投稿類別： 英文寫作類
篇名：
Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
作者：
鄭暐翰。天主教台北徐匯高級中學。高二智班
陽博元。天主教台北徐匯高級中學。高二智班
黃彥愷。天主教台北徐匯高級中學。高二智班
指導老師：
林文杏老師
Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
I. Introduction
There are many movies with the plot of teacher-student relationship and the teacher as the
protagonist. The movie The Emperor's Club is also one of them, depicting about the interaction
between the teacher William Hundert and his students. A rebellious student Sedgewick Bell
suddenly breaks into the ordinary campus. Sedgewick’s distinctive behavior brings not only adverse
effects on peers but also a challenge in Mr. Hundert’s prosaic teaching career, testing Hundert’s
beliefs and provoking the conflict between teachers and students.
What the film The Emperor's Club attracts our attention is the subtle changes in the teacher’s
image different from that in other similar campus films. We are surprised that this film clarifies a
"good" teacher is not necessary "almighty". The shackle—teachers must be universal—was finally
removed. In this movie, we can see that teachers are mortal—they have pressure and are even
infirm of purpose at some moment. That’s why we raise some questions in this essay: What effect
does a teacher have on students? What is the role a teacher plays in school? Whether should a
teacher expect students to grow into what he wants them to be? Can teachers change students? We
have a discussion and a survey which aims to investigate the students in our class about their
viewpoints on these. Through the discussion and the survey, we present in this essay our
understanding of some viewpoints toward this film.
II. Thesis
1. Plot synopsis
The movie The Emperor's Club is adapted from Ethan Canin’s acclaimed novel The Palace
Thief. (Canin, 2002) William Hundert, the protagonist in this film, is a teacher with noble sentiment
and dedicates himself to education. In addition to his teaching of history, he spares no effort to
develop students’ high quality character because he believes teachers’ mission is not only to impart
knowledge but, much more importantly, to help students cultivate the right attitude and good
character. However, after Sedgewick Bell, the son of an arrogant U.S. Senator, transfers into the
class, his ignorance and sedition causes a great impact on Mr. Hundert’s educational beliefs.
Sedgewick was born in a rich and powerful family; Mr. Hundert is a self-disciplined and strict
teacher. They are obviously not compatible in terms of ideas and personality, and there are always
conflicts in class.
Mr. Hundert doesn’t give up Sedgewick but constantly forgives him with tolerance, even
treating him as her own son. To reshape the problem student, Mr. Hundert makes an important
decision, but this decision has seriously affected his own teaching life. In the school’s Mr. Julius
Caesar Competition, an annual academic contest held to test students' knowledge on their studies in
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
the history of the Greeks and the Romans, Mr. Hundert, as Sedgewick’s teacher, bends the rules in
scoring to favor Sedgewick in the early stages of the contest; however, his faith is betrayed when
Sedgewick is discovered cheating during the contest. Allowing Sedgewick to enter the finals, Mr.
Hundert, at the same time, deprives another student Martin Blythe of his glory. Although Sedgewick
isn’t punished in the end, Mr. Hundert is dealt a heavy blow in his teaching career.
1.1 The motivations of Sedgewick’s improper behavior
What creates Sedgewick’s rebellion partly comes from the background of his family. Perhaps
because his father, a senator with wealthy lineage, owns a higher status in the community, the
school indulges him in making trouble, which makes him feel he is different from other students.
Sedgewick is a smart student; therefore, as long as he works hard, he can be among the best of all.
However, after making efforts to pass several quizzes and being able to be shortlisted, why does he
cheat in the Mr. Julius Caesar Competition? When Mr. Hundert asks Sedgewick why he does that,
Sedgewick coldly answers him back, "Why not?" (Tolkin, 2002) He wonders if Mr. Hundert does
not expose his cheating because of his dad. Thus, he intensifies his effort to try various methods in
doing bad things—mischief, lying, or cheating—to prove that his being treated differently in school
is in relation to his father. It is obvious that he believes the whole school has to make concessions
for the sake of his father’s power.
Sedgewick would like to have a good performance in front of his father but, on the other hand,
does not want to obey him completely. In Sedgewick's values, he does not care about cheating,
being expelled, or dropping out of school but cares about his father’s attitude to him. For example,
after an interview with the teacher, Sedgewick's father calls Sedgewick right away, warns him that
he should know how expensive his tuition is, and asks Sedgewick to remember what he has always
admonished him because he has no time to help him clean up the mess. (Tolkin, 2002) Sedgewick's
father is always looking forward to his son, so he puts excessive expectations on him, leaving him
saddled with a huge sense of responsibility and endless pressure. The failure in the competition
makes Sedgewick lose face in front of his father, so he continues his mischief in school . His scores
in study also keep plummeting; however, at last he is still admitted to Yale University for his
father's lobbying illegally. All of these indirectly make Sedgewick have an unscrupulous attitude to
achieve his purposes.
1.2 The causes of Sedgewick’s improper behavior
A. The deviation of family education
In one’s whole life, education plays an important role and has far-reaching influences,
including not only what teachers teach in schools but also what is instructed by parents at home.
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
One plot in the film impresses us a lot, describing that Mr. Hundert has an interview with
Sedgewick's father. In their conversation, the teacher emphasizes shaping students' upright character
is his belief, but the father responds, “You're not gonna mold my boy. Your job is to teach my
son. You, sir, will not mold my son. I will mold him.” (Tolkin, 2002) Sedgewick's father is a
senator, a position in need of political tactics and deception. He tells Mr. Hundert, “I live in a real
world where people do what they need to do to get what they want. If it is lying, if it is
cheating, then so be it.” (Tolkin, 2002) Actually, Sedgewick's father indirectly teaches him how to
cheat and how to say one thing in front of others but secretly do another behind. That is such a
family environment that creates Sedgewick’s deficient personality.
B. Mr. Hundert’s key decision
Mr. Hundert chooses to believe Sedgewick, from whom he seems to find their similarities in
the childhood—a boy eager to have the concern from his busy father. That’s why he chooses to
understand Sedgewick with love, and thus Sedgewick is admitted to the Mr. Julius Caesar
Competition, which changes Sedgewick and also is the turning point of this play. We are convinced
that Mr. Hundert must question or even regret his decision. At the close of the film, he tells the
grown Sedgewick, “All of us, at some point, are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror and
see who we really are.” (Tolkin, 2002) These words prove that Mr. Hundert never forgets his
defective decision years ago, and he also finds out the answer he is looking for all his teaching
life—his original intention of being a teacher. He realizes that the worth of a life is not
determined by a single failure or a solitary success. He says, “However much we stumble, it is
a teacher's burden always to hope, that with learning, a boy's character might be changed.
And, so, the destiny of a man.” (Tolkin, 2002) Therefore, it is surely not fair to say that it is Mr.
Hundert’s decision leading to Sedgewick’s cheating. At the end of the film, we are glad to see that
Mr. Hundert decides to return to his position, continuing his faith in teaching.
C. Sedgewick’s personality
Sedgewick grows up in a wealthy family. His father, as a senator, is too busy to spare time to
accompany him. Therefore, in the absence of his father, Sedgewick is a lonely “emperor” at home
in his childhood. His conceit, arrogance and self-esteem, coupling with a sense of superiority and
vanity, makes him disregard the school regulations and dogma. He often only cares about his own
likes and dislikes regardless of others’ feelings.
On the surface, Sedgewick has an enviable family; in fact, he understands about the feeling of
being forgotten by family much more than anyone else. Although he is helicoptered to school, he is
more eager to have parents pick up him, like other children. For lack of attention at home,
Sedgewick certainly finds ways to draw the attention of others at school, which is a psychological
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
balance. However, the most likely way to catch others’ attention is to be a mischievous
troublemaker, which is what many students often do consciously or unconsciously. Because "voice
of justice" in hearts is very weak, some of the students do not arouse concern in a positive way—not
to earn the first place in exams or obtain an outstanding performance in study but to achieve their
goals through improper behavior. It is more likely to find this trait especially on children like
Sedgewick. We have to say that he is not incurably bad, but occasionally his behavior deviates from
the usual pattern.
1.3 Survey analysis
After seeing this film, there are many questions in our mind; therefore, we did a survey, which
included statements in a questionnaire to which all our classmates were expected to respond
anonymously. The total number of the questionnaires sent out was 42. All our classmates are aged
sixteen to seventeen in St. Ignatius High School. The analysis of the questionnaire are as follows.
Item
1
Content
In the school’s annual Mr. Julius Caesar Competition, Mr. Hundert, as Sedgewick’s
teacher, bends the rules in scoring to favor Sedgewick in the early stages of the
contest.
Why?
This item is set to be multiple choice; therefore, there are students having two options. From
the figure above, we can find over thirty students think that Mr. Hundert bends the rules in scoring
to favor Sedgewick in the early stages of the contest out of his preference for him. On one hand, it
can be comprehended that most of the students are prone to have the concept that teachers always
have preference for some “special” students. On the other hand, the respondents think Mr. Hundert
wants to give Sedgewick a chance to prove his own ability and to be proud of himself, which can be
found in some of our classmates’ opinions in the questionnaire.
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
Item
2
Content
Is it a correct decision that Mr. Hundert makes Sedgewick enter the finals and at the
same time deprives another student Martin Blythe of his glory?
Over thirty of our respondents do
not think it is a correct decision that Mr.
Hundert sacrifices Martin Blythe to let
Sedgewick enter the finals, which is just
as we anticipate. However, what makes
us astonished is that there are nine
choosing Yes, and we find one
interesting reason written in the
questionnaire is that Sedgewick seems
more clever than Martin Blythe, so it is correct that Mr. Hundert gives him the chance to participate
in the final contest.
Item
3
Content
Sedgewick is a smart student. As long as he works hard, he can be among the best of
all. However, after making efforts to pass several quizzes and being able to enter the
shortlist, why does he cheat in Mr. Julius Caesar Competition?
This item is also set to be multiple choice; therefore, there are students having two or three
options. We find that almost half of our respondents think the reasons why Sedgewick cheats in the
contest are due to his opportunistic characters or his desires to have a good performance in front of
his father. Fourteen of our classmates believe Sedgewick's cheating to win is to meet Mr. Hundert’s
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
expectation.
2. Further Discussion
Pygmalion Effect is an important discovery of modern teaching research, meaning that if
teachers identify students as “gifted” ones, even if they are not actually gifted, after encouraged,
eventually they will become gifted students. (Frederic, 2010) In other words, how children are
expected affects the good or the bad of their achievement. In the journal Education Parenting
Family Lifestyle, Mr. Wang says that if parents have high expectations for children, children will
exhibit high ability. Contrarily, if children are often called stupid, they will be getting increasingly
stupid. (Wang, 2009)
In the film, we can find Pygmalion Effect, as well as the teaching attitude that teachers stand
by students, which offers viewers a wide range of thinking about education, about humanity, and
about values. Therefore, in our questionnaire, we also have a survey about that if teachers can
properly apply Pygmalion Effect in the classroom,
will there be a great opportunity to effectively
inspire enterprising spirit in students? The figure
shows the result of our survey among classmates.
More than half of them believe the more teachers
encourage students, the better they will do in study.
However, we also find that twelve persons have
different opinions, and their reasons are many, one
of which is that it depends on what students are
requested to achieve and whether they own the capability to achieve the goals. That is, they are a
little bit unsure about their abilities.
III. Conclusion
In this movie, we can see a principled teacher’s persistence, regret, and even dilemma in his
teaching. In class, Mr. Hundert has ever roughly translated what Aristophanes, a comic playwright
of ancient Athens, wrote, “ Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated,
and drunkenness sobered, but STUPID lasts forever.” (Tolkin, 2002) The grown Sedgewick
seems successful in his life, his family, and even in his future political career; however, in our
estimation, he is definitely stupid because at the end of the film he still refuses to admit what he
does is wrong. It is thought that the fault twenty five years ago will be corrected in later years, but
what Sedgewick does in this film tells us it will not. We just have to say that being stupid has
neither benefit, nor any explanation to justify being stupid.
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
Sedgewick cheats twice on the same thing, even with no repentance, which makes Mr. Hundert
feel extremely depressed and have a profound sense of failure in education. However, we are
convinced that although Mr. Hundert fails with Sedgewick, he succeeds in molding other students.
There is no need to despise his educational philosophy because of such a frustration, just like the
touching quotes on the plaque other students send Mr. Hundert: “A great teacher has little
external history to record. His life goes over into other lives. These men are pillars in the
intimate structure of our schools. They are more essential than its stones or beams, and they
will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power in our lives.” (Tolkin, 2002) After
seeing this movie, we are eager to have such a teacher as Mr. Hundert and really admire him from
the bottom of our hearts.
IV. References
1. 王文華(2009)。孩子不愛閱讀，怎麼辦。親子天下雜誌 Education‧Parenting Family Lifestyle
5期。台北市：天下雜誌群
2. Canin, Ethan (2002). The Palace Thief: Stories. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
3. Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, McBrewster John (2010). Pygmalion Effect. New York:
VDM Publishing House Ltd.
4. Tolkin, Neil (2002). The Emperor's Club: The Shooting Script. New York: Newmarket Press.
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Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
V. Appendixes
Dear respondents:
We are all eleventh graders in St. Ignatius Senior High School. This is a survey toward the
movie The Emperor's Club. Your valuable opinions will become an important basis of this study
data. All your answers to the questionnaire will only be served as academic research purposes.
Thank you for filling out this questionnaire.
Students:
Zheng Wei-Han
Yang Bo-Yuan
Huang Yan-Kai
…………………………………………..………………………………………..……………………
I. Background information :
All our respondents will be students aged sixteen to seventeen who have seen the movie The
Emperor's Club.
II. Contents of the questionnaire :
1.
In the school’s annual Mr. Julius Caesar Competition, Mr. Hundert, as Sedgewick’s teacher,
bends the rules in scoring to favor Sedgewick in the early stages of the contest. Why?
(Multiple Choice)
□ Because of Mr. Hundert’s preference for Sedgewick
□ Because of the background of Sedgewick’s family
□ Others
Reasons: _________________________________________________________________
2.
Is it a correct decision that Mr. Hundert makes Sedgewick enter the finals and at the same time
deprives another student Martin Blythe of his glory?
□ Yes.
□ No.
Reasons: _________________________________________________________________
3.
Sedgewick is a smart student. As long as he works hard, he can be among the best of all.
However, after making efforts to pass several quizzes and being able to enter the shortlist, why
does he cheat in Mr. Julius Caesar Competition?
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(Multiple Choice)
Reflections On The Movie The Emperor's Club
□ Because of Sedgewick’s opportunistic characters.
□ Because Sedgewick wants to have a good performance in front of his father.
□ Because of Mr. Hundert’s expectation.
□ Others
Reasons: _________________________________________________________________
4.
Further Discussion: Pygmalion Effect
If teachers can properly apply Pygmalion Effect in the classroom, will there be a great
opportunity to effectively inspire enterprising spirit in students?
□ Yes.
□ No.
□ Others.
Reasons: _________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your valuable opinions !
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