Early 1970s. Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly instructor at a prestigious American school, is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them – a damaged, brainy troublemaker – and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Declaration
film director
“I had the idea for this movie for about a dozen years. Never got around to writing it, nor did I really have the life experience to write it authentically. And then, I was submitted a pilot for a TV show that would take place at a boarding school. The writing was really good, so I called the writer and I said, “You’ve written a fine pilot, and I wanna make it, but would you consider writing a feature in that same world with this idea?” And he accepted, and it worked out really well.”