My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.
"The Beat", originally titled "Conjurer", is a fatuous treatment of the problems of ghetto youth in New York City, leaving no cliche unturned in its search for synthetic drama. Playing like a vulgarized tv movie of "Dungeons and Dragons", pic stands little chance of attracting a theatrical audience.
John Savage toplines (with many a meaningful gesture) as stereotyped sympathetic English teacher Mr. Ellsworth, trying to get through to his school-hating class in "Hellesbay", New York. The kids, underprivileged but nearly all white, belong to two warring street gangs, the Marathon Boulevard group including brother-sister team Billy & Kate Kane (William McNamara and Kara Glover).
Catalyst for the story is new kid in class, nerd Rex Voorhaus Ormine (David Jacobson overacting considerably), a disturbed youth who spouts insane poetry. Reviled by the kids at first, he eventually wins them over to his nutty philosophy and mind games, a variant upon "Dungeons and Dragons" in which he imagines he adult world already is dead via nuclear holocaust, with himself as the mythic hero Voorhaus, Billy as The Beggar and Kate as the Priestess/Princess ready to start a new civilization, chanting nonsense rhymes and marching to The Beat.
Since poetry is teach's pet project, soon the recalcitrant class is indulging in all sorts of idiotic self-expression and the leads form a musical group, Mutants of Sound, whose rap routine to The Beat brings the house down at the school talent show. Hounded by the nasty school shnrfink, Voorhaus barely escapes tghe men in tghe white coats coming to take him awayh, and commit suicide in the ocean insgtead. His pals believe he's gone off to a better place and carry on his nutty mysticism, presumably worshiping the coat he left behind.
With adult figures (particularly the shrink and school principal) portrayed as laughable caricatures, "The Beat" is one of those well-meaning films that sets up many a straw man to knock down. Writer-director Paul Mones uses Voorhaus as the mouthpiece for many inane explanations of young people's rebellious behavior, none of which ring true. Pic is as dated as its slam dancing centerpiece.
Coming off better than leads Savage and Jacobson are the brother-sister act, with McNamara sympathetic as a young Ricky Nelson type and Kara Glove's Wilhelmina model beauty shining out through the plain, feisty wrapping. Film's tech contributions are acceptable, but its misguided attempt at realism ends up looking smaller than life (particularly a scene at the siblings' home that looks like early Salvation Army).
"The Beat", originally titled "Conjurer", is a fatuous treatment of the problems of ghetto youth in New York City, leaving no cliche unturned in its search for synthetic drama. Playing like a vulgarized tv movie of "Dungeons and Dragons", pic stands little chance of attracting a theatrical audience.
John Savage toplines (with many a meaningful gesture) as stereotyped sympathetic English teacher Mr. Ellsworth, trying to get through to his school-hating class in "Hellesbay", New York. The kids, underprivileged but nearly all white, belong to two warring street gangs, the Marathon Boulevard group including brother-sister team Billy & Kate Kane (William McNamara and Kara Glover).
Catalyst for the story is new kid in class, nerd Rex Voorhaus Ormine (David Jacobson overacting considerably), a disturbed youth who spouts insane poetry. Reviled by the kids at first, he eventually wins them over to his nutty philosophy and mind games, a variant upon "Dungeons and Dragons" in which he imagines he adult world already is dead via nuclear holocaust, with himself as the mythic hero Voorhaus, Billy as The Beggar and Kate as the Priestess/Princess ready to start a new civilization, chanting nonsense rhymes and marching to The Beat.
Since poetry is teach's pet project, soon the recalcitrant class is indulging in all sorts of idiotic self-expression and the leads form a musical group, Mutants of Sound, whose rap routine to The Beat brings the house down at the school talent show. Hounded by the nasty school shnrfink, Voorhaus barely escapes tghe men in tghe white coats coming to take him awayh, and commit suicide in the ocean insgtead. His pals believe he's gone off to a better place and carry on his nutty mysticism, presumably worshiping the coat he left behind.
With adult figures (particularly the shrink and school principal) portrayed as laughable caricatures, "The Beat" is one of those well-meaning films that sets up many a straw man to knock down. Writer-director Paul Mones uses Voorhaus as the mouthpiece for many inane explanations of young people's rebellious behavior, none of which ring true. Pic is as dated as its slam dancing centerpiece.
Coming off better than leads Savage and Jacobson are the brother-sister act, with McNamara sympathetic as a young Ricky Nelson type and Kara Glove's Wilhelmina model beauty shining out through the plain, feisty wrapping. Film's tech contributions are acceptable, but its misguided attempt at realism ends up looking smaller than life (particularly a scene at the siblings' home that looks like early Salvation Army).