The Emperor's Club | | Cast : | Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch | | Director : | Michael Hoffman | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 22, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | June 21, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | How will history remember you? | Content
 | "Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?"
My favorite quote from this movie. Kevin Kline is the perfect choice for this movie.
It is a movie about how a great teacher can make a difference in a person's life and how a teacher is not just a person to teach about the multiplication table, or who killed who in history. It is about great teachers and their ability to mold a person and teach them about character, honesty and ethics.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 21, 2005 | | Summary | Reconsider Your Values and Priorities | Content
| As many viewers of "The Emperor's Club" have pointed out, the main theme in this story involves the conflict of achievement/success in today's world vs. maintaining one's virtue/ethics. But in addition to that I saw another spin on the conflict between two very old platitudes: "The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease" and "Still Waters Run Deep".
Here we have the charming wiseguy troublemaker of a student (Sedgewick) who commands the attention of everyone in the classroom, including the professor who feels he has a responsibility to shape the character of his students. And at what cost? The bright but mousy student (Martin) is sacrificed in the process. How sad, and yet how often this takes place in our everyday lives. In fact, it's so pervasive that we hardly notice it. Face it, to be human is to be flawed; but one of humanity's biggest faux pas, despite some lip service to the contrary, is that we're essentially shallow and superficial. Pack animals who are suckers for glamor and manipulation. We need to work on that one.
This is not to condemn the teacher (Mr. Hundert), however. He did what he thought was for the best at the time, only to struggle with ethical dilemmas of his own as well as regrets as time went on. Don't expect me to explain everything; see the movie, it's worth a two hour investment. It's also well-cast and well acted. The DVD version includes some extras that become somewhat redundant but yet provide more food for thought. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 13, 2005 | | Summary | "Dead Emperor's Society" emphasis on "Dead". | Content
| Yes, "The Emperor's Club" DOES deserve to be compared to "Dead Poets Society." Why? Certainly not because the two are particularly similar. Rather, because "they" (the guys in suits) asked for it in no uncertain terms. So, here are their just desserts:
The first time this film reentered my mind after its forgettable theatrical run was when I read Roger Ebert's appalling review of "Dead Poets Society" after staring aghast at the title among those in "I hated hated hated this movie." (Ebert gave "Emperors" an extra star at the least.)
The second time this film came to mind was when I read a glowing review of it by a friend of mine who asserts it deserves to be judged "apart from its 'inevitable twin' To him I say that there is such a thing as an evil twin.
Much has been made of Mr. Hundert's fudging of a test result in order to give a troubled kid with a soul-crushing father a chance at glory. I didn't condemn Mr. Hundert for this at all, even though the movie did make the right choice and show the unfortunate consequences to the other contender.
I felt that this choice was made on the grounds that Mr. Hundert sincerely believed the other student needed it more.
Giving a kid who seemed to have made a genuine transformation a chance at recognition in the hopes he will continue on the right path is one thing, allowing cheaters to prosper is quite another. I believe Mr. Keating of "Dead Poets Society" would have fallen on the sword and set things right. He would not have bowed to pressure. He would expose the wrong-doer AND HIS OWN MISTAKE.
That is why I hated "Emperor's Club." Not because there were no Robin Williamsian antics and no one was asked to "yalp." Rather, I hated it because Hundert is totally unworthy of the adulation afforded him. Keating was ousted for an incident that was clearly not his fault, and took his fate with grace. Hundert lets the same wrong go completely unpunished twice, and that is not at all admirable. HE is not admirable which makes him not worth watching.
"The Emperor's Club" could have been a good film; it could very well have been a modern-day "Goodbye Mr. Chips", another film about a restrained teacher who makes an impact. God knows the studio wouldn't have been above calling it "Goodbye Mr. Hundert" but instead it's about a teacher who is just as much of a fraud as the student to whom he turns a blind eye.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 13, 2005 | | Summary | Is it possible? | Content
| Well, after almost watching the entire movie (it became so uninteresting and boring that I couldn't take it anymore, seriously!) I should know of course. But what I don't understand is how reviewers here have managed to give this "storyless" movie 5 and 4 stars. I mean, the acting by Kline and the rest of the cast was good (absolutely), but that doesn't save this sorry attempt of telling a so ungripping story with such lack of moral (referring here to that other boy who should have been in the J.C-contest, the movie does not in any way try to justify that in a good way in my opinion).
It starts out well. Reminded me instantly of "Dead Poets...", but do not worry you fans of "The Emperors' Club" -this movie is nothing like "Dead Poets..." and is far from worthy of being compared to it! And the only positive thing about "The Emperors' Club" is the fact that it is not trying to.
I thought at first that this was a movie that was going to about the struggle between a teacher and one of his intelligent, but spoiled rich mans' son-student having a big problem fitting in and with the the school-system works. It sets out like this, and starts out this way interesting, and the acting is good. Then suddenly the teacher finds a way to make this student listen to him and take his school-acchievments more seriously. And from here it goes fast! Suddenly he is amongst the schools' best students. He is picked out from his high grades to join a traditional contest, where for some reason he cheats. And after that we're told by Klines' characters' narration that this boy went back in being the menace he started out as. Ok? And there's yet another HOUR of the movie! What will this movie be about now then? -that was my immediate question. Suddenly "The Emperors' Club is about nothing. There's a woman involved in the teachers' life, if she's his sister or lover or whatever -the movie is so unclear and unpersonal. The girls some of the boys sneak over to "visit", and gets caught. We don't see anything more to them, do we? Is this movie about a mans' life? Well, then tell me who this man is!
And theming up with his old students many years later (25 or so) to look back and have a laugh of it all, so what? I didn't bother to see the new contest, but I doubt that this bad excuse for making a movie had any more surprises to serve. I mean; the surprise is that the movie suddenly isn't a movie with story at all! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 13, 2005 | | Summary | Rises Above its Limitations to Achieve Emotional Sincerity | Content
| Everything that reviewers have said about this film is true: THE EMPEROR'S CLUB manages to rise above what could have been a stale, well-trodden plot to achieve real emotional sincerity. It manages to achieve this through the high quality of the acting performances contained in this film, most notably that of Kevin Kline, who plays a schoolteacher determined to teach his students more than just a history lesson. Kline's performance is human and moving at several points, especially for anyone who has ever dedicated their lives to teaching (or been touched by someone who has).
There are some weaknesses. For starters, the film never makes up its mind about who to focus on: the young boys or their inspiring teacher. It does not choose to view life solely through the eyes of the students (such as DEAD POETS SOCIETY), nor does it choose to view the world primarily through the eyes of the teacher (like STAND AND DELIVER). Instead, it tries to accomplish both perspectives. While this leads to an interesting dynamic in the film, it also does not seem to leave sufficient time to develop either one of these viewpoints adequately. Secondly, THE EMPEROR'S CLUB does not quite seem to know when it should end, dragging on the film's conclusion for an extra twenty minutes.
Despite these shortcomings, and its obvious comparisons to DEAD POETS SOCIETY, THE EMPEROR'S CLUB is a good film in its own right and deserves to be viewed apart from its inevitable twin. One does wonder, however, why the film's producers decided to give the film a name with such obvious lines of comparison: what is a "club" but a type of "society," and the terms "poet" and "emperor" merely serve to demarcate the academic subjects each film focuses upon. For any film of movies about "inspirational teachers," THE EMPEROR'S CLUB is a must-see. |
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