Deucedly Perceptive.
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
---------------------------------------------------------
This is a superb film regarding a narcissistic woman who damages the lives
of the teenage girls entrusted to her care. She betrays the trust of the
school that employs her as a teacher --- and the parents who haven't the
foggiest notion of what she is doing to their children.
The hero is the principal (Celia Johnson) who does what she can do to put
a
stop to the destructive misbehavior of Miss Jean Brodie.
Our villain is so morally and intellectually bankrupt that she even
worships
the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. In Miss Brodie's warped elitist
view
of the universe, this misplaced adulation is evidence of her being in
one's
prime. She eventually gets one of her more naive and trusting "Brodie
Girls" killed. And yet, the tragic death fails to deter her from causing
further harm.
The woman is truly a parent's worst nightmare. Maggie Smith excellently
portrays this less than admirable individual. Her Academy Award for best
actress is well deserved.
There is one more point that I feel compelled to add.
Some people mistakenly believe that totalitarian dictators gain power by
focusing on the conversion of the masses.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The masses are of secondary
importance. Mussolini, Castro, Stalin, and other ruthless thugs find it
initially necessary to seduce middle class, pseudo-intellectuals like Miss
Jean Brodie.
These "useful idiots" lay the ground work for the horror that inevitably
follows.
David Thomson
