{"id":5267,"date":"2008-02-09T22:29:16","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T05:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5267"},"modified":"2021-01-31T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T21:26:41","slug":"tom-browns-schooldays-1951","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5267","title":{"rendered":"Tom Brown&#8217;s Schooldays (1951)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Tell the truth, keep a brave, kind heart, and you&#8217;ll survive.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Tom-Browns-Schooldays-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Tom-Browns-Schooldays-Poster-207x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Tom-Browns-Schooldays-Poster-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Tom-Browns-Schooldays-Poster-88x128.jpg 88w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/Tom-Browns-Schooldays-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen Tom Brown (John Howard Davies) arrives at Rugby boarding school, he&#8217;s mercilessly tormented by the school&#8217;s evil bully, Flashman (John Forrest). With the help of his friend East (John Charlesworth), plucky Brown devises a plan to get back at Flashman; in the meantime, he&#8217;s asked to look out for a timid new student (Glyn Dearman), whose life is accidentally put in peril during a school race.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boarding Schools<\/li>\n<li>Bullies<\/li>\n<li>Robert Newton Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Brown's_School_Days\">Thomas Hughes&#8217; semi-autobiographical novel<\/a>, published in 1857, has been adapted for the screen no less than five times: in 1916, 1940, 1951, 1971, and 2005; this version is the only one listed in Peary&#8217;s book. From its opening scenes, <em>Tom Brown&#8217;s Schooldays<\/em> (the title is falsely innocuous) remains a difficult film to watch, given the relentless display of abuse young Tom suffers, first from the entire school (following tradition, he&#8217;s forced to stand up and sing during dinner, while being pelted with food from all sides), then &#8212; most brutally &#8212; at the hands of a sociopathic bully, whose power at Rugby remains absolute due to a code of &#8220;honor&#8221; preventing students from &#8220;peaching&#8221; (i.e., tattling). While a distinction is clearly drawn between these two levels of behavior, both are appalling; fortunately, there are enough scenes of genuine camaraderie sprinkled throughout the film (group sing-alongs at dinner; rousing football games) to convince us that these boys will have at least a <em>few<\/em> happy memories of their school days. By the end of the film, it&#8217;s clear that honor and integrity will ultimately triumph over sadism, thanks in part to a progressive headmaster (Robert Newton) who&#8217;s determined to make changes at the school &#8212; but be forewarned that the journey until then is a tough one to swallow. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John Howard Davies as Tom Brown<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/tom-brown-davies.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/tom-brown-davies.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5266\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine location shooting at Rugby School in England<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/tom-brown-location.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/tom-brown-location.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5268\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s worth a look simply as a brutally honest depiction of &#8220;public school&#8221; bullying in early 1800s England. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0044134\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eyeforfilm.co.uk\/reviews.php?id=4771\">Eye for Film Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/tom-browns-schooldays\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Tell the truth, keep a brave, kind heart, and you&#8217;ll survive.&#8221; Synopsis: When Tom Brown (John Howard Davies) arrives at Rugby boarding school, he&#8217;s mercilessly tormented by the school&#8217;s evil bully, Flashman (John Forrest). With the help of his friend East (John Charlesworth), plucky Brown devises a plan to get back at Flashman; in the meantime, he&#8217;s asked to look out for a timid new student (Glyn Dearman), whose life is accidentally put in peril during a school race. Genres,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5267\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67455,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5267\/revisions\/67455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}