Stand and Deliver Rating: Release Date: 03 February, 2004 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Edward James Olmos Lou Diamond Phillips Richard Harris Vanessa Martinez Complete Cast (5 total)

Stand and Deliver Reviews

---

Review of Stand and Deliver
I received the DVD in a timely manner. The quality of the DVD was good. I have had good service from Amazon. Overall, it was a good experience and a good product.

Almost great...
I enjoyed most of this movie and applaud its central message: that kids (and people) rise to meet expectations, and that the socioeconomically disadvantaged are not necessarily lacking in intelligence but only in resources and opportunities.

However I found the movie not entirely satisfying because it does not really show just HOW Jaime Escalante turned these kids around, other than being creative, charismatic and persistent. As a former teacher myself of high school kids from a similar background as the ones portrayed in this movie, I know firsthand that what Escalante achieved is not impossible but it's not quite so clean and simple as shown here, but is extremely hard grueling work that often entails breaking through a lot of the students' ingrained patterns and applying a lot of painstaking coercion. The director, Ramon Menendez, seems to present a fairly sanitized and glib version that glosses over a lot of the underlying social problems that are endemic to the urban poor while sometimes relying on some stock movie cliches (the tough guy who's really a softie at heart, the big seemingly dumb lunk, etc.).

In short, "Stand and Deliver" lacks the kind of rawness, grit and ballsiness that could've made it more than just another well-meaning, triumphant and feel-good movie. It could have been a movie that asks questions instead of spooning out pat answers.

It's too bad a real master like Martin Scorsese did not direct this one.

More Customer Reviews (25 total)

You like Stand and Deliver? Then You'll Love This Booty! Pay It Forward Mr. Holland's Opus Dead Poets Society (Special Edition) October Sky (Ws Dub Spec Sub Ac3 Dol Dts) What About Bob? Find more DVD's in: Drama Drama > By Theme > True Story Today's Deals in DVD Studio Specials > Warner Home Video All Categories (16 total)