Why Shoot the Teacher
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Director Silvio Narizzano Genres Drama, Comedy Country Canada | 7/10 Music director Ricky Hyslop Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1977
1980 (United States) Writer James Defelice (screenplay), Max Braithwaite (based on the book "Why Shoot The Teacher" by) Cast Bud Cort (Max Brown), Samantha Eggar (Alice Field), Chris Wiggins (Lyle Bishop), Gary Reineke (Harris Montgomery), John Friesen (Dave McDougall), Michael J. Reynolds (Burt Fields)Similar movies Sexual Chronicles of a French Family , Bad Teacher , The First Grader , The Voyeur , Waiting for Superman , Blue Is the Warmest Color Tagline "Everything is funny, as long as it's happening to someone else!" |
Why Shoot the Teacher? is a 1977 Canadian comedy-drama film based on a book of the same name by Max Braithwaite.
Contents

Cast

The plot is set in 1935, during the Depression. Max Brown (Bud Cort) is an urban east-province Canadian fresh from college who travels to Western Canada to accept a teaching position at a one-room rural schoolhouse in the fictional settlement of Willowgreen, Saskatchewan, because there are no other jobs available.
He decides to live in the school's basement, having to adapt to teaching in the Depression-era rural setting, especially given the bleakness of the settlement. His students at first are rebellious, but it eventually changes to a connection between student and teacher as Max gets into a love for Alice Field (played by Samantha Eggar), going to him for emotional support.

Max barely gets paid and he suffers through the paltry winter of Willowgreen, especially suffering given his physical and emotional isolation in the town, only finding solace in Harris Montgomery (played by Gary Reineke) and Alice Field, who both try to use him to solve their problems of political socialism and her being a war bride of Britain.

Max eventually begins to understand Willowgreen and the rural struggles, as the inspector (Kenneth Griffith) comes in to look at his work, which does not end too well. The school year ends as Max is getting on a train back east, but before the credits roll, he tells us he returned the following September to teach another year at Willowgreen.
Cast

Awards and recognition
James DeFelice won a 1978 Canadian Film Award for the film's adapted screenplay. The film itself won the Golden Reel Award for attaining higher box-office gross revenues of that year than any other Canadian film.
References
Why Shoot the Teacher? WikipediaWhy Shoot the Teacher? IMDb Why Shoot the Teacher? themoviedb.org