tieman64 Though directed by the underrated Martin Ritt, "Conrack" is a generic and overly sentimental "teaching movie". Based on an autobiographical novel, "The Water Is Wide", the film stars Jon Voight as Pat Conroy, a young, idealistic teacher who is assigned to Yamacraw, an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina.As in keeping with the genre, Conroy finds himself thrust into a grim situation (teaching a number of poor, marginalised, black families), is chastised for his unorthodox and inspirational teaching methods, wins the hearts and minds of his students, inspires them to do greater things, and is himself touched by both his students and the "new culture" he has been exposed to. Very few films in the "teaching genre" break free of this template.Surprising for a film by the sensitive and once blacklisted Martin Ritt, "Conrack" is uncomfortably paternalistic and seems unconcerned with the wider, psychic effects of slavery (Conroy's students are "Gullah", descendants of South Carolinan slaves, and have preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage). And like most films which advocate "being non-conformist", "Conrack" is built upon clichés and is itself throughly conformist.6/10 – See "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", Wiseman's "High School" and Laurent Cantet's "The Class". Worth one viewing.

mikelcat I saw Conrack on a night I couldn't sleep and I was never so glad to have insomnia ! This story of a young white teacher who takes a position teaching poor black kids on an island in the Carolina's is a great advertisement for teaching , and for simply helping each other .Set in the early 60s , with the civil rights issues , Viet Nam and all that came with the 60s ,it is forgotten that the Peace Corps and many young people struck out to make a difference helping the unprivileged .Conrack with his open style of teaching is interested in these kids as people , and encourages an honest interaction in his class that scares the power's that be .The greatest part was that Jon Voight said they had a 20 year reunion and 18 of those kids became teachers !! Its enough to make you think we as humans may have a chance to survive ourselves ,maybe , hopefully .See this film .

joedoncook Our America is multi-cultural, with so many sub-cultures. This movie simply tells a story of a snapshot in time within one of these sub-cultures. It is basically an objective look at a group of forgotten people, living their lives oblivious to the rest of the world. Generally, a good movie. It entertained, provoked thought, and showed lives that would not be seen otherwise, right in our own back yard. Should be seen by all. Having lived in the U.S. all my life, I had no idea that there were citizens here that didn't know they were citizens. This movie helps illustrate the diversity of our country by showing this small part of a southern state. The obvious conclusion: If this is really for real, then what else is out there that we know nothing of?

Eyez_of_yoursavior I'm in a film class and i know that i don't know everything about film but truthfully this is one of the worst, stupidest, retarded and waste time, movies that i have ever seen and i saw NAPOLEAN DINAMITE. they are both equally terrible. Conrack is boring and nothing interesting even happens in the film its not really a heart warming story and Pat Conroy overcomes nothing! I'm not saying there should be fighting and crap blowing up but it would liven up this more than bland film. the kids they fond to act in this film may have been the real kids from yammacraux island they sounded stupid and couldn't act as as far as i am concerned this was a stupid idea for a book and an even worse idEa fOr a movie I don't know why this movie was even made, deviantly top five worst movies of all time.