Set in East Los Angeles, 1982, Stand and Deliver tells the story of Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos), an enthusiastic mathematics teacher, who facing difficulties and racial discrimination, decides to teach his class Calculus and prepare his students for one of the toughest nationwide college credit exams, which only 2% of students can pass. The pivotal element helping the creation of documentary-like style of the film and bringing the challenging essence of it to the real life, is the remarkable actor in the center of the film: Edward James Olmos. Olmos, a professional actor with previous experiences on the silver screen of cinema and glass screen of TV utilizes his potentials as a Hispanic-American and also as an actor who knows the medium to give the role what it takes to look real for the audience. Ramon Menendez, director and co-writer of the film with Tom Musca, are both of Hispanic origins and they grew up in the same East L. A. area where the film takes place. They have done a great job preparing Olmos with back story and additional information on how to act. Keeping in mind that Stand and Deliver is a drama where the dramatic situation is created between characters, not between characters and environment, an organization etc., there is a huge amount of concentration on the students. In this aspect, fortunately, the roles are played delicately by young actors and actresses, all like Olmos and the director, from Hispanic origins. They all bring their characters to life, smoothly and profoundly believable. The core of student pole in the film is Angel Guzman (Lou Diamond Phillips). He is a rebellious teenager, a gang member and wears sunglasses and hair net in the class. Only after his teacher threatens them about their scary future as an uneducated minority in American society, he decides to change his attitude gradually and study, and later in the film shows a great potential in solving difficult math problems. Diamond Phillips, being 26 at the time of making the film, balances his act with 41 year old Olmos, a true professional. This counterpoint gives the film a true sense of tension at one time and stable equilibrium at another. The screenplay fails at developing side characters and this failure is intensified with the low budget of this project. Musca and Menendez decide to deepen the perspective on lives of the students attending Escalante's class, their problems and how they deal with them. This, derails the story from its main path, which is the concentration and effort Escalante and his students put to the calculus exam. Each and every time the story develops a situation about one side character it disturbs the narrative of a group facing a problem. As a matter of fact, film suffers greatly from a bi-polar situation: one pole focuses on the relationship between a teacher and his students, the other pole focuses on a group, consisting of an inspiring teacher and young rebellious students, encountering a tough and hard exam, and the film fails to concentrate on one of these poles at the same time. The film is never in peace and always en route between these two poles. This, has caused the film to be torn up in two separate and unfortunately not-so-well matched pieces. On the other hand, the low budget has affected the film negatively. Menendez could limit its film more to interiors rather than exteriors, but what we see is that in addition to a variety of exteriors, there are numerous interiors showed in the film. Menendez started his career as a film director with Stand and Deliver and the blame could go to his lack of experience. But the film disappoints audiences with showing real life; it seems that it wants to show real life situations but shows poorly designed and executed versions of real life. The worst and not acceptable scenes are ones dealing with Angel's gangster friend. When they go to sabotage a store, it is expected to show in details how they get the job done, but instead in a long shot and a with a modest panning camera, absolutely inappropriate for an action scene, the event is portrayed, completely unable to imply the tension embodied in the current act. What the film toils to discuss is the future of the Hispanic minority in an utterly unjust society, where you are blamed and questioned, even if you have tried your best and you have gained righteously. And Hispanics in this film are representative for all minorities and immigrants who live righteously and always there is a kind of suspicion about them. They are all unwanted people and no one can tolerate their success. In scene we can see that the teacher says "If this were Beverly Hills High, they wouldn't have sent you two to investigate". Stand and Deliver depicts the current situation and explains the problems and obstacles and the solution it suggests is to fight the system from within. In this film's view, the only way is, to become part of the system and gradually change it, until it is not unjust anymore. The only option is studying and becoming accepted by the rest of society, because grades are race-less and speak for themselves. Passing an exam will open doors, but many people who are already in the system want them to be closed to minorities. That's why Escalante wears his students out; he sees no bright future for them as a neglected and ignored minority, unless they prove themselves. Escalante uses various methods to inspire his students varying from reverse psychology to entertaining them by bringing a butcher knife and apples to teach them the concept of division and percentage. By all means Escalante wants to make one point: to waken their potentials and prepare them to be themselves. It is the greatest lesson he gives them all. Actually this was one big lesson for all minorities.

A high school computer science teacher takes a bunch of dropout students and gets them to take and pass the AP Calculus. That is a general theme, a most-duplicated story. But what makes this a standout movie is the originality and factuality of the film. The movie is based on fact, a true story- the true life of Jaime Escalante, an East Loa Angeles man who has left a better job to become a teacher, to prove he can be influential on the life of some kids in a society which prefers to ignore them because it's easier and more logical to lose faith in a group of losers than to spend time or money to make them something worthy in their lives.Jaime is a not a typical teacher; he does not confront his students on the first day, when they ignore him, disobey him, and even threaten him. He knows his class, their background, and reasons of their rebellion. He has set out to change their destiny. While teaching calculus, he uses examples of their everyday life- a life dominated by drugs and poverty for most of them.The everyday life of the kids in the movie is really important for us, the viewers, because we are taken to a journey to watch their lives and efforts to change, but the screenplay is not as successful in showing us that aspect as it is in elaborating the classroom atmosphere. We are not introduced to the life of most of the students. The life of those whose we see is not detailed either. We know why one of them doesn't have enough time to study because of his mother, why the other one's father doesn't let her continue her education because she needs to help in the family business; but that is the extent to which the story goes in showing the real problems of the kids we're watching. There is another story which is just making time; the story of the two students seeing each other.The students try, really hard, go to class even on Saturday, and pass the exam. But they are accused of cheating. We know they haven't done it. They are accused of cheating based on the fact they have all answered the same question incorrectly, but one of the main problems in the screenplay which is pretty much disturbing is the fact that we are not shown or told how they have done that, while we are sure that they have never cheated. There is one possibility which of course is not tested in the movie: they have all answered the same question incorrectly because their teacher has taught them wrong. There is a scene where the teacher asserts on an equation to be wrong but the students believe he is wrong. But we never know if they have made the same mistake or not. The movie is set in Los Angeles during the 80s. It is written, directed, and played by Latinos. In December 2011, Stand and Deliver was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The Registry said the film was "one of the most popular of a new wave of narrative feature films produced in the 1980s by Latino filmmakers" and that it "celebrates in a direct, approachable, and impactful way, values of self-betterment through hard work and power through knowledge."

CAN A MAN CHANGE POPLE? "Stand and Deliver" (1988)Director: Ramón MenéndezStarring: Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips Screenwriter: Ramón Menéndez & Tom Musca Music: Kralg Safan Brief summary of the film:In 1982 a determined teacher, in a social drama movie, enters the Garfield High School in a Hispanic district of Los Angeles to teach the lazy and rude students Calculus. The students used to study in the school not to learn but to pass the time. Teaching Calculus seems impossible or at least tough job which no "teacher man" before Escalante dared to invest its time and energy on it. Escalante,not just the teacher but an actor, sympathetic and lover of his job has a difficult task to reform not the learning but the characters as well. There is no place where this crisis is more acute than in the inner-city schools of our major cities. Garfield that barely merits the title, "school" is one of the schools which its students dare to terrorize their teacher. But Escalante was successful and he won. 18 students with parents reluctant to let their children pursue higher education learned calculus. They changed their way of thinking and could pass the state exam of AP Calculus Program.Genre: Social Drama Main characters: A boy named Angel who wears sunglasses and a hairnet and refuses to pay attention in class. But even he comes around eventually. The teacher shows sensitivity yet firmness, and a large part of his success one feels is that he saw potential and opportunity in young people where nobody else concerned did. Teaching mostly Hispanic pupils at a high school in East Los Angeles, this Bolivian teacher speaks directly to his students frankly and Hispanic accent: "I'm finger man too", "basic math is easy to every man", "grandness" ''Tough guys don't do math, tough guys deep-fry chicken for a living'' and ''Go to wood shop, make yourself a shoeshine box, you're gonna need it.'' ''but math is a great equalizer.'', '' you are winger leg man" What message is being told? Teaching in a usual and formal science theory in a tough culture community of students is not possible and some artist guys like Escalante is necessary to bring the best from the worst. "The Bad News Bears" (1976) and "Hoosiers" (1986) in the realm of sports films, "To Sir with Love" (1968) and "Dangerous Minds" (1999) in the teacher/hero genre are some example which we can compare to "Stand and deliver".I personally liked this movie because of my personal experienced in a high school like Garfield whit a talented of history teacher who used to put us in a historical event as an active observer. So I believe our educational systems need some teacher like Escalante more than any other facilities and equipment.

Stand and Deliver is a 1988, Ramon Menendez movie staring Edward James Olmos. Olmos depicts an eager teacher, Jaime Escalante, who has given up a high paying job to go back to teaching with the hope of making a difference. He is appointed to a school were almost all students are of a Hispanic origin. Having the encouragement and a great deal of patience to deal with his students' shall we call, rudeness and lack of interest in interacting with anything related to education and studying, he actually becomes successful in gaining their attention and trust. What is significant to his method for the students-and the viewer for that matter- is that he connects wit the students in their own level, using examples of their own lives and even using words out of their jargon. The students who have finally found someone who believes in them and does not look down onto them, show a great deal of perseverance and spending a great deal of effort they all pass the very difficult exam successfully. The movie tries to show in detail the different aspects of a minority group's life in the 80s America. Mr.Escalante an educated man with a job at a corporation feels something lacking and so quits his job to do something for his society. He has to fight for his place at the school, and to be taken seriously for what unique work he wants done. The life of the students and what they are struggling with, however in short, passing scenes has been shown perfectly. Most of them are from families with low income, a number of siblings, parents working shifts round the clock. Absorbed in the social conventions and highly accepted stereotypes no one in the community and among the young people themselves imagines a different scenario. According to Mr.Escalante the students have stopped trying because they are treated as inferior. It has been a presumption that they are lazy, or are not smart enough to receive a good or high level of education. The pattern has been repeated for so long that the students themselves have actually believed and internalised the situation. To remember the historical context, the 80s is usually remembered as America's flourishing years, the years which showed what America was meant to, and was going to be. After the uneasy days of the 60s, with struggles for civil rights and reaching a considerable amount of the goals; after the 70s and putting behind the economic problems and recession, 80s was considered a time that people could pursue more personal interests rather than trying to solve the general problems of the public. This is visible in the culture of the decade, TV shows showing "happy days", the revolting rock music of the 70s was now changed to folk music, and computers became available to the public. But as seen in the movie, it is not the case for all. The group presented in the movie, still struggles with economic problems, has issues with inferior treatment from the majority because of race, cannot gain access to computers at school let alone having personal computers, and so does not find the time or chance to get involved with the new culture developing in the country. The situation depicted in the movie can be explained to a good deal according to the standpoint theory, which is assumes people's experiences, knowledge and opinions are shaped by the social groups to which they belong. To draw and example from the movie, one can observe easily the different meaning various concepts have for the people, for example a boy sees future success in being able to repair and fix cars rather than studying. Or that the role of the female in the society is suggested to be one who has a skill and therefore a minor job and will marry and bear and rear children. In the end, I think the movie has done a splendid job in showing to the core what a minority group went through trying to survive the pressures and difficulties imposed on it. The human factor shown through the connection between Mr.Escalante and his students, however sentimental, showed a great deal can be done through mutual understanding and effort.