The Faculty (1998) or, Teacher Encounters of the Third Kind

3/16/2018

The Faculty (1998) or, Teacher Encounters of the Third Kind

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Sci-fi-Horror of the Year

An attractive young cast, a brooding color scheme and hyping quotes make up this poster for Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty

Herrington High School in Ohio seems like a completely average high school with average teachers and students. But now the latter are beginning to suspect that their teachers and the student body's jocks may be ... extra-terrestrials!

A generous 4 ♥'s are awarded to this enjoyable high school life farce/genre film homage, which pulls a fast one on one of the big cliché movie types of the 1990s: the high school-set melodrama-comedy. The Faculty is written by Kevin Williamson (Scream (1996)), based on a script by Bruce Kimmel (The Creature Wasn't Nice (1983)) and David Wechter (Midnight Madness (1980)), and directed by great Texan filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Machete Kills (2013)).
James Cameron's masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is among the appreciatively referenced films, and the T-1000 himself, Robert Patrick (Big Love (2011), TV-series) is employed here and bad-ass as usual. He is one in a celebrity mecca in The Faculty that also counts, among others: Usher Raymond (People You May Know (2017)), Famke Janssen (Eulogy (2004)) is great here, Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious (2001)), later talk show icon Jon Stewart (Mixed Nuts (1994)) in a wild superman-like part, Salma Hayek (Wild Wild West (1999)), a cute Elijah Wood (The Romantics (2010)), an annoying Josh Hartnett (I Come with the Rain (2009)), Laura Harris (Just the Ticket (1999)) SPOILER as the awesome mega-monster, Summer Phoenix (The Believer (2001)) in a small role and Christopher McDonald (Fanboys (2009)).
The soundtrack is bolstered by an inferno of 90's rock, which feels appropriate for The Faculty. Rodriguez knows how to stage a very entertaining genre treat, and despite plot holes, this movie is a hoot.

Related posts:

Robert Rodriguez: 1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

From Dusk till Dawn (1996) - Tarantino, Rodriguez and chums' enjoyable Mexico vampire extravaganza
Desperado (1995) - Rodriguez' second Mexico actioner is a sexy, latino fireball

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 40.2 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty - but at least a box office success
[The Faculty premiered 12 November (USA) and runs 104 minutes. Kimmel and Wechter's script was written in 1990 but did not find buyers until the hugely successful release of Scream (1996). Williamson was commissioned to rewrite their script and make it more 'hip'. Williamson was poised to direct but passed in favor of his own creation, the inferior Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999). Shooting took place in Texas, including Austin and Dallas, from April - June 1998. The film opened #5, behind fellow new releases Patch Adams and Stepmom and holdover hits You've Got Mail and The Prince of Egypt, to an 11.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it enjoyed a successful run of 16 weeks. Regrettably, the film's worldwide gross is not reported, but the film was at least a box office success and likely a big hit. Rodriguez returned with Spy Kids (2001). The Faculty is rotten at 53 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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3/16/2018

The Faculty (1998) or, Teacher Encounters of the Third Kind

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