The Emperor's Club (Widescreen Edition)
by Michael Hoffman
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Actor: Embeth Davidtz, Emile Hirsch, Joel Gretsch, Kevin Kline, Rob MorrowDirector: Michael Hoffman
Brand: KLINE,KEVIN
Producer: Andrew S. Karsch
Producer: Armyan Bernstein
Producer: Cooper Layne
Producer: Eric Newman
Producer: Lisa Bruce
Writer: Ethan Canin
Writer: Neil Tolkin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-06
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Emperor's Club (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: The Moose Hole - Dead 'Emperor's' Society ... I mean, 'Club'
Summary: 3 Stars
?Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you??
As we draw ever closer to the first day of summer, high school seniors across the country, quite possibly even the world, will be reminiscing upon their four year high school careers wondering what impact it, as well as the numerous individuals involved, has had on them and the people they hope to become in the not-too-distant future. Though many don?t see it now, there will be a time when they will hearken back to their freshmen Latin I or junior U.S. History classes and wonder whether the decisions they made in those times had the lasting contributable factors that their teachers had hoped they would have on their students. No one can call themselves a valuable educator unless they are willing to do what ever possible to make their students? futures all the more fulfilling by focusing on the people they will become rather then their ability to pass. If that is not the case amongst many educators today then they are no better then most of the present MPS teachers in that they are only setting their students up for continued failure. There must be more to it then that.
The story centers on a teacher who, at a fork in the road of his life, worries that his thirty-four year teaching career may have been worthless as he may have had little impact on the students he had hoped to enlighten in that time period. The film begins with a narration by Arthur Hundert, a Classics professor who has taught at the elite St. Benedict?s prep school for over thirty years, exclaiming, ?A man?s character is his fate? and questioning if his teaching career lived up to the values he had set for his students. In his mind he travels back to the early 1970s at a time that would prove the most challenging of his entire teaching career, all in part to one student named Sedgewick Bell. Sedgewick is the incompliant and pigheaded son of a Louisiana senator who cares more about his son?s ability to pass to graduation rather then the impact this prep school may have on the man he will turn out to be in the real world. After seeing a connection between Sedgewick and himself, both the products of busy and often absent fathers, Hundert takes it upon himself to rear the stubborn child by doing everything possible to fully prepare him for the Mr. Julius Caesar Contest, a test of ancient history and classic literature knowledge in which the winner will be declared Mr. Julius Caesar, the most prestigious honor St. Benedict?s can bestow on a student. But when Hundert discovers that Sedgewick cheated during the contest, his teaching career goes into precipitated tailspin which leads back to the present where he has been invited by the now grown up Sedgewick Bell for a rematch of the Mr. Julius Caesar Contest in order to reclaim his intellectual honor. When, once again, Bell fails to put real invest in the contest and cheats, Hundert now questions whether he contributed anything at all to the students he had so much ambition for. The story for The Emperor?s Club is a entertaining drama for a rainy-day afternoon but disappoints in the fact that it demonstrates nothing that hasn?t been done before in films like Goodbye Mr. Chips and Mr. Holland?s Opus. What makes this vastly inferior to Dead Poet?s Society is that it spends too much time focusing on the teacher rather then the singular students of his class and how his teaching has impacted them as individuals and the choices they make in life as a result. The story also lacks the emotional depth that made Dead Poet?s all the more enduring and thought provoking.
When it comes to famous, or even recognizable, performers, this film has few to offer but it doesn?t seem to matter as much with Kevin Kline?s performance alone making up for the lack of distinguishable talent. Kline works the character of Arthur Hundert perfectly and never seems too lax in any scene that he is present in. And his work opposite Emile Hirsch, who plays Sedgewick Bell, showcases tremendous effort especially in lines that are suppose to have immense impact on events later on the film, such as, ?Aristophanes once wrote, roughly translated; ?Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but STUPID lasts forever.?? But Kline?s performance, as laudable as it may be, doesn?t save the character entirely as certain actions as well as characters that surrounds him. As is seen often in Shakespeare plays like Hamlet and Julius Caesar, which is slightly touched on within the film, the lead character has the opportunity to set things right, in this case revealing Sedgewick as a cheater, but fails to do so and, as a result, causes further damage then if he had just done something earlier on. What makes this situation even worse with Mr. Hundert is that he is given the opportunity twice and still refuses to do anything. Although money is often involved in these situations, nothing should come before a man and the principles he stands for. For a man who talks so much about virtues and principals, Hundert hardly follows up on what he preaches.
Overall, The Emperor?s Club, as ambitious and well-intentioned as it tries to be, delivers on Hundert?s opening statement on being ?a story without surprises? and results in nothing more then a regurgitation of all the teacher/coming of age dramas that have been done to death in the past. In the end, despite the hard intentions of the filmmakers to wrap things up in an appropriate manner, the emphasis on the film?s story is lost and the audience is left thinking, ?So what?? The main problem is that there is no emotional connection with any character, including Mr. Hundert, to really drive home the point that the filmmakers present at the end of this film. They spend so much time focusing on the solitary conflicts between Mr. Hundert and Sedgewick Bell that, in a way, they contradict themselves in the statement, ?The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success?. Had they followed up on that line, it would have resulted in a look into all the lives of the students rather then a specific individual. Although that too would have been nothing different from Dead Poet?s Society, it is admirable for a film to be bland and predictable then to contradict itself on the message it tries to express. That is not to say that The Emperor?s Club is not entertaining, Kline?s performance and James Newton Howard?s memorable musical score prevent it from being a total wash, but film expresses thoughts on a subject matter that has been done numerous times in the past without divulging on anything new or thought provoking.
Description of The Emperor's Club (Widescreen Edition)
A teacher at an all-boys prep school makes a rebellious student his main focus.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 21-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD
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