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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Paul Bogart
Calvin Lockhart (Predator 2) Janet MacLachlan (Pinocchio's Revenge)
Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski)
James A. Watson Jr. (Killdozer)
Supplied By : Fox Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : January. 31, 2012
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| PLOT An ex-basketball player becomes the vice principal at an inner city school facing violence and disruption because of desegregation. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In HALLS OF ANGER, a former basketball all-star who now works as a teacher, is reassigned to Lafayette High School. Lafayette, an all black school located in the ghetto, is in for a wake up call when it is ordered that I bus full of white students are transferred there as a means to desegregate. Davis who has been giving the job title of Vice Principal, and English Teacher, too feels at unease, but soon sees a good scenario hidden in this change. The back stunts and the white students find themselves engaging in a few heated altercations between of another, but Davis soon turns it all around. Quincy takes the initiative to better the cool, by helping the illiterate learn to right, and to create peace among the two races. But just when things appear to be looking up, an incident between a white authority figure and one of the schools popular black students, commences a riot of violence and anger. A film that I would say is like a cross between LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS, HALLS OF ANGER is a 1970 film that is part cautionary tale, and drama. One may not believe that HALLS OF ANGER has a place here on Terror Hook, but personally I believe it does. Although the majority of the film is drama-based, it does posses a level of racial tension that I would think, could be considered exploitation in modern times. The tension found in HALLS OF ANGER is stereotypical at best, and represents what i's call, "by the book racism" The film's pacing is indeed a bit slow, in fact, for a second there I was really growing bored of it. But it is in the film's last act that the film's proverbial fire is lit. When it gets to near the end of things, the film gets much more exciting in just a matter of seconds, which makes you wonder how might better the film might've been had it maintained the same level of vigor throughout. In its prime, I can imagine that HALLS OF ANGER was far more intense to its audience, and even something of an eye-opener for the early '70s crowed. But as for now, the film feels very tame, and aside from one scene of very brief nudity, HALLS OF ANGER would be suited better for a Television movie spot. The script is kind of dry and casually paced for most of it's time on screen, and when it comes to it's violent and tension-filled scenes its edge is fairly dull. But with this said, HALLS OF ANGER isn't a bad film, it just unfortunately feels somewhat dated, very much stuck in the time in which it was made. The film features some decent acting with the film's star, Calvin Lockhart as "Quincy Davis" at the forefront. As Davis, Lockhart delivers a believable performance as a man of compassion, who wants nothing more to make things better for the school and his students. I also enjoyed seeing a young Jeff Bridges here as he portrays, Doug", a white student that has been transferred to the school. The confident "Doug" unfortunately finds himself on the short end of things as the black students often target their frustrations toward him. The role doesn't require any "stretching" for Bridges, but for his fans, who are seeing this for the first time, his inclusion here is a treat. Another notable performance comes by way of James A Watson Jr,, as the talented and outspoken, "J.T. Watson". Overall, HALLS OF ANGER is pretty much a product of its time. It's an ok movie as is, however, I felt that it lacked the amount of shock and empowerment that it was obviously trying to create. |
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| GORE
METER N/A Very little gore, if any. There may have been a few scrapes here and there, but honestly, I don't recall. |
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MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 Typical dramatic 1970s scoring. Orchestration, mostly with an emphasis on bass lines. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Coming away from HALLS OF ANGER, I guess that you can say that it wasn't exactly what I expected. The synopsis(on the film's cover art, and above), makes HALLS OF ANGER out to be a film with racial tension to the hilt, and one far more suspenseful. Although the film's last act does wonders for the film in this category, it just isn't enough. As I said, the film is decent, however, it is somewhat slow in getting to what the film sells itself on. Still worth a watch, however take the plot summary lightly. The print of the film has been manufactured using the best source available. It looks far better than the look of an old trailer for the film that I saw, however there is one brief moment in the film in which the film displays a glitch. HALLS OF ANGER, as well as many other films in the MGM Limited Edition Collection are available at Amazon.com. |
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