Lean on Me

Trivia: Although in real life Principal Joe Clark improved the discipline problems at Eastside High School, he did not, contrary to what the film has you believe, improve the academics in any meaningful way. Although test scores improved very slightly his first couple of years as principal (partly due to the fact that he expelled so many bad students) from 1986 to 1988, during his time as principal, Eastside High School had the lowest state exam passage rates in all of New Jersey. One of these years in particular, under Clark's tenure, Eastside High's passage rate was as low as 24.1%.

Trivia: Regina Taylor plays Mrs Carter, mother of Kaneesha Carter (Karen Malina White). In real life, Taylor is only five years older than White.

More for Lean on Me

Mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Joe Clark is having his talk with Sams on the edge of the roof of the school, Sams is on the right and Clark is on the left (when viewed from the ground). When they're done talking, Sams turns to his left and walks away - turning to his left would have made him fall off the roof after just a few steps.

Matty Blast

More mistakes in Lean on Me

Questions

Question: At the end after Clark tells the Mayor the state can go to Hell, it seems like there was a cut scene. Clark tells the students that he was not going anywhere. They then show scattered cheering before Clark ask the students, "Are you ready, maestro?" without any lead-in. Was there a deleted scene to describe what appears to be this gap?

lartaker1975

Answer: He actually said "are you ready my Ghosts (not Maestro)", but what I wondered is how he was able to just walk away after he was arrested.

More questions & answers from Lean on Me

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.