By Ruel S. De Vera
Associate Editor

I NEVER quite understood the saying “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” For one thing, I consider teaching on any level to be one of the most difficult disciplines to learn. Those who aren’t up to snuff simply will not last more than a couple of years at the job. The challenge isn’t just about instruction skill—though classroom presence and technique matter immensely—but about compassion.

One of the most significant discoveries of teachers who endure is how to care just enough about the students. You need to care enough to want to see each one succeed, not let them get lost in the multitude of faces and students numbers—and yet not fall into the trap of taking each student’s story personally. There is no easier or quicker way to burn out than trying to be everything to all.

The vocation of “saving” students is not exactly part of the job description. What should be is to inspire. I honestly believe that the worst students make for the best teachers, because they know what the students are really thinking, and not just the smart and eager ones. The unlikely ones often become the longest-lasting ones.

Teachers get their techniques from all kinds of places. I think it’s invaluable to be interesting in the classroom, to be able to hold their attention. I found my style after perusing a lot of standup comedy, of Letterman and Leno, Robin Williams and Mitch Hedberg, and of course, the great Rex Navarette. A good grasp of “Shaider” and “Bioman” helps as well. I always thought the next step would be to learn to make balloon animals, do magic tricks and maybe eat fire. Let’s see the students sleep through that.

Seriously though, people often develop their personal grasp on what teachers are and do from the movies they watch. Because of the nature of what teachers do, they are a favorite of movie makers. But the different movies often present different teachers and thus different teaching styles. Here are some examples:

1) “Dead Poets Society”: I put this first because it’s usually what other people mention as their favorite movie about a teacher. Sad to say, I have never seen it in its entirety. Yes, I know, horrible. But what I have seen tells me this Peter Weir opus is about inspiring boys with the possibilities of unfettered imagination and passion. As well as the benefits of standing on tables and reciting “O Captain, My Captain.”

2) “Stand and Deliver”: This 1988 project was the progenitor of the Tough Love style of teacher movies. Edward James Olmos is the curmudgeon Mr. Jaime A. Escalante who will lift the kids—and the young defiant Lou Diamond Phillips as Angel Guzman—by teaching them to stand up to reality.

3) “To Sir With Love”: Teaching the Other; that’s what comes to mind when I think about this 1967 movie directed by novelist James Clavell that features a lot of challenging British accents and the mesmerizing Sidney Poitier as the unforgettable Mark Thackeray. It also reminds us that standing straight, wearing suits and speaking in complete sentences will draw respect from any high schooler.

4) “Dangerous Minds” and “Freedom Writers”: These two movies are basically the same save that Michelle Pfieffer is a Marine and Hilary Swank is not. It’s about getting modern-day kids to trust that the teacher really does care, as well as how liberating learning to write can be for anyone.

5) “Finding Forrester”: This J.D. Salinger-like tale from Gus Van Sant has Sean Connery, basketball, the always excellent F. Murray Abraham doing Sallieri in the classroom and a manual typewriter. I can never think of this movie without hearing Connery’s inimitable brogue. It also has amazing insight into the writing process and a killer song in Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s plaintive take on “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

6) “Remember The Titans,” “Gridiron Gang,” “Glory Road” and “We are Marshall”: Coaches are teachers in more than one way and these well-made true-to-life sports movies show just how much a difference they can make.

7) “Coach Carter”: Why separate this one from the others? Because the similarly true-to-life “Coach Carter” made a difference not just because of his offense-to-defense ideas, but because he stood up for the idea that grades are particularly important for athletes. Plus Samuel L. Jackson is electric in this.

8 ) “Mila”: The idea of the Teacher as Bleeding Heart isn’t new, but this Maricel Soriano starrer is a cautionary tale about how far we might go to save our wayward students. Soriano is really good in this Joel Lamangan tearjerker and a fine example on how saving others can turn into losing yourself.

9) The Indiana Jones movies, the Robert Langdon movies and “21”: These seemingly surprising addition shows the teacher as adventurer, possessing a truly practical approach to their teaching. Harrison Ford’s Jones is a treasure hunter, Tom Hanks’ Langdon is a symbologist/world saver and Kevin Spacey’s character Micky Rosa masterminds a team of MIT students in counting cards in casinos.

10) “The Sound of Music” and “The King and I”: What is a family-friendly fave from 1965 and Yul Brynner’s 1956 Oscar winner doing on this list? Governesses are teachers in many ways and here they brush up against authority and deal with it by song and affection. Plus the songs are really good. Let’s say you are the only person on the planet not to be charmed by Julie Andrews’ pixie hairdo, surely the magnificent Deborah Kerr will win you over.

There are many more, of course, but this is how I would start. What about you? Never forget what “Dead Poets Society’s” John Keating said: I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.

Read all about some amazing teachers in the Sept. 20, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

THE tenuous connection between All Souls Day and scary things gets even more muddled every year as the Philippines seems to move closer and closer to a Halloween that is American in almost every single way.

What has always been interesting is how TV revels in this by sending up their “scary” stuff. Remember the “Magandang Gabi, Bayan” Halloween episode? Spooky. The channels would also roll out their menagerie of Filipino horror films, including some very old and some very funny ones.

So let’s ask ourselves what are the ten scariest films we have ever seen. Take note, if I seem to be missing a scary movie on this list, it’s because I probably haven’t seen it. Horror movies seem to be the single most profitable genre now, so everyone is making them one after the other, especially Asian countries. I simply haven’t been able to watch all of them despite my best efforts. Plus, I try to tune out the Hollywood adaptations. You will also notice a preponderance of zombie movies on this list — that’s because I simply can’t stop watching them.

Here they are, in no particular order:

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By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

THERE’S an interesting buzz surrounding Lav Diaz’s eight-hour film “Melancholia,” which, it must be noted, is NOT being shown in Metro Manila. The MTRCB has, apparently, not been able to watch it and thus give it a required rating, even while the MTRCB chair Consoliza Laguardia denies it’s not because it’s too long. The buzz is interesting because Diaz’s film received the Orizzonti Grand Prize of Mostra 2008–yet we won’t get to watch it. The other buzz comes from the sheer amazement of people that someone actually made an eight-hour film. It boggles the mind for some. So we think of the longest movies ever made.

According to Wikipedia, Diaz’s film does not even come close to the longest movie ever made, the 27-hour long Chinese silent film “The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple.” The movie was released in two parts, in 1928 and 1931. One can only imagine there was not all that much to watch at the time in China, but I’m just guessing. There is a bunch of European films ranging from 25 to 5 hours or so.

Length isn’t always a bad thing. Many of the greatest movies made were long. In fact, there was often an intermission between the two parts.

The movie musicals even had an overture at the start. “Gone With the Wind” is over three hours long. So is “Lawrence of Arabia.” Running just under three hours are “The Sound of Music” and “West Side Story.”

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By Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, Executive Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

REMEMBER that old saw about making sure you’re not hungry when you go shopping? Well, my corollary to that is, never never watch “Eat Drink Man Woman” when you haven’t had a meal.

The first time I caught this Ang Lee movie on late TV was way past dinner, so that by the end of the opening scene where this longtime widower is shown filleting fish, blanching vegetables, chopping squid, delicately twisting siomao wrappers and deep frying the Peking duck that he had just blown up like a balloon, I felt like licking the TV screen, drooling desperately for some Chinese food.

How can you resist such a tempting premise? You know that the deft slicing, chopping and kneading of meat, vegetables and dough are a prelude to something even better. Like the isolated notes on a music sheet, you just know there’s a symphony waiting to float out into the air once those notes are strung together on an instrument. The promise of several sumptuous dishes are evident behind all that steam and sizzle and in the furrowed brow concentration that the aging Chinese chef invests on his kitchen labor.

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By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

WHENEVER I ask people what their all-time favorite movie is, they will invariably respond with “There’s just too many.” Now, despite the clarity of my request and the frustration I feel whenever someone can’t give a simple answer, I actually completely understand this feeling. Our favorite movies are so important to us that to name one haphazardly feels unfair not only to that movie but to the other movies which might have been overlooked.

So let us change the question. If you were a movie, which one would you be? Now there’s a compelling quandary.

I’d like to think of myself as a biopic, like one of those movies where a damaged person overcomes everything somehow, like “A Beautiful Mind” or “Seabiscuit” (yes, he’s a horse, I know that). Sometimes I’d like to think of myself as someone overflowing with snarky dialogue and observations, like “Juno” or even “Iron Man.” I’d like to imagine I have a powerful sense of wonder, like “Finding Neverland” or “Shakespeare in Love.”

Luckily, my all-time favorite movie remains the one I identify with closest. The Wachowski brothers’ masterpiece “The Matrix” has received many brickbats, most having to do with its (in my mind, underrated but certainly) inferior sequels. But the core of the Matrix, about choosing to wake up even if the dream is bliss, of fighting back when you discover the deception, especially when others decide to go on with the subterfuge, is so authentic, the movie still matters. It’s a remix of so many elements (comic books, cyberpunk, anime), all of which I love, but it’s also about choosing to be an individual, not just different, amid a world of sameness. That’s something I can really believe in, a pill I’m most willing to swallow.

For more on movies — memorable movie lines, the Filipino as moviegover and great Pinoy moments in global cinema — check out the June 1 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.