School Ties
Short description
Set in the 1950s, School Ties follows David Greene, a working-class Jewish teenager who is recruited to a prestigious New England preparatory school for his football talent. The school's leadership wants him on the team, but expects him to keep his religion to himself. David settles in quickly, makes friends and becomes a star athlete, yet he is aware that the values held by many around him leave little room for someone like him. When his background becomes known, the acceptance he enjoyed turns into hostility from classmates who once welcomed him.
Robert Mandel directed the film, the third of four features he made, following Independence Day and F/X and preceding The Substitute. Darryl Ponicsan and Dick Wolf wrote the screenplay, and Stanley R. Jaffe and Sherry Lansing produced it for Paramount. Brendan Fraser plays David, with Matt Damon as Charlie Dillon, Chris O'Donnell as Chris Reece, Randall Batinkoff, Andrew Lowery and Cole Hauser among the supporting cast. The production cost about 18 million dollars and took in roughly 15 million worldwide, a modest return.
Audiences have been kinder to the film than critics. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from around 29,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.5 from roughly 450. The critics' rating of 6.2 from forty reviews places it below both audience scores, though the gap is small. The film remains best known for bringing Fraser and Damon together early in their careers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Money was paid to the owners of some buildings in Groton, Massachusetts, to bring the buildings into proper condition for filming.
- The plot is based on the recollections of producer and screenwriter Dick Wolf.
- Brendan Fraser later recounted that the fight in the shower was filmed for so long that the hot water ran out. The actors had to continue filming under streams of cold water.
- McGivern struggles with reading the French translation of the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by English poet John Keats (1795-1821) in class.
- In the chapel, David recites the Avinu Malkeinu prayer, asking the Lord for atonement.
- Due to tense relations between African Americans and Caucasians, the night training scene had to be reshot several times. When the director allowed the players to “play for real,” a real brawl broke out on the field, with Brendan Fraser and Matt Damon at the center of it. This episode was filmed in Twentynine Palms, California.
- The scenes on campus were filmed on the grounds of Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Offering their services to the filmmakers, the school administration had no idea about the plot of the future film.
- The film was released in France under the title Le College d'Elite. The French teacher, Mr. Cliari, who harassed MacGyver, was replaced by the Italian Signor Rinaldi. All the French dialogue was re-recorded in Italian.
- The scene at the bus station was filmed near a store in Leominster, Massachusetts. The building once housed a railway station, and its appearance fully corresponded to the filmmakers' idea of what an old bus station should look like. Repairs were carried out inside the building as payment for its use.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
