The Principal

Episode 197: The Principal (1987)

Theme: Education Movies Month
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis kick off Education Movies Month with The Principal — a movie marriage of Lean on Me + According to Jim + Class of Nukem High wrapped in The Great White Hope. It’s an ’80s action-drama where Jim Belushi is somehow both the worst educator imaginable and the hero of the story. There are gangs, switchblades, motorcycle chases, broken glass, acid-wash denim, and Louis Gossett Jr. wearing a sleeveless Brandel High shirt like it’s his birthright. It’s chaotic, tone-deaf, occasionally entertaining, and absolutely hits different when watched by actual educators who didn’t sign up for this level of nonsense.

Join your two favorite “no, really, we’re professional educators” podcasters as they break down:

• Rick Latimer, a man who should never be within 500 feet of a school… becoming the principal of one.

• Victor Duncan, the 31-year-old “teen” who runs the school with a switchblade, a perm, and pure 1987 energy.

• Jake Phillips (Louis Gossett Jr.), the only competent adult in the entire movie, stuck in a no-win job he’s too good for.

• White Zack, a henchman named by someone who didn’t see any issues with that at all, nope, none.

• The final hallway showdown, complete with motorcycles, shower-room hide-and-seek, rooftop threats, and a climactic beating set to triumphant ’80s synth.

From beer-flavored Carnation Instant Breakfast to motorcycle vigilante justice to the most chaotic school assembly ever committed to film, Oz and Curtis dissect a movie that thinks it’s gritty and meaningful… but is really just According to Jim with violence.

Final Verdict

Oz — 5 Lunch Detentions
Curtis — 47 Utterances of “Son of a—!”
Both — Convinced that Rick Latimer is the actual threat to Brandel High.