Review: Waiting for Superman Blu-ray

STUDIO: Paramount | DIRECTOR: Davis Guggenheim
RELEASE DATE: 2/15/2011 | PRICE: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99
BONUSES: commentary, deleted scenes, update, featurette
SPECS: PG | 111 min. | Documentary | DTS-HD audio | English, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

TV director turned documentarian Davis Guggenheim presents a wide-reaching and anger-provoking look at the public education system is America in Waiting for Superman.

The director of the controversial An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim looks at public education from the personal level of four children in different areas of the nation with different economic statuses. We see their dreams of becoming doctors and more, hear about their potential from teachers, and watch as they pin their hopes of a future on a lottery.

The film clearly shows the problems with the system for the children going through it, but for viewers who think, “Why should I care? I don’t have kids,” Guggenheim gives us statistics that show that in areas where the level of education is lower, where there are more school dropouts, the crime levels are higher.

Like in An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman leans heavily on the side of public education needs change; we don’t many success stories. But Guggenheim paints a compelling case for reform, showing how the school’s that have embraced change — along with some brilliant and passionate teachers — have had excellent results. It’s a lesson the documentary seems to suggest that all schools should learn.

But the problem is not just the schools, according to the film. Blame also has to fall on politicians, the teachers union and others.

The education for viewers doesn’t stop with the documentary on the Blu-ray. The interesting featurette “The Future Is In Our Classrooms” further explores public education.

In “A Conversation With Director Davis Guggenheim,” the filmmaker tells us his motivation for making this movie was to continue the story he first told in 2001 television documentary The First Year.

The Blu-ray also offers four deleted scenes, including one in which teachers take over a school from the school board, and an update for Superman, showing how education has changed since the movie was filmed — and that work still needs to be done.

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