To Hogwarts and Beyond

Cinema's best, worst and just plain creepiest boarding schools

by Rebecca Pahle | Published July 14, 2011

Maybe you haven't heard, but July 15th sees the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. At the start of the series, Harry was left on the steps of #4 Privet Drive, and in the seven books since he's enrolled at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, made some friends (and some rivals), discovered his arch enemy, found (and lost) his beloved godfather, become a central figure in the resistance against said arch enemy, witnessed the death of his mentor, gotten into some fights and done some camping, all while learning how to use magic.

For everyone who has followed Harry on his journey, the release of this final movie is a momentous event. While the emotional core of the series is the bond Harry shares with his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, that isn’t the most memorable part of the series. No, the most memorable character just might be Hogwarts itself. With its magical moving staircases, ghosts-in-residence and talking portraits (not to mention Quidditch), Hogwarts is one awesome boarding school. Sure, there are some downsides: There’s a lethal tree on campus and a basilisk in the basement, plus the school more or less runs on slave labor (house elves, anyone?). Hogwarts may not be a perfect boarding school, but it's certainly the coolest. So to honor Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, MovieMaker presents Boarding Schools of the Movies: Superlatives.

Most Sadistic
if. . . (1968)
directed by Lindsay Anderson
Students at some of the other boarding schools on this list are forced into servitude (Miss Minchin’s School for Girls, A Little Princess), denied freedom of expression (Welton Academy, Dead Poets Society) or practically starved (Lowood School for Girls, Jane Eyre), but it’s only at College House that students receive headmaster-sanctioned beatings courtesy of their classmates. The school’s administrators take a hands-off approach to running the school, giving a group of upperclassmen (known as “Whips”) free reign to maintain discipline as they see fit. Under the rule of the sadistic Rowntree, new students who fail to memorize the school’s lingo are beaten, younger students known as “scabs” have to cater to the Whips’ every whim, and upperclassman Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is brutally caned for nothing more than giving Rowntree too much cheek. But Travis gets the last laugh: He and his friends gun down Whips, classmates, faculty, parents and alumni alike using a cache of weapons they discovered while cleaning out the school’s basement.

Best
Au revoir les enfants (1987)
directed by Louis Malle
The French boarding school in Au revoir les enfants does more than just educate its students. Inside the school, there are Latin lessons and games of Capture the Flag. Outside, there's World War II. Like many other movie boarding schools, the school in Au revoir les enfants has a secret. Unlike many other movie boarding schools, though, this school's secret is neither sordid nor sadistic: Three of the students are Jewish refugees who have been given false identities to keep them from being discovered by the Nazis. The movie, based on real events from Malle's childhood, centers on the relationship between one of the Catholic students, Julien Quentin, and Jean Bonnet, real name Jean Kippelstein. The boys start out as rivals, but became close friends after Julien discovered Jean's secret. Though the school seems idyllic, the movie ends on a sad note. The school's kitchen boy, upset at being fired for his role in the school's black market trade of jam and other prohibited foodstuffs, tips the Nazis off to the presence of the Jewish students. The students are taken to concentration camps, the headmaster is arrested and the school, which was a respite from the horrors of World War II, is shut down. Thanks, Hitler.

Most Repressive
Dead Poets Society (1989)
directed by Peter Weir
You can't exactly be a free spirit in a boarding school, but some are better than others as far as encouraging individuality and freedom of expression. Welton Academy is not one of them. Other boarding schools crack down hard on cigarettes and alcohol, but at Welton Academy, the mere act of starting a poetry club is so controversial that it gets one teacher fired and nearly leads to the expulsion of several students. When English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) encourages his students to express their individuality by appreciating the verse of Walt Whitman and Robert Frost (those most controversial of poets), one of his adherents takes the whole individuality thing a bit too far and sneaks an article about how Welton should be co-ed into the school newspaper. The headmaster views the harmless prank as an unpardonable offense, and the student is beaten. This might seem like an overreaction on the part of the headmaster, but the movie as a whole is incredibly melodramatic. For example, when another student is told by his father that he must abandon his dream of becoming an actor, his response is to stare mournfully out the window into the falling snow for a few minutes before shooting himself with his father’s gun. Afterward, as his classmates’ tears are set to a stirring classical score, not one person steps forward to suggest that suicide might be something of an extreme response to being shipped off to military school.

Worst Headmistress
A Little Princess (1995)
directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron) is a teacher who hates children. That's not exactly an uncommon theme in children's books and movies, but usually it's played for laughs. Even Matilda's Agatha Trunchbull, sadistic and physically abusive as she is, provides some chuckle-worthy lines of dialogue. The headmistress of Miss Minchin's School for Girls, however, is a cold, humorless woman who intimidates and emotionally abuses her own sister just as she does her students. When Sara Crewe comes to board at Miss Minchin's school, the headmistress' unmotivated dislike of the young girl is plain from the start. But since Sara's beloved father, Captain Crewe, is rich, Miss Minchin can't be as cruel toward Sara as she'd like... that is, until Captain Crewe dies in the trenches of WWI, leaving Sara penniless and dependent on Miss Minchin's charity. Then the gloves come off.

Miss Minchin demotes Sara to the status of a servant, takes all her belongings (including her clothes and toys) to make up for the school's "financial losses," forces her to live in a mouse-infested room in the attic, prohibits the students (i.e. Sara's friends) from talking to her, frequently threatens to throw her out on the street ("Believe me, Sara, the streets of this city are not kind to homeless beggars.") and, in a coup de grace, sics the police on her after she "steals" a locket that belonged to her own mother. But all doesn't end well for the hateful headmistress. It turns out that Captain Crewe is actually still alive, just blind, amnesia-ridden and, er, living next door to the school. Oops. Miss Minchin loses her school and has to eke out a living as a chimney sweep, working for a young boy whom she refused to pay earlier in the movie because he got soot on her shoe. Oh, and her much-abused sister defies her wishes and elopes with the milkman. If only evil were punished so thoroughly in real life.