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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
My way or the highway
1969
Review: April 13, 2006
Director: Ronald Neame
Starring: Maggie Smith, Pamela Franklin, Robert Stephens, Gordon Jackson
Not needed.
THE SETUP:
A charismatic teacher at a girl’s school may be too charismatic.
DISCUSSION:
I had heard about this movie for quite a while, knowing that it starred a young Maggie Smith [known now for her role in the Harry Potter movies and for all those Tea With Mussolini-type things they were pumping out a few years ago], back when she was a sassy young thing, that it was supposed to be somewhat of a gay classic, and that it was supposed to tell a very complicated moral story. One commenter on the IMDb said that they found that they really like Brodie at the beginning of the movie, but really hated her by the end, and that interested me too. I didn’t end up with the same judgement of Brodie’s character, but the film is very rich, deep and ambiguous in its psychology.
Smith plays a teacher at a girl’s school in Edinburgh in 1932. At this time, fascism is just starting in Italy. Brodie is QUITE a character, with her erudite sing-song voice, and indomitable way of approaching life. She sees her mission as a teacher as one of not so much delivering her curriculum, but teaching “her girls” how to approach life and how to comport themselves, and really, WHAT to think.
By now you have enough information to know if you want to watch the movie, and I think it’s a lot better all around if you know as little about it as possible. So if you haven’t seen it I would stop now. From now on I’ll talk about what happens through the movie until the end, so you’ve been warned. But it's very good, a serious drama, and you should watch it.
SPOILERS > > >
Brodie starts getting more and more interference from the headmistress, who doesn’t like the way the “Brodie Girls” are sequestered away from the other students, don’t necessarily learn the proscribed curriculum, and are more precocious than the other girls—all of which Miss Brodie thinks is fabulous. There is a discussion, which turns out to be important, about whether education is a “leading out of what’s already present within,” Brodie’s view, or “a putting in of knowledge,” the headmistresses’ view, which Brodie regards as “intrusive.” Meanwhile, Brodie is rejecting the advances of a painter she used to have an affair with but sees no future with, and courting a rich archery teacher whose grand house she takes the girls to on weekends. This also draws some ire from the headmistress, who regards this [quite rightly] as Brodie shopping for a husband with the girls in tow. Brodie responds to all of this with a mixture of haughtiness and outrage; she is tenured, and has worked at the school much longer than the headmistress, and considers her position unassailable.
What I found most interesting is the development of one of the students, Sandy. She is a bookish one, with big Harry Potter glasses. She is constantly contrasted with Jenny, whose beauty Brodie often goes into loud and long raptures about. At first [the film covers several years in the course of the girl’s time at the school, and creepily, the girls really do seem to age considerably over the course of the film], Sandy quite admires Miss Brodie, and you can see and hear her adoption of Brodie’s opinions and ways of speaking [listen to the perfect imitation she does at one point]. But Sandy begins to realize that Brodie assigns roles to the girls when she first meets them, and the girls can grow into that role, but cannot deviate from it. And from that she realizes that to Miss Brodie doesn’t really see the girls as separate people at all—they’re just little extensions of Miss Brodie, whose purpose is to do nothing but bring further glory to her.
Interestingly, this development is tied strongly to Sandy’s development as a sexual woman. It becomes apparent, at one rather shocking moment, that Brodie is planning on little Jenny, the one she finds so beautiful, taking Brodie’s place in the artists’ bed, leaving her free to pursue the rich archery teacher. This is one of the incidents that make us, as an audience, draw away from Brodie. There is an important scene in which Brodie predicts that Jenny will be a great lover, and Sandy will become a spy, or someone who uses their intellect. Sandy, who has obviously wanted to imitate Miss Brodie, becomes enraged that she is denied the sexual aspect of her character in the eyes of the woman she admires. This, I think, is behind every aspect of the break between them. It is what gives Sandy the realization that Brodie has placed them all into rigid roles, and gives her a clue that Brodie sees everyone else as little mirrors reflecting back herself. Sandy tries to make up for this by sleeping with the painter in Jenny’s place [Jenny was understandably weirded-out by his advances], but stops once she realizes that he will never love anyone but Brodie. Then a tragic event happens that really crystallizes her hatred of Brodie, but I think the real root is this sexual jealousy, wanting to grow up to be just like this mother figure, only to find out she will be denied the adult sexual aspect of her idol. What would Melanie Klein make of all this?
During this time Brodie goes on and on about fascism and fascist leaders, which is a little strange for us to hear, but you have to remember that fascism was just rising at that time and didn’t have all the horrific associations we regard it with today. I was wondering WHAT was with all the many heavy-handed mentions, but it is necessary to both set in motion the aforementioned tragic event, and also to set up the realization that Brodie’s character IS somewhat of a fascist. It’s her way or the highway, though she herself lives under the impression that everyone loves her and that although she forces people to act as she wishes, they all understand that she is right, and agree that her way is the best way.
Yes, it betrays its origins as a stage play, but in the best way: being very carefully written with extremely well-rounded characters. When you're in the mood for a good movie that'll leave you with a lot to think about, this is a good choice.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes. It's very interesting and well-written, and features wonderful performances, especially that of Maggie Smith.
