Inspirational or political propaganda? That is the dilemma of Won’t Back Down, a fiercely passionate diatribe about the poor state of public education in America. On one hand, there is no denying that the film’s heart is in the right place, demanding that regular, ordinary people take action to do whatever is necessary to improve a situation that desperately needs attention. In that regard the film is inspirational, depicting a scenario in which two women — a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal) with a dyslexic daughter (Emily Alyn Lind), and a disillusioned teacher (Viola Davis) — reluctantly join together to try to save their local school by, in essence, taking it over and starting from scratch. Their path, burdened by bureaucracy, undermined by doubt, attacked by people whose jobs are threatened, supported by parents finally fed up with the system, is dramatic gold. Daniel Barnz’s film delivers the goods, with a wonderful performance by Viola Davis to center and ground its realism.
On the other hand, in order for the two women to lead the charge to a progressive future, the teachers union must be eliminated (because it is protecting bad teachers and is unwilling to change). This is touchy material and writer-director Barnz treads carefully, but he and co-writer Brin Hill cannot avoid alienating anyone who believes that unions, particularly teachers unions, are as necessary as air, water and food to the American way of life. The film attempts a balancing act by involving another teacher, an absurdly modern math teacher who sings to his students (Oscar Isaacs), be very pro-union until it goes too far to win its case to keep the status quo. When he finally makes the switch to support the two women (one of whom, Gyllenhaal, he has begun to date), then any stragglers in the audience are intended to follow him.
Won’t Back Down has attracted some hard-line vitriol because of its assumed anti-union stance, and it is probably fair to say that if you have really strong feelings about unions one way or the other, those feelings will strongly influence how you react to this movie. Me? I’m in the middle, as is often the case. I fully realize that unions were essential for workers’ well being fifty or one hundred years ago, when big companies were regularly exploiting their workers in every industry imaginable. But I also recognize that unions are so self-centered that they often fail to put larger issues before their own narrowly-focused interests. That is slowly changing, but in the education system, that inertia is still allowing bad teachers to keep their jobs and children to graduate without being able to read, write, add or subtract. Like it or not, this movie, which was inspired by real events, is spotlighting a very real situation in this country. And unlike other diatribes about the ills of America, it is actually presenting a possible solution, or at least a solid starting point for discussion.
Won’t Back Down is not a great movie. It is somewhat clichéd, follows a fairly formulaic pattern and presents its chief villain, the union leader (Ned Eisenberg), as irresponsibly aggressive, stubborn and one-dimensional. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s free-spirited character is tough to take at times, and the plight of the kids, which ought to be a prominent focus of the story, is neglected in favor of personal drama. But it is generally well-acted, well-written and well-produced. In the tradition of Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me, this a movie that begs its audience to take a few moments to think about what is really going on in our schools and then do something about it. ☆ ☆ ☆. 7 October 2012.