Morgan Freeman's performance, as Principal Joe Clark, is hands down the best thing about "Lean On Me". It could even be considered today to be one of Freeman's Top 5 most iconic performances, easily ranking alongside "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), "Se7en" (1995), and "Million Dollar Baby" (2004).
Freeman effectively displays a take-charge attitude with his performance that the real life Joe Clark most likely had when he took over the real Eastside High School in Patterson, New Jersey. His best scene is when he first addresses the Eastside students in the auditorium, and swiftly expels the repeat troublemakers indefinitely. Following his rousing speech, one student, Kaneesha Carter (Karen Malina White), remarks, "Mr. Clark don't play!" You really can't disagree.
The beginning of the movie shows the thriving educational institution Eastside High School was in the late 1960's, when Joe Clark first taught there. 20 years later, the promising early days of Eastside were long gone, as the school gradually decayed into a dangerous, run-down inner city public school.
The first 20 minutes of "Lean On Me" shows what still ranks as one of the most intense and (somehow) least exploitative depictions of a typical day in a bad inner city public school. Guns N Roses' classic "Welcome To The Jungle" is the most fitting song. It may not be fun and games, but it's enough to bring you to your knees
Hallways fights occur daily, drug dealers frequently visit, and bars cover the windows. Even a young kid getting trapped in his locker only results in a custodian shaking his head in apathy. Just like "A Tale of Two Cities", where French peasants are drinking wine off the Paris streets, things are bad!
Much to the reluctance of Patterson Mayor Don Bottman (Alan North), Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume) convinces Joe Clark to take over as principal of Eastside High, and attempt to restore its former glory. Clark, who was fired from the school 20 years ago due to budget cuts, reluctantly agrees. However, Clark takes charge in a way Dr. Napier never expected.
Mr. Clark's unorthodox methods of discipline are probably still the subject of hot debate. Was his expelling the troublemakers on his first day the right thing to do? I think so, especially given the opening credits. However, a number of angry parents, especially Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen), think otherwise.
Lynne Thigpen was a great actress, and she did well in her role here as a community member who is against Mr. Clark from the start. However, her character lacked definition. We know she's a parent of someone who attended Eastside High, but we never see her child. It's implied that her child was expelled, but she seems way too dedicated a community member to let her child fall through the cracks.
Most importantly, her character seems completely unaware of the mess that Eastside High was before Mr. Clark became principal. Was she ever in the high school, let alone when a fight occurred? Thigpen did what she could with the character, but Ms. Barrett needed to be more established.
Similarly, all the teachers we see appear more dedicated than Mr. Clark gives them credit for being. That's not a bad thing, but we never see any inept or corrupt teachers. We just see Mr. Clark unjustly fire music teacher Mrs. Elliot (Robin Bartlett), and even more unreasonably suspend Mr. Darnell (Michael Beach), the latter of whom Dr. Napier even describes as "a good, strong young Black teacher".
Did Mr. Clark fire teachers like them in real life? I don't know, but he may have. However, the real Eastside High must have had corrupt teachers who took part in the drug trade, had sex with students, or did similarly inappropriate and illegal things. These kinds of behaviors do happen in high schools across America, especially decaying inner-city public schools. The latter schools just have more tolerance for it.
When you see Mr. Clark immediately fire a good teacher for not teaching students the school song, it makes him out to be a bully. If you saw him throwing a teacher out of school for selling drugs, that action would be more justifiable, and the audience would be better able to sympathize with him.
Then there's the case of putting locks and chains on the doors. Mr. Clark orders the school security guards to do this after an altercation with a suspended student who came back into school with a knife in his hand. This order gets Mr. Clark in trouble with both the mayor and Fire Chief Gaines (John Ring), who correctly declare the action a fire hazard.
You can understand Mr. Clark's motivation for putting on the chains: there are dangerous people outside, and one of their friends can just push open the doors and let them in. Plus, the school doesn't have the budget for doors that unlock automatically in case of emergency. On the other hand, the Fire Chief has a point too. This conflict is probably what got the real Mr. Clark in trouble, and you can tell because it's very complicated. There are easy solutions to this problem, but like many problems in America's educational system, they are not attainable ones.
There is a lot "Lean On Me" does right, beginning with casting Morgan Freeman and Robert Guillaume. It's also inspiring to see the students who stay in Eastside High School warm up to Mr. Clark, and appreciate his disciplinary actions as "tough love".
However, the antagonists in this movie caused the most inconsistency, seemingly not even acknowledging a lot of the good Mr. Clark did, which unquestionably outweighed the bad. If these characters actually stepped out of the movie and watched the opening credit sequence, they may have changed their minds. Then again, Mr. Clark seemed to be the only character who saw the big picture. It's hard to say.
