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Quotes of Movie: Lean on Me [1989]
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Joe Clark: This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, how can you teach? Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! (unknown)
Joe Clark: You've tried it your way for years, and your students can't even pass the State's Minimum Basic Skills Test. THAT MEANS THEY CAN BARELY READ! Now, they've given me one year to turn this place around - to get those test scores up - so that the State will not take us over to perform the task which YOU have failed to accomplish: the task of EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN! So forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy! We are in a state of emergency and my word is law! There's only one boss around here, and that's me. The HNIC.
[exits]
Mr. O'Malley: HNIC?
Ms. Levias: Head Nigger In Charge. (unknown)
Joe Clark: I don't have time for Mrs. Elliott's problem!
Dr. Frank Napier: You better make time!
Joe Clark: We are being crucified by a process that is turning blacks into a permanent underclass here, Frank. A permanent underclass!
[Dr. Napier turns away from him and puts some papers in his briefcase]
Joe Clark: See! See, nobody wants to talk about that! NOBODY! Mrs. Elliott's missionary zeal about Mozart has nothing to do with our problem. Nothing! What good is Mozart going to do a bunch of children who can't go out and get a job?
Dr. Frank Napier: Joe, your personal battles are gonna cost us the war. Worry about the test scores.
Joe Clark: WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK I'M WORRIED ABOUT?
Dr. Frank Napier: END OF DISCUSSION! You will write a formal apology!
Joe Clark: I will what?
Dr. Frank Napier: A formal apology for your treatment of Mrs. Elliott and Darnell and for your vicious and thoughtless insults to the women of this community! You will kow tow. You will step and fetch!
Joe Clark: If you think that I'm gonna...
Dr. Frank Napier: [slams briefcase shut] Get used to it! It's the WAY OF THE WORLD! If you're so hot on discipline, then goddammit
[pounds on briefcase]
Dr. Frank Napier: start by accepting mine because contrary to popular opinion, I'M THE HEAD NIGGER IN CHARGE!
[He grabs his briefcase and heads for the door]
Dr. Frank Napier: Come on, let's get something to eat.
Joe Clark: [following him to the door and walking out with him] You really think you bad, don't you? (unknown)
Dr. Frank Napier: Did you see this yet?
[holding up newspaper story about Clark's fight with a former student]
Dr. Frank Napier: You know, a lot of your shits comes down on my head.
Joe Clark: Oh, Frank! Look, this is...
Dr. Frank Napier: No, You let me talk! It's like you're a big bird with radar and I'm tired of getting hit!
Joe Clark: Th... this is my fault?
Dr. Frank Napier: This is nothing! I've got union lawyers threatening me and there's talk of a walk-out!
Joe Clark: Well, let 'em! They're not doing anything down there anyway!
Dr. Frank Napier: It is your job to...
Joe Clark: None of them have a personal stake at that school! Not one!
Dr. Frank Napier: The fire chief was just in here. He said it was illegal to bar those doors. Mrs. Barrett is organizing a parents' group to try and get you removed since you insulted them at that meeting the other night when you suggested they should get off welfare...
Joe Clark: Oh, I didn't mean all of...
Dr. Frank Napier: ...because the fact is quite a few of them need it.
Joe Clark: I wasn't talking to all of them, Frank! Look, you came and recruited me, man, but you disappoint me, brother. You disappoint me!
Dr. Frank Napier: The disappointment here is you!
Joe Clark: Me?
Dr. Frank Napier: Yes!
Joe Clark: You know who I am. You've known me thirty years! You knew what I would do! You know how I operate!
Dr. Frank Napier: Nigger, will you keep quiet! the fact is you're screwing up! You're alienating everybody! Look at you, you have no life! Your wife left you! Hell, I oughta walk out on you myself!
Joe Clark: Well, go ahead! Bail the hell out!
Dr. Frank Napier: But I said I'd back you up!
Joe Clark: That's what you said, man! That's what you said!
Dr. Frank Napier: I would go through the... fire with you, but you are not taking care of business! This shit you're pulling now, you've just gone plain loco! Now you suspend Darnell! What the hell was that?
Joe Clark: Darnell is symptomatic of the disciplinary problems...
Dr. Frank Napier: He is a good, strong, young Black teacher! So he... dumped that desk right on top of your head. Well, right on! Good for him! You will reinstate that man, you hear? And you fire Mrs. Elliott! Why? Because she didn't want to kiss your ass! I wouldn't neither! How about that?
Joe Clark: Mrs. Elliott has an ego problem!
Dr. Frank Napier: Well, you lost the best teacher we ever had! We couldn't get her back now if we wanted to! (unknown)
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Joe Clark: [Clark's roof-top pep-talk to Thomas Sams] The problem with teenagers today is you don't know nothing. The problem with being a teenager is you THINK you know better than those who have been down that road you're traveling. Have you told your father what happened to you? You haven't? No guts, huh? You're afraid of what he might say to you.
Thomas Sams: My father doesn't live with us anymore, sir.
Joe Clark: Oh, is that it? You just go around feeling sorry for yourself? Get out of here, boy; you're wasting my time!
Thomas Sams: Please, sir. I have to get back in school, somewhere. I can't just go home and tell my mother I got thrown out of school.
Joe Clark: Boy, what have you been thinking about all this time, and why should I believe you now?
Thomas Sams: Because I'll do better, sir. I'll go to class and do all my work and...
Joe Clark: And what else? Why don't you just jump off the roof, right here and now? That's what you really want, isn't it? Yes, you do. You smoke crack, don't you, boy? Don't you smoke crack? Yeah, I thought so. And you know what that does to you? You don't? It kills your brain cells, son. It kills your brain cells! Now when you're destroying your brain cells, you're doing the same thing as killing yourself. You're just doing it slower! Now, I say if your wanna kill yourself, do it expeditiously! Go on and jump! JUMP!
Thomas Sams: No! I don't wanna jump!
Joe Clark: ...You're quite sure about this, are you?
Thomas Sams: ...That's why I haven't jumped already, sir.
Joe Clark: Maybe. All right, Sams, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna go back on my own word and let you into my school again. But you're not gonna get a moment's rest. I'm gonna be on your case every minute - just waiting for you to slip up THIS MUCH, so I can toss you right back out. Do you understand me? DO YOU?
Thomas Sams: ...You think I don't appreciate this at all, sir.
Joe Clark: ...We'll see. Alright, let's get back downstairs. Come on.
[they do so] (unknown)
Joe Clark: [looks at the boys restroom, suspects Sams is hiding something] What do you got in here, Sams?
Thomas Sams: You don't want to go in there Mr. Clark it stinks!
[Clark grabs Sams and they go into the boys restroom] (unknown)
Kaneesha Carter: Mr. Clark don't play! (unknown)
Leonna Barrett: [at the demonstration outside City Hall] ... Children, you have my word that we will get you what Eastside High deserves: a GOOD principal!
Thomas Sams: We don't NEED a "good principal!" That's why we're here! We need Mr. Clark!
Leonna Barrett: You may THINK you know what you need, but...
[the students applaud wildly, seeing that Clark has just walked up behind Barrett, unnoticed by her] (unknown)
Mrs. Elliott: I would love to stay and chat, Mr. Clark, but I've a concert in New York in two weeks and I would like to be prepared.
Joe Clark: What?
Mrs. Elliott: Prepare. You do know what prepare means, don't you? It means ready, capable and up to your job.
Joe Clark: What concert, Mrs. Elliott?
Mrs. Elliott: The one at Lincoln Center. We do one every year.
Joe Clark: Until now. As of this moment, your little concert is cancelled.
Mrs. Elliott: What?
Joe Clark: CANCELLED! You do know what cancelled means, don't you? Called off! Terminated!
Mrs. Elliott: WHY? Those children have worked too hard!
Joe Clark: And for not telling me!
Mrs. Elliott: I filed a form in your office! Why don't you talk to...
Joe Clark: And for RANK insubordination! You have insulted my intellegence, my authority...
Mrs. Elliott: You're the one that always comes to pick on me! I'll tell you what! You're a bully, you're a despicable man and I've got nothing more to say to you!
Joe Clark: Let's just accommodate that, Mrs. Elliott! YOU'RE FIRED!
Mrs. Elliott: You need a psychiatrist!
Joe Clark: GET OUT!
Mrs. Elliott: All right, fine! Fired? YOU WILL HEAR FROM MY LAWYER! (unknown)
Joe Clark: Alright people, here we are. In one hour, you are going to take an exam administered by the State to test your basic skills and the quality of education at East Side High. I want to tell you what the people are saying about you and what they think about your chances. They say you're inferior! You are just a bunch of niggers and spics and poor white trash! Education is wasted on you! You cannot learn! You're lost! I mean ALL of you! I want all the white students to stand up. All my white students, stand up. Stand up. C'mon, stand up. These are my white children and they're the same as all of you! They've got no place to go, if they had, they'd have abandoned us a long time ago like everybody else did. So, here they are in East Side High, just like the rest of us. You can sit down. Are you getting my point, people? Is it beginning to sink in? We sink, we swim, we rise, we fall, we meet our fate together! Now, it took the help of a good, good friend to make me know and understand that and I do understand that and I'm grateful. I'm eternally grateful. And now, I've got a message for those people out there who've abandoned you and written you off! Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Good! You are NOT inferior! Your grades may be, your school may have been. But you can turn that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour when you take that test and pass it and win! So here's what I want you to do. When you find your thoughts wandering, I want you to knuckle back down and concentrate. Concentrate! Remember what's at stake and show them what East Side High's all about: a spirit that will not die! (unknown)
[with a baseball bat in his hand]
Joe Clark: They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well now they can call me Batman! (unknown)
Thomas Sams: Girl! I look at you and I want that oochie coochie! (unknown)
Joe Clark: I don't have to do nothin' but stay black and die! (unknown)
[after refusing admittance to the Fire Chief]
Joe Clark: You know what he's saying right now? "Black bastard can't throw me out!" You know where he's saying it? Out in the parking lot. (unknown)
Joe Clark: Get off welfare! (unknown)
Joe Clark: [at an assembly] I want all of you to take a good look at these people on the risers behind me. These people have been here roughly five years, and done absolutely nothing. These people are drug dealers and drug users. They have taken up space. They have disrupted this school. They have harassed your teachers. And they have intimidated you. Well, times are about to change. You will not be bothered in Joe Clark's school. These people are incorrigible. And since none of them could graduate anyway...
[to those onstage]
Joe Clark: ... you are all expurgated. You are dismissed! You are out of here, forever. I wish you well! Mr. Wright...
[after Security Dean William Wright and Eastside's new guards eject all the "problem" kids from school, Clark's audience in the decaying auditorium grows silent]
Joe Clark: Next time, it may be you. If you do no better than they did, next time it WILL be you. They said this school was dead, like the cemetery it's built on. But we call our Eastside teams "Ghosts", don't we? And what are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits that rise from the dead. I want you to be my ghosts. You are going to lead our resurrection, by defying the expectation that all of us are doomed to failure. My motto is simple: If you do not succeed in life, I don't want you to blame your parents. I don't want you to blame the White Man. I want you to blame yourselves. The responsibility is yours! In two weeks we have a practice exam, and on April 13th we have the Minimum Basic Skills Test itself. That's 110 school days from now. But it's not just about those test scores. If you do not have these basic skills, you will find yourselves locked out. Locked out of that American Dream that you see advertised on TV, and that they tell you is so easy to get. You are here for one reason. One reason only: To learn. To work for what you believe in. The alternative is to waste your time, to fall into the trap of crime and drugs and death. Does everybody understand that? Do all of you understand me? Then welcome to the new Eastside High. (unknown)
Dr. Frank Napier: Don, the man has a legitimate problem. How's he supposed to keep drug dealers out of his school if their buddies can just push open the exit doors and let 'em walk on in?
Mr. Rosenberg: He's got a point, sir.
Mayor Don Bottman: Rosenberg, this doesn't concern you. (unknown)
Joe Clark: [addressing teachers] You think you can run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks at my meetings. NO ONE! You take out your pencils and write. I want the names... of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. (unknown)
Joe Clark: [at the first teachers' meeting] Mr. Zarella, you are my new head football coach. Mr. Darnell will be your assistant. Mr, Darnell, stand up. You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting pushed all over the field; thank you, sit down! I want PRECISION. I want a WEIGHT PROGRAM. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can QUIT! Same goes for the rest of you. (unknown)
Joe Clark: [after asking teachers to put up their hands] Because you are failing to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up in. Only they'll be staring down the barrel of a gun! (unknown)
Joe Clark: [at school assembly before the skills test] And I've got a message out there for those people who have abandoned you and written you off. You are NOT inferior. Your grades may be. Your school may have been. But you can turn all that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour, when you take that test, pass it, and win! (unknown)
Mayor Don Bottman: What do you want?
Leonna Barrett: Clark!
Mayor Don Bottman: Just like that, huh? Head on a platter.
Leonna Barrett: You think I got an attitude. Well, let me tell you what I think. I know why you like Clark. He's a guard dog. Does your dirty work. Keeps the black folk in line - that's fine. But you've got to get re-elected. I've got enough folks lined up with me to give you a DAMN hard time, and I will get more. I will organize. I will beat the streets.
Mayor Don Bottman: Unless I do what?
Leonna Barrett: Appoint me to the school board so we can vote Clark out. Otherwise, we'll just have to vote you out.
Mayor Don Bottman: Vote me out? You know, it's always good to see citizens avail themselves of the democratic process.
Leonna Barrett: My job's gonna be easy. You're not too popular these days, are ya? (unknown)
Joe Clark: Mr. Major, on behalf of myself and on behalf the students of Eastside High, you can tell the State to go to hell! (unknown)
Joe Clark: Don't talk to me about saving those kids. The mayor wants to save his budget. And you wanna save your ass!
Dr. Frank Napier: Well, so what? You want the truth?
Joe Clark: Yeah, Frank. Let's have some truth.
Dr. Frank Napier: The truth is that for all your talking, all your 'Crazy Joe' routine, what have you ever done? Nothing. You're nothing but an insignificant man. It's like you were never born. Your life hasn't made one bit of difference, and neither has mine. Wanna take that to the grave? (unknown)
Dr. Frank Napier: [to Joe] It's like you're a Big Bird with radar. And I'm tired of getting hit! (unknown)
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Movie: Lean on Me [1989]
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