We watched this at home on DVD. We both enjoyed the movie.
It is about a young Jewish student from Newark, NJ. It is 1951, in the shadow of the Korean War, and he goes off to college to a conservative school in Ohio. He is a serious student, very intelligent and very sure of his stance on assorted issues. Like religion, even though his upbringing is Jewish he considers himself an Atheist.
INDIGNATION: anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment.
And that is largely what the story is about. The student is Logan Lerman as Marcus. He wants to be left alone, his two roommates are annoying, and he also finds the Jewish fraternity guys annoying, he wants nothing to do with them. He wants to spend his time on study and work, he has no time for frivolous pursuits.
For me the highlight of the whole movie is the scene in the office of the Dean of Men who called Marcus in for a chat after Marcus requested a different room. The thrust of the Dean's discussion is if young Marcus always flees disagreement instead of working things out, a skill needed in the real world. As the DVD extra points out, this scene runs rather long, about 13 pages of script, where the usual guidance limits a scene to about 3 pages of script. But the scene works wonderfully, we get to peek inside young Marcus and see what really makes him tick. Both actors, Lerman and Tracy Letts as Dean Caudwell, are remarkably good.
The love interest is played by Sarah Gadon as very pretty student Olivia Hutton, who takes a liking to young Marcus and shows him some of the less obvious pleasures of boy-girl encounters.
Overall a very fine movie with superb acting.
SPOILERS: The movie actually opens and closes in the present time, an older Olivia is in a special care facility, as we saw in the 1950s she had some emotional issues and slit her wrists at least once. Back in 1950s young Marcus objected to the requirement that he accumulate at least 40 hours in Chapel, and eventually paid someone to go for him and fill out the card with Marcus' name. But they were both caught, Marcus was expelled, he entered the draft and was killed in Korea.
It is about a young Jewish student from Newark, NJ. It is 1951, in the shadow of the Korean War, and he goes off to college to a conservative school in Ohio. He is a serious student, very intelligent and very sure of his stance on assorted issues. Like religion, even though his upbringing is Jewish he considers himself an Atheist.
INDIGNATION: anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment.
And that is largely what the story is about. The student is Logan Lerman as Marcus. He wants to be left alone, his two roommates are annoying, and he also finds the Jewish fraternity guys annoying, he wants nothing to do with them. He wants to spend his time on study and work, he has no time for frivolous pursuits.
For me the highlight of the whole movie is the scene in the office of the Dean of Men who called Marcus in for a chat after Marcus requested a different room. The thrust of the Dean's discussion is if young Marcus always flees disagreement instead of working things out, a skill needed in the real world. As the DVD extra points out, this scene runs rather long, about 13 pages of script, where the usual guidance limits a scene to about 3 pages of script. But the scene works wonderfully, we get to peek inside young Marcus and see what really makes him tick. Both actors, Lerman and Tracy Letts as Dean Caudwell, are remarkably good.
The love interest is played by Sarah Gadon as very pretty student Olivia Hutton, who takes a liking to young Marcus and shows him some of the less obvious pleasures of boy-girl encounters.
Overall a very fine movie with superb acting.
SPOILERS: The movie actually opens and closes in the present time, an older Olivia is in a special care facility, as we saw in the 1950s she had some emotional issues and slit her wrists at least once. Back in 1950s young Marcus objected to the requirement that he accumulate at least 40 hours in Chapel, and eventually paid someone to go for him and fill out the card with Marcus' name. But they were both caught, Marcus was expelled, he entered the draft and was killed in Korea.