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Poster for School Ties

School Ties

Just because you’re accepted doesn’t mean you belong.

1992 · 1h 46m · PG-13 Drama
Directed by Robert Mandel

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Overview

When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
60%
Tomatometer
Rotten

This is a bewildering mixture of fairly accomplished storytelling, awkward contrivances in the script, and lies in the overall conception so egregious they undercut any pretensions the film might have to social seriousness.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Rotten

School Ties has a leafy, genteel look that is somehow less than convincing, perhaps because the hairdos are too tidy and the resemblances to other prep-school stories too clear.

Janet Maslin, New York Times
Rotten

Good intentions go for naught as director Robert Mandel (F/X) pounds home every contrivance in the script by Darryl Ponicsan (Taps).

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Rotten

There's a dramatic imbalance to Dick Wolf and Darryl Ponicsan's screenplay.

Jeanne Cooper, Washington Post
Fresh

School Ties is surprisingly effective.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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