Heaven Help Us

Education is a big part of our lives, from the moment that we're born to the day we die, our minds are constantly learning new things. But it's the teenage years that society try's to push as much as possible on us, and no matter which form we're taught with we always think that we have it tougher than other people. This film examines a Catholic boys school in Brooklyn during the 1960s and all of the pressures that went a long with being a teenager during those times. With a stellar cast that includes Donald Sutherland and Andrew McCarthy the audience is shown a very realistic view of the education that the Catholic faith was dishing out n the 60s.
A Catholic education at St. Basil's is grueling for the students but the Brothers have to work twice as hard in order to this new batch of students in line. At the time that this film originally came out it was amazing to see the strong young talent that was blossoming on the screen. With a strong storyline and the director, Michael Dinner, who shot the scenes with an authentic eye, the audience is shown a slice of life in the 60s that isn't usually talked about. The performances from the younger members of the cast show how the versatility they are within their craft, since each character goes through life affirming changes we get to see these actors shine in a more down to Earth roles.
This film falls into my classification of a guilty pleasure film, it wasn't a huge success and where the subject matter is very specific the target audience was to small to bring the film to the forefront of the general public, but I love watching it for the Catholic comedy and the sly way it looks at religion. With the star power that was gathered for this film I'm sure the studio thought that there would have been more attention paid to it but when this film was released in 1985 the audience attention was already turning away from nostalgic films that were to specific in their subject matter. This film can be classified in a number of different categories comedy, drama, nostalgic, however you want to look at it it's fun to watch and to see these young actors before their careers sky-rocketed is a treat in itself.