The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens | Very Unconventional

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The Prime of Miss ...

	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens 20th Century Fox, 2004 average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Miss Jean Brodie Was Never in Her "Prime"

This is a superb film regarding a narcissistic woman who damages the lives of the teenage girls entrusted to her care. She betrays the trust of the school that employs her as a teacher---and the parents who haven't the foggiest notion of what she is doing to their children. The hero is the principal (Celia Johnson) who does what she can do to put a stop to the destructive misbehavior of Miss Jean Brodie. Our villain is so morally and intellectually bankrupt that she even worships the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. In Miss Brodie's warped elitist view of the universe, this misplaced adulation is evidence of her being in one's prime. She eventually gets one of her more naive and trusting "Brodie Girls" killed. And yet, the tragic death fails to deter her from causing further harm. The woman is truly a parent's worst nightmare. Maggie Smith excellently portrays this less than admirable individual. Her Academy Award for best actress is well deserved.

There is one more point that I feel compelled to add. Some people mistakenly believe that totalitarian dictators gain power by focussing on the conversion of the masses. Nothing could be further from the truth. The masses are of secondary importance. Mussolini, Castro, Stalin, and other ruthless thugs find it initially necessary to seduce middle class, pseudo-intellectuals like Miss Jean Brodie. These "useful idiots" lay the ground work for the horror that inevitably follows.

David Thomson
Flares into Darkness

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Very Unconventional

You only begin to understand what the writer and screenwriter of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is trying to say when you realize that the student who ultimately becomes the most like Miss Brodie (Maggie Smith) is Sandy (Pamela Franklin), and that the story is really being told from Sandy's point-of-view. She learns to be as judgmental and irresponsible as her teacher, full of misguided ideals and grievances, and totally confident that the world is as simplistic as she wants it to be. Which is why the film begins with a shot of Miss Brodie on her way to the school and goes out on a shot of Sandy leaving the school, with a Brodie voice-over about her teaching philosophy.

Once you understand that the Sandy transformation is the principle dynamic, the rest of the story fits together rather smoothly. The on-going struggle between Miss Brodie and the headmistress is almost a Hitchcock McGuffin, providing a lot of character motivation but ultimately of little importance.

Another key is the use of Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott". "When the Moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed; "I am half sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott."

In the poem she is a magical being who lives alone on an island upstream from King Arthur's Camelot. Her purpose is to look at the world outside her castle window in a mirror, and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. She is forbidden by the magic to look at the outside world directly. Looking at the world in a mirror and depicting it in a work of art is an allegory for the life of a teacher viewing the world from an ivory tower and interpreting it for her young students. And Miss Brodie's often fearless lifestyle is much like the heroic action taken by Tennyson's lady which leads to her doom.

Finally there is the irony of the betrayal by the one student who is the most like her, the only one in whom she really confides. But the film illustrates the disconnect between Miss Brodie and Sandy, who gets her back up that Miss Brodie considers Jenny the ideal. Brodie is too self-absorbed to pick up on Sandy's growing disenchantment just as she does not have the insight to realize that Mary McGregor's brother was fighting against (not for) Franco in Spain.

In many ways Miss Brodie is a wonderful teacher and most young girls would have benefited from membership in the Brodie set, mostly because of her encouragement to openly explore the possibilities life offers. She contrasts the word "education", derived from the Latin "educere" (to lead out)-seeing her role as leading out her students' own ideas by encouraging them to think for themselves with the conventional teaching style of "intrusion"- the stuffing of heads with required information.

Which adds a lot of complexity to the production and makes it quite unique. One on level it is a rebel teacher fighting the repressive system to give her students a better education. While on another level it is clear that she is going a bit too far and messing up some of her charges.

The film covers a five-year period and the 18 year-old Franklin believably manages a transformation from a mousy 12 year-old to a sexually liberated young woman. Her nude scene in the artist's studio shocks the viewer because the passage of time has been handled quite casually and because it is really a reverse striptease, starting nude and slowly putting "on" her clothes.

The DVD has a commentary feature by Director Ronald Neame and Pamela Franklin. It too is quite unusual as they were not together in the studio and their voices alternate throughout the film without having any interaction. Neame tends to digress too often to other events in his career but the commentary still manages to provide some useful information.

Ultimately this is a depressing but interesting story with Miss Brodie's colorful outfits standing out in the grays and browns that dominate the production design.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

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Enjoy the brilliance of Maggie Smith

Even though this film is 40 years old and showing it in some respects, Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie is still one of the most interesting acting performances I've ever seen. She makes you care very much for a character that's actually not all that pleasant - but you get to know Jean, and feel for her. Not to be missed!!

Maggie Smith Shines

Maggie in full high camp.
A marvellous Film
Highly recommended

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

This classic movie was every bit as good as I remembered it from years ago. Maggie Smith is just fantastic in this role and the story is still surprising and exciting. Set in Edinburgh the movie brings back fond memories of when I used to live there. This is the best movie I have bought in ages. My daughter who is only 14 and who had never seen Maggie Smith when she was in her 'prime' also enjoyed it tremendously.

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