Salon writer Andrew O’Hehir absolutely nails the anti-union, anti-teacher “Won’t Back Down.”
He opens by saying: “Someone needs to launch an investigation into what combination of crimes, dares, alcoholic binges and lapses in judgment got Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal into this movie. Neither of them seems likely to sympathize with its thinly veiled labor-bashing agenda and, way more to the point, I thought they had better taste.”
I won’t spoil your fun in reading the review. It is hilarious and spot-on.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Very, very, very good and if you need a laugh please read it…love the closing:
As presented in this script (written by Barnz and Brin Hill), the Pittsburgh teachers’ union has no goal beyond protecting the status quo at all costs, and no interest whatever – no altruistic interest, no self-interest and no public-relations interest — in improving the quality of public education. Most people still understand, I believe, that teachers work extremely hard for little pay and low social status in a thankless, no-win situation. But this is one of those areas where conservatives have been extremely successful in dividing the working class, which is precisely the agenda in “Won’t Back Down.” Breeding hostility to unions in themselves, and occasionally insinuating that unionized teachers are a protected caste of incompetents who get three damn months off every single year, has been an effective tactic in what we might call postmodern Republican populism, especially in recent battles over public employee contracts in Wisconsin and elsewhere. It works something like this: 1) Turn the resentment and frustration of people like Jamie – people with crappy service-sector jobs and few benefits, whose kids are stuck in failing schools – against the declining group of public employees who still have a decent deal. 2) Strip away job security and collective bargaining; hand out beer and ukuleles instead. 3) La la la la, tax cuts, tax cuts, I can’t hear you!
Someone posted on Salon that it should be retitled to: Norma Rand. Funny 🙂
Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, the Associated Press, the Arizona Republic, the Village Voice, and NPR all hammered it too.
Dissent also nails it. http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=631
The part of the review that had me laughing was the “premise… highly likely to go in unforeseen ‘Animal Farm’ directions.”
By the way, what’s this about teachers having summers off? Are they referring to my summer unemployment when I’m not paid, but take graduate classes and participate in professional development? While they’re at it, why don’t they complain about NFL football players working only 16 weeks a year or Jay Leno working only one hour a day?
WBD is getting bad reviews everywhere: Salon, NPR, Hollywood Reporter, AP, Variety Review, Dissent…
Fails to make the grade”: “Theaters should install glow-in-the-dark versions of those old clunking classroom clocks so viewers can count the agonizing minutes ticking by as they watch the movie.”
Oops….bad scores….call in turnaround actors, production company and director.
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/09/critics-pan-wont-back-down-as-badly.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FEJcmuc+%28NYC+Public+School+Parents%29