The Substitute is my favorite teacher movie. Inspirational teachers are great, but sometimes you just need one to beat the crap out of the bad kids. Specifically coming after Dangerous Minds, the most egregious phony Hollywood pap, The Substitute was especially apt.
And I never got to see it in a theater. I was in college in 1996 and it was a small enough release that it never came to my college town. So it was pretty much VHS only.
4K is a huge jump for me but would be for any previous incarnation of The Substitute. I finally see the grain of a real 1996 35mm film, and the vivid gritty schoolyard and halls of a public school. The graffiti adorned bathroom is only in one scene but it makes its impression. Contrast that with sunny Miami outside, especially when Shale (Tom Berernger) throws gang members out the window into the bright Miami sun.
There are some surround effects with a bazooka in the final raid. It’s mostly more subtle, and Live Entertainment wasn’t doing DTS back then.
Director David Mandel reflects on casting real students as extras and casting the actors for 16 min. He also discusses the 4K restoration honoring his original vision for the film.