Bad Education Review

The film "Bad Education" directed by Pedro Almodovar is a very smart film. The film begins in the present where a Enrique is visited be a man who claims to be Enrique's old friend from boarding school, Ignacio. Ignacio has written a script about there childhood and he wants Enrique to make it into a film. Enrique is hesitant at first, until he reads the script. The script tells the story of how Enrique and Ignacio fell in love while attending the same boarding school. The principle, Father Manolo, who is infatuated with Ignacio becomes jealous of their relationship and threatens to expel Enrique because he is a bad influence. Ignacio agrees to do whatever the priests ask so Enrique could stay. Father Manolo molests Ignacio and expels Enrique anyway. After reading this script Enrique agrees to to adapt the script but Ignacio has a condition, that he is to play the part of Zahara. Enrique does not feel that Ignacio is write for the role and is skeptical, until he visits his mothers home and finds out that Ignacio is actually dead and his younger brother, Juan, is impersonating him. After learning about Ignacio, Enrique decides to cast Juan as Zahara. During filming of the movie Father Manolo visits the set and confesses to Enrique that Juan and him were in a relationship and they killed Ignacio. Enrique confronts Juan and Juan gives him a letter that Ignacio was writing just as he died.

The theme that the whole movie floats upon is love. The way that Enrique and Ignacio felt about each other was essential to the story. Ignacio allowed himself to be molested just so Enrique would not be expelled. The final letter that Ignacio wrote was to Enrique. All the relationships in the movie including the one between Juan and Father Manolo were the driving force to the film.

The problem I had with the film was that it jumped around time periods a lot and a times i didn't know which time period we were in. The story was very convoluted and confusing at times. I also felt that some of the more graphic sexual interactions were very unnecessary and the film would have been better without them. However I found the use of bright and vivid colors to be quite refreshing. But because of the mishandled direction of the film the film really misses the opportunity to be a truly great film instead of just average.