The Blackboard Jungle: A Rock 'n' Roll Movie About Juvenile Delinquency

The movie, The Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 look at high-school delinquency. The movie portrays male youths as delinquents who are negative, hostile, and even abusive at times. The movie shows that the youths were looked at in a degrading way because they listened to Rock and Roll music, which their parents felt was a far stretch from the music they considered tasteful such as Jazz, Tin Pan Alley and Ragtime. To the adults, their teenagers' Rock and Roll music seemed destructive and obscene, and not at all suitable for America's youth.

The movie is based in the city, during a time when the recent war veterans are returning to receive college degrees and choosing their future career paths. A few of the returning soldiers have made the decision to teach with the intentions of shaping the minds of America's youth. These men and women are teaching, not because they are making money, but because they enjoy children and want to help them develop their minds. A few of these new teachers were unlucky and placed at an all-boy high school with a principal that did not feel the students needed any discipline and did not allow his teachers to discipline. On the first day of classes the veteran teachers advised the newly arrived teachers to turn around, leave and never look back. They were also warned that if they chose to stay, to make sure they always kept their guard up and to never turn their backs on the students. Unfortunately, Mr. Dadier, one of the new teachers, didn't take their advice and had to learn the hard way just how rough this group of young males could be.

Mr. Dadier and a fellow teacher, Josh, are jumped in a back alley, harassed at school, and threatened numerous times throughout the movie. However, the trouble goes far beyond threats and fights. Mr. Dadier's wife is harassed at home, which later results in the premature labor of their son. The students attacked Josh in his classroom because he was not playing music they enjoyed and then trashed his records and record player as well. The abuse on faculty also included one of the new female teachers being attacked and taken into the library by one of the male students and held there until Mr. Dadier found them and rescued her. The students consistently push limits and break rules throughout the movie while the teachers try to figure out how to live through it.

With such a focus of the youths' behavior seemingly stemming from their taste in music, it seems odd that there is not a lot of discussion about music and there isn't a lot of music played during the film. The only three pieces that are played during the movie are, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley, "The Jazz Me Blues" by Bix Beiderbeck and His Gang, and "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet", by Stan Kenton and His Orchestra. Throughout the film there are a couple other songs that students are singing, such as "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Leave My People Alone" but no other background music was played. Although not a lot of music was introduced into the film, the music that was chosen seemed to be the clearest examples of each genre of music relevant to the story including, Rock and Roll, Jazz, Tin Pan Alley, traditional, and gospel.

"Rock Around the Clock" is played at both the beginning and end of the film. At the beginning, the song is being played while Mr. Dadier enters the high school for the first time hoping to receive a job. The boys are dancing, smoking, and just hanging out before class. At the end, the song is played again while Mr. Miller, a student, and Mr. Dadier go their separate ways after tackling the major destructive delinquent student in the movie. Although the song does not appear to add much more than background music to the movie it does have significance in meaning. The song is an early example of Rock and Roll music and the culture that surrounds it. In the 1950's Rock and Roll music was viewed as obscene and corruptive and this movie portrayed the youth that listens to the music as obscene, corruptive and destructive. The movie did well at drawing a parallel between the music itself and the attitudes and behaviors of those whom listened to it. The way in which the movie opened and ended with the song shows how the teachers and students were divided at the beginning of the music, and then united in a common victory at the end. This helps to show that although the music was viewed to have negative characteristics, those people who chose to listen to it did not necessarily embody those traits as well.

Both "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" and "The Jazz Me Blues" are instrumentals that are played during the movie to add extra emotion to the scene during which they are played. "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" is played during the scene when Josh and Mr. Dadier are having drinks together in the bar and then when they are later jumped in the back alley. When the song is playing in the bar it is used as quiet, pleasant background music. However, when they enter the alley and the high school boys begin to circle them the music progressively becomes louder throughout the attack. This contrast shows that even this "classic" and elegant music can have a darker side to it when used in that way. "The Jazz Me Blues," is played as background music at the very beginning of the movie during a quiet candlelight dinner between Mr. and Mrs. Dadier to celebrate their pregnancy. The song is also played during the attack on Josh when the students dislike the music he is playing. Although this is one of Josh's favorite songs and he is proud to introduce it to them, it seems to be disliked by his students. This again contrasts the moods of the music based on context to further illustrate that any style of music can be both negative and positive depending on the context in which it is heard.

This movie illustrates that age differences within a society cause viewpoints to be formed about one another relating to various aspects of their lives, including music. Many times discussion over the newest music styles causes debate in society regarding behavior by opposing age groups. This movie illustrates those differences, but also turns the tables on each side to show that each music style can be seen in a negative and positive light. By watching this movie I have realized how much adults and society blame music as the influence on their youths that results in their dark, destructive behaviors. This movie artfully illustrates that it is not the music itself but the context it is presented in that most influences the attitudes and behaviors of the listeners.