Your Donations support the Site

Buy Cranky stuff


Buy Movie Posters

Top Selling DVD     Books

        BLU-RAY DVDs:
Avatar
Bad Teacher
Batman Begins
Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
Conan the Barbarian
Cowboys and Aliens
Dark Knight
Fifth Element
The Hangover
James Bond 11 disc coll.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars Saga
Super 8
Ultimate Matrix coll
X-Men First Class
X-Men Trilogy
X-Men Wolverine

BLU-Ray for Family DVDs
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Bambi
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chronicles of Narnia set
Coraline
Ghostbusters
Harry Potter 1-8 collection
Iron Man 2 combo
Kung Fu Panda
Lord of the Rings Trilogy Pinocchio
Pirates of Caribbean trilogy
Pixar short films
Ratatouille
Shrek the Whole Story
Sleeping Beauty
The Smurfs combo
Snow White & 7 Dwarfs
Star Trek motion pictures set
Star Wars Saga (1-6)
Toy Story combo
Toy Story 2 combo
Toy Story 3 combo
Wall-E SE

Search engine by FreeFind

click to search site

      Now in Release:
Anonymous
The Artist
Carnage
Change-Up, the
Chasing Madoff
Cook County
Crazy Stupid Love
The Descendants
The Double
50/50
Hanna
Hugo
J Edgar
Killing Bono
Kill the Irishman
Machine Gun Preacher
Melancholia
Mission Impossible GP
The Muppets
Passion Play
Puncture
Rampart
Sherlock Holmes
The Son of No One
Super
That's What I Am
Trust
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
What's Your Number
Winnie the Pooh
Young Adult

Click for full sized poster

The First Grader Starring Naomie Harris and Oliver Litondo Screenplay by Ann Peacock Directed by Justin Chadwick website: http://www.thefirstgrader-themovie.com/

IN SHORT: If the story wasn't true you probably wouldn't believe it. [Rated PG-13. 103 minutes]

All that we know about the history of Kenya is this: nothing. Pretty much all we need to know about the history of Kenya is properly summarized in the screenplay of The First Grader. Onwards...

The FIrst Grader is a pretty good sit recounting a true story (yep, another one of those) that no screnwriter could successfully pitch, were it not true. To wit: The Minister of Education of a newly independent Kenya has declared, in a radio broadcast, that ["all will be given a free education"]. "All" must provide a birth certificate and "all" would be admitted to a school. At the schoolo house setting for this film, 200 children show up to fill its 50 available seats.

Then comes one more student, determined to hold the Minister to his word. He is Maruge (Oliver Litondo), and he is 84 years old. Fifty years of so earlier, he had fought in the uprising against British rule, a tidbit of information that will have ramifications by the film's end (so, of course, we're not spilling). As the film begins, Maruge has received a letter that looks important. He wants to be able to read it for himself. The radio broadcast did say "all will receive a free education". Emphasis on the word all. Maruge may not be able to read but his ears, even at 84, are pretty good.

The local teacher, Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris), tries to gently discourage Maruge. We won't tell the challenges that are placed before the aged man, because how he meets each challenge is half the fun of the film. Maruge is finally admitted but the Minister himself orders the old man expelled from the school. The press, god bless 'em, got wind of the story and the Minster feels that he has been made to look like a fool -- Jane does so, and then comes up with the only viable alternative. She hires Maruge as her teaching assistant.

Maruge may not be able to read, but he has decades of historical knowledge on top of all sorts of tribal histories and songs which, previously, would have brought the disparate tribes of the country to battle. The kidlets know nothing of this and, as we gather, the tribal system has been abolished under new Kenyan law. Again, Maruge's presence makes the Minister look foolish.

The Minister doesn't like looking foolish. 'nuff said.

It is an interesting friendship that develops between teacher and assistant, with running commentary from gentlemen of Maruge's generation who spend their days hanging out at what seems to be a run down general store/bus stop, drinking beer and shooting off their mouths. That's just one of a number of small bits that keep the film interesting to watch.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The First Grader, he would have paid . . .

$6

The First Grader is a well made film that whose only fault, being a British production of a story that should (properly) shame the British is, is that events in Maruge's later life which would have made Americans sit up, were not reproduced on screen. They're reduced to a sentence or two of text and, frankly, that reveal is something we would have really wanted to see. We don't know why the filmmakers stopped short, but they did.