With Honors (1994)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Boring

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A homeless slob who has all the charm of stepping in dog crap holds a Harvard student's thesis for the ransom of a glazed donut ("and make sure the glaze is not all broke") and a new pair of shorts ("go get me some underpants!").Let me get this straight... we're supposed to 'like' this guy? Well hell, who wouldn't? He does the cutest things -- he attacks the Harvard student with a lead pipe, he looks through other people's closets, he steals brewskis from the fridge, he disrupts a professor's lecture class, he kills and eats another student's pet rooster, he warms his stinky socks in the oven, and he makes the Harvard kid drive him across the state line on the day his thesis is due. Oh yeah, I just love the sonuvabitch.P.S. If Moira Kelly was my roommate, she'd wake up one morning and see me standing at her bedside totally naked with a raging-- well, never mind.

I saw this movie as a kid, maybe 13/14 in which I could still fill the gaps and magnify the story by sheer force of imagination and innocence. Today I saw it again as a young adult and while the film-making doesn't shine and the acting isn't as top notch as I had remembered it, the movie still delivers a warm feeling. This is the type of movie that unfortunately doesn't get made in Hollywood anymore. A simple premise,contrived scope, time frame and number of characters and an optimistic view of the world and people. As a child this perspectives filled the TV and cinema,everything had a moral and the bad guy was always defeated. Today, the movies don't carry the same idealistic view on human nature, preferring the darker(some will claim more realistic) approach on character and plot development. I rather that we had stories of hope than displays of human atrocities."When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality." ---Dom Helder Camera

I was once asked: "What is your favorite movie?" in a graduate school application.I have many movies that I love and I couldn't ever decide on a favorite movie. At the time, however, I had recently watched "With Honors" for about the 20th time and I chose it for my answer. Researching the movie on this website, I was astounded when I discovered that it did not win (well, it wasn't even nominated for) any award on screen writing or acting. It was only nominated for Best Original Song ("I'll Remember", performed by Madonna).The film centers on Montgomery 'Monty' Kessler (Brendan Fraser) a government senior student at Harvard University, who thinks his life depends on his thesis. When his computer crashes, Monty decides that the reasonable thing to do is to rush to make copies of the only hard copy of the thesis he has. But on the way to the copy shop, he has an accident and the thesis falls into the boiler room of the library and into the hands of Simon Wilder (Joe Pesci), a homeless man who has made a makeshift home in there. At first, there is tension between the two, as Monty is outraged for the deal he is forced to make with Simon: for each day of food and shelter, Monty gets one page of the thesis. As time goes by, Monty realizes that there is more to Simon than meets the eye. The relationship between Monty and Simon develops into a strong friendship and Monty soon learns that there is more to life than graduating with honors.I am always moved by the beautiful story and the incredible acting in this film. The performances are so honest that the story seems to have been taken out of real life. The transition in the character of Monty, from a young man that considers grades and recognition to be the most important things in the world, to a man, touched by the life of a "bum" – as Simon refers to himself – who is intelligent and good-natured, and knows the meaning of love.The last few lines in the movie always bring tears to my eyes, as Monty reads Simon's self-written obituary: "He is survived by his family: Jeff Hawks, who always remembers to flush; Everett Calloway, who knows how to use words; Courtney Blumenthal, who is strong, and also knows how to love; and by Montgomery Kessler, who will graduate life with honor, and without regret."

Perhaps if some of our representatives watched this movie, they would gain a little understanding. It is certainly a good movie for the young to watch. It displays a change of heart through an experience that many of us don't receive when we are young.As a Harvard student sets forth to write his assigned term paper, he runs into a homeless man, a self-professed "bum." He loses his term paper to the "bum" who is living in the library basement and the "bum" makes an exchange for each page of his term paper. In the process, the college student learns more about the realities of life.This movie could change your attitude about how you view people on the streets. It could also change your attitude about how you view our president and other representatives.Love, Hope, Peace, & Christ Be With You, Cal-el & Black Canary