Dead Poets’ Society was on the other day, and it started me thinking about films.
My initial thought was that Hollywood sure makes a lot of movies that include prep school as a major component, particularly given the small percentage of society that actually goes away to school.
To some extent I thought it could can be explained by the following factors: 1) “coming of age” has always been a fruitful source of material for filmmakers; 2) college prep schools produce a lot of writers, they write what they know, some of them go to Hollywood; 3) boarding schools have tremendous facilities that make great locations for filming.
When I started looking, however, I did not find that many movies that featured a boarding school idea as a major component of the movie and that were filmed on location at a school. Moreover, most of them seem to be either set in the past or military schools. Not really much on modern boarding school life.
Here is my list:
A Separate Peace (1972) - Exeter
Taps (1981) - Valley Forge Military Academy
Dead Poets’ Society (1989) - St. Andrews
Toy Soldiers (1991) - Miller School
School Ties (1992) - Middlesex
Scent of a Woman (1992) - Emma Willard
The Emperor’s Club (2002) - Emma Willard
Coming Through the Rye (2015) - Woodberry Forest
St. Andrew’s was featured in The West Wing…in a flashback as the boarding school where the fictional President Bartlett attended (and where his father was head of school).
Also, Masters has been used as a setting in at least one Law & Order episode. And more than one music video.
Though it was panned, and, worse, not filmed at Choate, have to mention “The Preppie Connection”, released just after my birthday this year. It is based on the Derek Oatis incident. The 17-year-old attended Choate in 1984, when he collected $5000 from other students to purchase cocaine in Venezuela and was arrested on his return at Kennedy airport, with his girlfriend. They and twelve others were expelled, while a judge passed up giving a fifteen-year sentence, instead assigning Oatis five years probation and 5000 hours of community service. Oatis is now a lawyer in Connecticut. He got his first job out of law school when his employer dismissed the criminal action as a not-so-bad mistake.
One might argue that many of the films listed above feature a prep school where the privileged learn to take their places in society, and a transgression of some sort occurs. This story/film is an interesting commentary on that theme, and the eighties, as Oatis was a day student from a lower middle-class family whose Dodge Dart, with rust holes, was the object of snark in the student newspaper after their first Parents Weekend. Oatis himself, today, views his light sentence as having been a benefit of having white skin, a repentant tone, and an appealing mother who cried uncontrollably, all of which softened the judge.
Interesting about the factors that make prep school objects for films. The moreso if you include fictional prep schools and can include films such as “Rushmore”.
I love the caption under the first photo in the linked article above:
I’ve never heard anyone say they went to the ultra-fancy Choate Rosemary Hall. I might start using that just to see the response: “After graduating from the ultra-fancy Choate Rosemary Hall, my kid joined the army.” Nah, I couldn’t keep a straight face. But how about these threads: “Chance me for the ultra-fancy CRH” or “Ask questions about the ultra-fancy CRH.” Too hilarious.
“Goats” was filmed partially at Taft. From a news article “This is not the first time that Taft has been featured on the big screen. In recent years Taft has also stood in for University of Wisconsin, Madison, in “Away We Go” with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph (2009) and Georgetown in “College Road Trip” with Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone (2008).”
According to Wikipedia, “In addition, Groton School, Worcester Academy, Lawrence Academy at Groton and St. Mark’s School (all area prep schools) were also involved in the filming (of School Ties.)”
I was at Kent (class of '85) when that Choate (Coke Rosemary Hall) incident went down…it was a pretty big deal, especially given the lack of social media/internet whatever you want to call it.
My husband was at The Hill when the Choate stuff went down. In typical oblivious fashion, when I was talking about it having read it on this forum, his reply was OH! THAT’s why they referred to them at Coke Nosemary Hall.
