To understand juvenile delinquency, it is prudent to take keen details in events depicted in Richard Brooks’ directed film; the Blackboard Jungle. The film tells a vicious story of hooliganism among students in a high school. Brooks represents his time in the 1950’s as violent and full of juvenile delinquency, as it was about the time the Second World War had ended. Brooks says that these changes were produced by the obsession in the 1950s to nightlife and rock and roll among the youth that was widespread across America and Europe which was encouraged by the media. Brooks portrays the youth of that time as spoilt, undisciplined, lazy, uncontrollable and violent. The intergenerational relationship was not smooth either as youths were denounced for being rude, spendthrift, performing dismally in school and lacking respect to the elderly. The film incorporates cinematic techniques by using the song Rock around the Clock during its production. The ideas and theme in Blackboard Jungle are detectable in today’s youths as they still struggle with juvenile delinquencies and consequently have an effect on parental authority. The film also has a political ideology that focuses on racism as a topic that sparked controversy in the America of the time, and the role of each race in the society. This film can be used as a tool on how to deal with adolescents, and youth delinquency as it is a delicate issue which needs adequate attention.
The post-second world war American society had experienced massive transformation in terms of social values unlike the pre-war society as depicted by Richard Brook in his film; the Blackboard Jungle . The obsession of popular media at the time has reached its height thereby having a negative effect on the youth of the time. He talked about a society that had a good number of young, vibrant people who were not shy to spend money in theatres, pubs, and music. These activities were blamed for promoting under-age sex, violence, theft among other vices. Business people were blamed for their unscrupulous ways to make profits by feeding innocent teenagers with dirty media at the expense of the youth’s lives. These were some of the activities that characterized the 1950s, a time when rock and roll were heating up, hence resulting to moral decay, and juvenile delinquency in the lives of most American teenagers resulting to the public outcry of religious institutions and civil rights groups.
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It has always been said that the future of America is in its children. In the film, Brooks talks of unruly youth who were rebellious, for instance, West, who did not heed to Mr. Richard Dadier’s orders and authority in class, went to the extent of stabbing him with a switchblade knife. West was also unruly by his actions of sending deceiving letters to Mr. Dadier’s wife perpetuating lies about his infidelity with Mrs. Hammond Such behavior was attributed to the postwar effect of declining family cohesion, resulting to the collapse values replacing it with consumerism especially from the media. In this film, Brooks shows how the plight of the youth to be a horrible one. The youth identified themselves with flamboyant clothing, rowdy behavior full of violence. For instance school boys in Blackboard Jungle involving themselves in carjacking and mugging. This fuelled the level of crime all across America.
The youth of the time were depicted to embracing the culture of immorality, and greed that were not in pre-war America. This could have been attributed to the vacuum that was created after the Second World War due to the disorganized family setting that disrupted the inculcation of values from the parents to their children. There wasn't a tight bond regarding inter-generational relations as the society had become amoral and full of pop. The obedience that children had for their parents was replaced by rudeness and rebellion (Kael, 1966) . The media was the only channel left that dictated the morals of the youth, thereby leading to juvenile delinquency. But the media failed to use the opportunity appropriately, and instead focused on feeding the youth with inappropriate channels, movies, and advertisements which were only aimed at making profits. This further affected the relations between the youth and the elderly as youth delinquency had reached a level which was uncontrollable. This could be part of the reason Why Brooks film depicts a scenario where thirty-five students had ganged up against one teacher. Besides that, they lacked respect and went to the extent of beating their teachers mercilessly for punishing one of them.
Post-War America was a society that could be fed on anything, there wasn’t much censorship on content display, and hence the effect on the audience was adverse. This is not to say that Brooks misguided his audience by the narrative techniques, and cinematic techniques that he used to pass his points in his film the Blackboard Jungle (Kael, 1966) . He used the rock and roll song Rock Around the Clock to rather suggest the pop culture of the time rather than promote adult life to teenagers. The incorporation of the song was also financially beneficial to the rock band as it sold millions in volumes of albums. Brooks used cinematic and visual techniques to highlight the misbehavior of teenagers rather than providing examples for teenagers to copy. This, he did not to promote juvenile delinquency, but to castigate and abhor in a visual format.
The film Rock around the Clock depicts a political environment that was taking shape in America after the Second World War. Brooks illustrates this, first of all by the use of rock music which was acquainted with the white race. This was so because not many black people associated themselves with rock and roll. Brooks showed racism in his film where Mr. Dadier is summoned by Principal Warneke for being accused of using racist remarks targeted on Miller, who was one of the black students in his class. Later on, as Mr. Dadier was confronting Miller, he called him black but apologized immediately (Perlstein, 2000) . The unification of white and black students in class showed that both races could cooperate harmoniously in politics and social welfare. Nevertheless, black students were less rowdy compared to white students. Although the political class castigated the movie for misguiding the youth, it acted as a tool to cool down racial segregation in post-war America as it displayed images of cohesiveness among black and white students.
The theme and scenes used in the Rock around the Clock film are still applicable and relevant to the experience of young people in America today. The theme which revolves around juvenile delinquency is relevant today as most teenagers, in that age group, become rebellious and engage in unruly behaviors that do not conform to social rules. The film showed how young people's behavior was being controlled by the media, which is still the case as teenagers in America want to imitate Hollywood characters regarding behavior and dressing. Today, unlike the 1950s, with the advancement in technology through the internet, it has become more complex to restrict what teenagers are being exposed to thereby there isn’t much difference in morality like in the youth illustrated in Rock around the Clock film. The youth in America today are also disobedient to parental authority and seem to defy rules thereby posing a challenging task to parenthood.
It is without a doubt that teenage hood is a challenging period for both parents and young people as this is the period teenagers want to define their independence without knowing the effects that come with it. In his film Rock around the Clock, Richard Brooks uses the school setting to show a theme of juvenile delinquency and the adverse effects that come with it (Perlstein, 2000) . The film was directed by Brook and was rolled out for viewing in 1955 post-war America. The aftermath of the Second World War not only had an effect on the economy but also to the social norms as the war disrupted the organization of the family hence leaving most young people with no guiding figure other than the media which corrupted their morals for profits. The film was a hit and a favorite among high school students which drew criticism from various quarters who called for its banning. This was so because it was accused of promoting the rock and roll culture which was going against social norms in terms of dressing, violence, and alcohol and drug abuse. The theme depicted in the film is still relevant in today’s experience of young people who are going through adolescent. The intention of Brooks doing the video was not to promote but to identify instances of juvenile delinquencies and how to manage it, same way Mr. Dadier never gave up until he transformed his class. Rock around the Clock film is a great tool for both parents and young people who can use it as a tool to avoid societal vices, and embrace social norms that are geared towards a brighter future for the youth and the country. Therefore, the film Rock around the Clock urges young people to shun juvenile delinquencies, but rather engage in self-betterment virtues.
Reference
Perlstein, D. (2000). Imagined authority: Blackboard Jungle and the project of educational liberalism. Paedagogica historica , 36 (1), 407-424.
Kael, P., & Dold, S. (1966). I lost it at the movies (pp. 298-311). New York: Bantam Books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ZD63y9tKQ&t=83s
