To those who haven't seen it yet this teacher teaches by fear, intimidation, and downright nastiness. As opposed to supportive and positive.
My musician and teacher friends have been discussing that a lot.I wanted to hear people's opinions as to whether or not Fletcher's teaching style, if it was real life, was something he should have got kicked out for.
I also wondered what people think of the line in the movie (paraphrasing)...."Good Job" is one of the most damaging things you can say to a musician. (Complacency, I guess is the reason)
Teaching by fear, intimidation, nastiness...etc. ? IMO that is totally a stupid, uber-ego, power trip and ineffective. It doesn't work, in sports either.
Not seen the movie yet but saw the trailer and that 'good job' line. They did a good job making him look like an arsehole.
My musician and teacher friends have been discussing that a lot.
Here's my take: Greatness comes from within. Just like Fletcher thinks a student destined to become a great won't be discouraged by the abuse he hands out, I don't think an occasional "good job" is going to make that student complacent, either.
I thought the movie was unbelievably corny and had a very Disney feel to it
and not to mention full of misinformation such as the Papa Jo / Parker story that was told
seemed more like a weak script that was way overacted than a quality film to me
I'm disappointed that any viewer of the film will not see the joy of music-making that's almost always a part of large-ensemble rehearsals and performances. Musicians make music because they LOVE music. None of that is really apparent in the film, in my opinion.
In case people haven't seen these: both Peter Erskine and Michael Shrieve have been interviewed about the movie, and weren't real positive about it. I think I'll wait and see if it comes to a beer theater-- it frankly looks godawful to me. Here's the big pull from Erskine's interview:
People love the hell out of it. There seems to be a sadistic thing going on in the culture right now, and maybe the movie is tapping into that. I guess we'll see some bad teachers getting a whole lot worse after seeing this thing-- they'll take it as permission to let their a-hole flag really fly.