Emperor’s Club

Previews for The Emperor’s Club may leave the impression that it’s Dead Poets Society repackaged for a new generation. Don’t allow those previews to cheat you out of this rewarding morality tale that’s based on a short story by Ethan Canin.

Arthur Hundert (Kevin Kline) is the best sort of teacher: demanding but fiercely devoted to his students, starchy and formal in the classroom but willing to intervene when he sees someone foundering. Students may enjoy teachers, for a time, who act more as peers than as professors. But when students become adults—working for a living and understanding the consequences of their youthful choices—they look back on the toughest teachers with the greatest respect and affection.

The Emperor’s Club unfolds at a leisurely pace, which is a peculiar touch in a film about the highly competitive world of New England prep schools. Mr. Hundert encourages Sedgewick Bell (Joel Gretsch), the unruly and neglected son of a senator (Harris Yulin), to strive for something more than being the class clown. Hundert’s efforts seem to work, but in time he faces an ethical dilemma that will echo through decades.

Despite its privileged setting, The Emperor’s Club tells a story of character and virtue that crosses class lines. Kline’s performance is understated and disciplined, offering the right measure of regrets and self-doubts. His students, while representing an almost predictable cross-section of young American men, ultimately represent the different ways of negotiating not only school but also the rest of life.

Michael Apted’s documentary series, which began with 7 Up and followed British students into their early 40s, has shown just how much our childhood portends what our adulthood will be like. The Emperor’s Club achieves the same effect through its storytelling.

Douglas LeBlanc edits The CT Review.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

What Other Critics Are Saying

Another ponderous movie about ethics and virtue is already in the box office Top Ten this week. The Emperor’s Club is as traditional in its structure and style as any film currently playing, and it is drawing cheers from audiences even as it divides critics.

Director Michael Hoffman’s movie stars Kevin Kline as Mr. Humbert, a teacher of classics at a boy’s school. Humbert’s responsibilities extend beyond the classroom; he’s also busy enforcing strict codes of behavior that encourage unruly boys to become virtuous and educated men. While most such movies make a hero of the boy who dares to break the rules and “seize the day,” Mr. Humbert dares to teach his students the value of structure and formality and the damaging results of straying beyond the rules. Thus, the film looks a lot like Dead Poets’ Society in some ways, but thematically it works as its opposite.

The “rebel” is Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch), the young son of an arrogant and cruel Senator. Bell is a spoiled brat who thinks he owns the world and plans to introduce his “oppressed” fellow students to the wicked pleasures of pornography and playing with “bad girls.” Humbert takes it upon himself to teach Bell the error of his ways, but in doing so he himself is tempted to break the rules. Thus we watch the consequences of these choices play out in both characters’ lives, leading to a surprisingly bittersweet conclusion.

Ken James (Christian Spotlight) raves, “The Emperor’s Club … raises questions about situation ethics, morality, and right and wrong. It’s the perfect film for teachers, students, and parents who wish to start discussions that can influence one another for good.” He calls it “a marvelous piece. Each of the cast and crew members I spoke with talked of the passion that brought everyone together to help see this project to completion.”

Perhaps talking with the cast and crew about their passion increased James’s estimation of the film. Watching it without such privileges, I found the film ambitious in its storytelling and bold in its determination to buck the trend and teach the value of obedience, discipline, and virtue. But the film was so busy hurling platitudes and preachy lessons at the audience like a hail of mushy snowballs that I was left cold and eager for the ending. In Kline’s unnecessary and annoying voice-over narration, he says, “This is a story without surprises.” He might have added that it is also heavy-handed and sentimental.

Further, Hoffman’s stodgy direction stifles the skills of Kevin Kline, failing to make him an engaging central character. Young Bell is such a barrel of “rebel” clichés that he seems nothing more than a plot device included to teach us lessons. The short story on which the film is based, "The Palace Thief" by Ethan Canin, reportedly a more rewarding version of this story. My full review is at Looking Closer.

Mike Hertenstein (Cornerstone) compares Canin’s story to the film. “The original short story … has everything The Emperor’s Club lacks: nuance, irony, freshness, and a subtle and complex interplay of the ideal and the real. Michael Tolkin’s screenplay strips every bit of character and thematic shading, creating cardboard saints and villains.”

He also compares the underlying Romantic philosophy of Dead Poets’ Society with the Classical perspective favored in The Emperor’s Club, and the way that the quality of the two films greatly differs. “Dead Poets is much more artful. Emperor’s Club, on the other hand, is entirely bereft of both heart and head. The film predictably demonizes Romanticism, but unlike Dead Poets, the portrayal of its favored point of view is entirely unconvincing: smarmy, conventional symbols without conviction, originality or life – a great argument, in fact, for ditching class and sneaking off to the woods to make barbaric yawps.”

Gerri Pare (Catholic News) is more impressed: “This is the rare movie that is centered on ethics. Issues of personal and professional integrity couldn’t be more topical at a time when polls indicate many students are willing to cheat, most employees call in sick when they aren’t, and corporate leaders have knowingly misled their investors and employees. The movie may look dated but the moral issues are timeless. And it has much to recommend it in addition to its important message.”

Holly McClure (Crosswalk) is enthusiastic, calling it “brilliant! Kline gives a masterful performance that is truly Oscar-worthy in one of the best films this year! Parents, this is a story that will resonate with your pre-teens, your teenagers and even your young twenty-somethings (as well as with you). So make this an opportunity to take your adolescent or teenager to see this movie and discuss it with them afterwards. Ask what he or she would do if faced with the same dilemmas and find out if they know a fellow classmate that behaves like Bell.”

Sister Rose Pacatte (The Tidings) says the film “is not your typical teacher-school-student film, because the hero, is, at best, flawed. The audience wants him to be perfect, but he is not. If you like well-acted films that ask more questions that they answer, if you are a seeker or lover of wisdom, or both, then by all means see The Emperor’s Club. It will give you much to talk about. The film presents a large canvas on which to exercise one’s ethical and moral imagination, where philosophy and divine revelation can meet.”

David Bruce (Hollywood Jesus) offers excerpts from an interview with Michael Hoffman, whose father was a revivalist minister.. “If there ever was a film that was perfectly suited to Michael Hoffman this is it. Interestingly enough, it is about a scholar who loves classic literature, just like he does. Additionally, the underlying story is the Biblical story of Paradise Lost, a story that his Methodist grandfather preached many times.”

Cliff Vaughn (Ethics Daily) writes, “Club is worth seeing. It has some light-hearted moments, doses of ancient proverbial wisdom, a good musical score by James Newton-Howard and fine performances. Most of all, its themes of ethical behavior and virtuous living have perhaps never been more relevant to a culture.”

Movieguide‘s critic doesn’t think the movie is preachy enough. “While the final message of the movie is of a redemptive nature and applies Godly principles, it misses the mark by not even giving lip service to the One who personifies the Truth so highly valued.” Thus he says it “should be approached with some caution.”

Bob Smithouser (Focus on the Family) calls it a “frustrating near-miss” but he disqualifies it because the rebel is portrayed as … well … rebellious. He says it “contains amazing lessons about life. It esteems honesty and integrity. As good as this film is at times, it trips over its toga by including senseless profanity, sexual slang and abrasive misuses of Jesus’ name.”

Mainstream critics argued over the film’s strengths, but most agree that it relies to heavily on sentimentalism and sermonizing. Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) says, “Hoffman sprays on the tears like a toxic mist. Avoid like the plague.” But Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) says, “Kline does a welcome, restrained job. Emile Hirsch … makes an excellent son of privilege; Harris Yulin channels the chutzpah of LBJ to steal his scenes as a senator for whom ethics are frills for sissies.”

The Emperor’s Club also drew more raves from Christian press critics this week. Denny Wayman and Hal Conklin (Cinema in Focus) call it “a clear message for a world in search of moral answers to the complex problems we face. When completed by living with a faith in God, it is a message that could change the future as we build on the lessons of the past.”