's change in relationship over the course of the film remains the most interesting part of this narrative, especially with how David's success gradually exposes Charlie's fears about not living up to expectations in an enormously affluent family. Their conflict also results in a wonderfully cathartic final line to end the film on.
In terms of filmmaking Robert Mandel's direction is suitably understated, whilst Maurice Jarre's classical-sounding score fit the tone of the film perfectly.
Final Verdict
In the end, this was a satisfying high school drama with the anti-Semitism layer of the story enhancing the script to a more engaging level.
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