To Sir, with Love II (Blu-ray) (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	93:31
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter Bogdanovich
Studio Distributor	ViaVision	Starring	Sidney Poitier Christian Payton Dana Eskelson Fernando Lopez L. Z. Granderson Daniel J Travanti Casey Lluberes
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Trevor Lawrence

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) is retiring and attends a farewell at his old school where he announces that, rather than leaving teaching, he has accepted a position at a tough school in South Chicago. The school principal there is Horace Weaver (Daniel J Travanti), an old friend of Mark’s but we learn that Mark has another reason for moving to Chicago: to find the woman he fell in love with over forty years ago in Guyana. The Chicago that Mark enters is almost a war zone with graffiti on all the walls, derelict buildings, gangs fighting on the streets, drugs, knives and guns. At the school Mark volunteers to teach the worst class and faces the same kind of challenges he had confronted, and beaten, in East London with a class of delinquents who in a few months will be leaving school. In the class are gang leader Wilsie Carrouthers (Christian Payton), his brother Arch (L. Z. Granderson), hustler Danny (Fernando Lopez), Rebecca (Casey Lluberes) who only wants to be popular, and the artistic Evie (Dana Eskelson). But, Mark, with his usual firmness, compassion, courage, intelligence and, above all, belief in the young people as adults, gains the respect of the class.

     To Sir, with Love II is a TV movie that was made in 1996 for CBS, thirty years after To Sir, with Love. While Judy Geeson and Lulu have cameos at the start of this film, and “that” song is reprised, the only real constant is Sidney Poitier. To Sir, with Love II has a different director in Peter Bogdanovich and a new writer in Philip Rosenberg, although the film still gives a credit to the author of the original novel E. R. Braithwaite. Perhaps there should have been a credit for the writer / director of the first film James Clavell as the plot of To Sir, with Love II is almost a reworking of To Sir, with Love with Mark confronting social issues and underprivileged kids. It is true that the second film expands the scope of the first; there are far more scenes outside of the classroom especially to do with the gang wars on the streets, there is more violence and guns, knives and drugs that were not present in East London thirty years before; in South Chicago the students have to pass through a metal detector to get into the school. There is also a less homogeneous mix of students in Chicago with white, black, Latino and Italian backgrounds and so the film can, and does, raise issues about identify, respect, sexuality and dealing with violence. But, for all that, Mark displays the same traits, and even repeats some of the same scenarios as in To Sir, with Love with the same results. Where the screenplay of this film deviates, such as the reunion of Mark with his lost love, it becomes very mawkish!

     Sidney Poitier is again excellent as a teacher of will, understanding and integrity, and Christian Payton, Dana Eskelson and Casey Lluberes are also good, although it is Poitier who holds the film together. Director Peter Bogdanovich had a purple patch in the 1970s with the Oscar nominated The Last Picture Show (1971) followed by What’s Up, Doc? (1973) and Paper Moon (1973) after which his star faded. By the time of To Sir, with Love II he was doing TV work; in To Sir, with Love II his work is professional, but nothing special.

     Did we need To Sir, with Love II, a reworking of To Sir, with Love and another story of an inspirational teacher who turns around a class of delinquents and makes them reasonable adults with a future? Probably not, but with the marvellous Sidney Poitier in fine form, aged but definitely unbowed, To Sir, with Love II is far better, and far more entertaining, than it had any right to be.

Video

     To Sir, with Love II is presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, in 1080p, using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     There is nothing special about this print of a TV movie, but nothing wrong either. Interiors and close-ups are strong, colours natural, blacks and shadow detail good, brightness and contrast consistent, skin tones fine. There are no obvious marks or artefacts.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is English Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

     I cannot say that I really noticed anything much in the rears other than a bit of noise during the rowdy class scenes. Other effects, such as gunshots, lacked much by way of depth and the subwoofer was pretty much unused. Dialogue is clear throughout while the original score by Trevor Lawrence is sparsely used. The hit song performed by Lulu gets a short run.

     I did not notice any hiss or distortion.

     Lip synchronisation was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Nothing. The silent menu only offers “Play”.

     There are DVDs of To Sir, with Love II available in the US and UK but as far as Blu-ray is concerned Amazon only lists this Australian Blu-ray of the To Sir, with Love: Complete Collection with includes both To Sir, with Love and To Sir, with Love II.

     While many people may be familiar with To Sir, with Love, and the hit song, this is not the case with To Sir, with Love II, a TV movie made 30 years after the original. Clearly, this second film does not have much of a profile; I could only find one review of a DVD of the film anywhere. With another excellent performance by Sidney Poitier, To Sir, with Love II is far better than I had expected. Fans of the first film, or of Poitier, should enjoy picking this film up as part of the To Sir, with Love: Complete Collection from ViaVision.

     The film looks fine on Blu-ray, the audio is good. No extras of any kind.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall