Original subtitles

Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for

you may not be right for some.

A man is born, he's a man of means.

Then along come two, they got nothing but the genes. But they got different

strokes to take, different strokes to take, different strokes to move the

Everybody's got a special kind of story.

Everybody finds a way to shine.

It don't matter that you got not a life.

So what? You'll have yours and I'll have mine.

And together we'll be fine. Different strokes to move the world. Different

strokes to move the world.

planet with three heads. Two of them can't sleep and they're keeping the

one awake.

I wish I had three heads.

I'd send one to the beauty parlor and one to the dentist and the other one

stay home looking at pictures of John Travolta.

Look where you're going, Willis. You just knocked me in my Travolta.

Sorry. I gotta get to basketball practice, Miss Garrett.

But Willis, you shouldn't... That's Captain Willis.

They just elected me captain of the basketball team. Oh, Captain Willis.

right. Maybe you can get a girlfriend now.

Congratulations, Captain.

How about a pit stop for your milk? It slows me down when I got all that milk

me. Yeah.

Have you seen a cow shoot a basket?

That would be an utter impossibility.

and report card.

That's right.

Today's the big day.

How did you boys do?

How'd you do, Arnold?

Oh, I did good. Not as good as I should, but better than if I didn't do as good

as I did.

Good, Arnold.

Well, what about you, Willis?

I got a D.

Oh.

Just one.

Just one in geography, just one in history, just one in reading.

Best subject? Which one is that?

Recess.

You got two teeth left. You want to try for none? I pass.

My first report card since I've been here with Mr. Drummond. And it's worse

the one I got in Harlem.

Well, a new school and everything new.

I'm sure he'll understand.

Willie, I understand about this letter my teacher sent him.

I wish I knew what was in it.

For your sake, I hope it's an early Christmas card.

Hi, boy.

Hi, Mr. Drummond. Hi.

Don't worry, Willis.

Hey, Mr. D. I guess I should have a talk with you.

You know, I guess you're too busy to forget it.

Yeah, you're too busy and may I be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas?

What's going on?

Hello, Daddy.

Oh, hi, sweetheart.

Hi, fellas.

How'd you guys do on your report cards?

Report card?

Oh, now I get it.

Uh, Willis.

I'd really like to see them.

Why don't you look at Kimberly's first so you'd be in a good mood?

Sure, here, Daddy.

I did okay.

Yeah?

Yeah, very good work, Kimberly.

Thank you, Daddy.

Now let's see yours, fellas.

Mm -hmm.

Not bad.

Hey, how come you got a C in phys ed?

Because of the low hurdles.

What about them?

They weren't low enough.

Instead of jumping over them, I ran under them.

The best way to make those hurdles is to leave... Now, Willis.

Yes,

Mr. Drummond?

Uh, report card?

Oh, my.

Oh, for goodness sake.

How do you like it so far?

Well, this is very disappointing.

You got three Ds. At least it's consistent.

Well, a D ain't bad when you think there's 22 more letters in the alphabet

come after.

I guess you might as well see this, too.

Okay, let's see what we got.

Your teacher says until your grades improve, you're off the basketball team.

Say what?

Ain't that a crock? They can't do that to me. I'm the team captain.

But the only way you're going to get back on the team is to get your grades

How am I going to do that?

Well, we'll figure out something.

But right now, you can go upstairs and start studying.

Both of you.

Both of us?

It's Willis who's the dummy.

Oh, sorry.

I didn't mean that, Willis.

it won't hurt you to go either.

Yes, it would.

I'm being unjustly educated.

Come on.

Upstairs and hit the books, both of you.

I guess I won't be needing this anymore.

I'll see.

I didn't mean that about you being a dummy, Willis. I'm sorry.

Daddy, I don't think it's fair.

Basketball's too important to Willis.

Well, so is education, honey, but Willis doesn't seem to understand that yet.

I think I know how I can help him. How?

I'm going to get Willis a tutor.

I'll ask a friend of mine who's a professor at the university.

Hi, I'm Danny Rose.

Oh, you're the new tutor.

I'm Mrs. Garrett, the housekeeper. Come on in.

Wow!

Man, it is amazing what you can get today on a GI loan.

Yeah, you could call it kind of spacious.

Spacious? You could fit Milwaukee in here.

Is that Mr. Drummond, the tycoon?

Oh, relax.

He's a regular person like you and me.

I'm sorry, Mr. Yamashita, but your company isn't worth a penny over two

Like you said, just plain folk.

Please forgive me. I was talking to Tokyo.

I'm up to my ears in a big business deal with a firm over there. Mr. Drummond,

this is the boy's tutor.

You're Mr. Rose?

Yes, sir.

You may know my pa, Jabbo Rose. He sells hot dogs at Yankee Stadium.

I love your sense of humor.

If you'll excuse me.

Just how long have you been tutoring?

What time is it now?

Oh, here you are. Hi.

Fellas?

This is the man I was telling you about. This is Danny Rose. He's going to be

your tutor.

Oh. How you doing? How you doing?

These are my sons, Arnold and Willis.

Hey, how about that?

I didn't know you were black.

We didn't either until we were born.

Black I like.

Just don't be funnier than a teacher.

Come on, let's get to work.

Where do you want to start, Mr. Rose?

Hey, that's Danny.

And look, nobody told me you guys were black.

So if I seemed a little bit of surprise blood, that's just because I was

surprised, right?

Now make fun of us, man.

Yeah, I got a short fuse.

Hey, hold it. Come on now.

Loosen up. I wasn't making fun. Honest. I'm a member of the League of Nations.

What you talking about, Danny?

In the neighborhood where I grew up, there was every nationality. There was

D 'Annunzio, Italian.

He was a little guy, about this big.

There was Micapopolis, the Greek.

There was Spanish, German, Polish, and every color you could think of. There

even one kid who was plaid.

He spoke perfect plaid -ish.

And you never heard so many accents.

Like a guy would say, uh, good morning, Giosu.

How's Bayou?

And that was the Chinese kid.

So we're friends, right? Am I right?

Yeah, right. All right, get down.

Okay, you guys, let's get serious, okay?

Willis, I'm going to find out what's been keeping you off the basketball

okay?

Do Drew have any trouble reading?

I read okay, Daddy.

Oh, yeah, he reads real good, no matter what everybody says.

Willis, you read first, then Arnold will read.

Reading out loud is dumb.

It's like talking to yourself.

You meet the nicest people that way. Now go ahead.

A large theater is known as King Arthur's Round Table.

Most of those... I hate this stuff.

Anyway, I got bad memory.

No, you don't. Your head just has a slow leak.

Why should I worry myself about studying in school when I know basketball's

where the real bread is?

Willis, there's more to life than just athletics.

Go tell that to Dr. J.

He pulls down a million bucks a year, and he don't even make house calls.

He's also a college man.

Okay, if basketball's your thing, let's see how smart you are, okay?

Who won the NBA championship game in 1973?

The Knicks when they beat the Lakers.

How about 74?

The Celtics. The Celtics again in 76.

77, the Trailblazers.

78... Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. What happened to the guy with the bad

memory? You only missed one.

I did? Yeah, you skipped 75.

1975?

Who won in 1975?

Come on, Willis, you can remember.

In 75, Cincinnati won the World Series.

The Steelers won the Super Bowl. Who won the NBA?

I don't know.

Come on, think. You can remember. I can, dog. Stop pushing me.

I'm not pushing, but I think you can remember.

I can't. You know, I just can't remember.

What's going on?

poison the tutor, Mr. Bonham? Well, Willis just threw a book at him.

Oh, my.

In my day, we used to bring our teachers apples.

I'm afraid Mr. Rose isn't the right tutor.

I've never seen Willis so upset.

It looks like a bad situation.

Oh, hello, Mr. Rose.

Oh, hello.

Oh, Danny.

Look, about Willis.

Wasn't that interesting?

What was?

The way he threw that book.

He's opening up.

Oh, I see.

And when he breaks a couple windows and smashes some furniture, it'll even be

better, huh?

Relax, Mr. Drummond.

There's something holding him back.

And I'm gonna find out what it is. I just laid some heavy psychology on him.

-hmm. What was that?

Well, I told him if he didn't study, we were gonna send him to Appalachia to

live with the Waltons.

Uh, it's Mr. Yamashita calling again from Tokyo.

Excuse me, I have to take this call. It's very important.

Sayonara!

Mr. Yamashita.

Yeah, I'm sorry to keep you waiting.

Look, I talked the whole thing over with my lawyer, and we still feel the same

way.

Well, I guess at that price, I just don't have a yen for your company.

What?

Oh, it's just a little joke.

Well, as you know, in America, yen also means... Well, forget it.

Have a nice day.

Oh, it did?

Well, you never can tell about volcanoes, can you?

Goodbye, Mr. Yamashita.

I just don't understand him.

Why? Did he talk in Japanese?

No, I mean Danny.

He came very highly recommended, but he certainly isn't my idea of what a tutor

ought to be.

He doesn't even seem to take his job seriously.

Teachers have to have a sense of humor nowadays.

They don't make as much as garbage collectors.

Man, I'm good at everything, but I still don't understand arithmetic.

Like, two and two is four, and three and one is four, and four and nothing is

four. Why don't they make...

minds. How's it going with you, Willis?

Sorry I asked.

I just ain't into this.

Well, look, Captain, how you gonna get back on the team if you don't study?

Well, you see, Danny bugs me.

He's always pushing me about 1975, pushing me to read.

Why is he always pushing me?

Maybe he's some new kind of pusher.

in your book?

I don't understand how I got all those D's.

You think I'm dumb?

No, I think you're smart. Thanks.

Sometimes you even look smart.

Come on, write your book.

No, and stop pushing me.

God, you're worse than Danny.

Well, at least one of the Jacksons will be on the basketball team.

Yeah, come in.

Good morning, you guys.

Danny couldn't be here because he's in the machine shop, so he sent me over to

teach you guys, okay?

Okay, men.

Let's review some of that new stuff I gave you this past week.

Arnold, what was the original name of New York before it was called New York?

The Big Apple?

No. Fancy?

I'll give you a clue.

Part of the name sounds like a small animal that runs inside of a wheel.

five, Ronald. Five for you, too, brother. Take a rent. Okay.

Okay, Willard.

What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called? That's easy. The

Bill of Rights. All right!

Now, there was a political scandal involving a president and his gang of

buddies. What year was that?

1923 Teabag Dome scandal.

Hey, that's terrific.

I wasn't even thinking of that one.

There was another scandal, though, involving a president.

And some of his buddies went to jail in 1975.

What was that called?

1975?

Let's see.

I don't know. I can't remember.

The Watergate scandal.

Oh, yeah.

Willis, I don't understand. You seem to draw a blank on anything that happened

in 1975.

Would you just get off my case, Danny?

Daddy, you better get off this case before the books start flying south for

winter.

I dig.

Okay, let's put the books away for the day.

Hey, Danny, if you don't teach me, how am I going to get back on the basketball

team? Hey, I didn't say we were through learning for the day.

There are other ways to open up a guy's head, Willis.

Yeah, you can hit him with a rock.

I'm going to take you two on a field trip.

Oh, man!

We are going to see a little history today. What are we going to see?

I'm going to take you two to see the island of Manhattan.

Everybody,

Manhattan is an island.

It is an island.

Then what am I laughing at?

Fellas, picture this.

The Indians standing on the shore, waiting to greet the settlers as they

their boats into Manhattan Island.

And the Indians' first words to the settlers were, Hey, you can't park

Okay, Braves, let's split from the teepee.

Hey,

look

at little Squaw.

With plastic heads.

You Indians come near Big Squaw and I suck you up in my vacuum and howl.

Uh, did Mr. Yamashita call back?

No, sir.

Well, I guess he is playing inscrutable.

Oh, are the boys upstairs in their room studying?

No. They went out with Danny right after he got here.

That was about, um, a couple hours ago.

What about their schoolwork?

Where did they go?

All I know is the three of them came out of their room whooping and dancing.

Whooping and dancing? Like Indians.

He's even gotten to you.

Give him a chance, Mr. Drummond.

He may kid around, but deep down inside, he's a very serious young man.

Shut up!

What has gotten into you two?

Danny took us on a field trip around Manhattan. They showed us the first

temple. Did you know there are black people who are Jewish people?

Some of our brothers are kosher.

The rabbi gave us these.

They're called yamokas.

No, no, that's pronounced yummica.

Yeah.

Even the Pope wears a little red one.

Well, I'm glad you learned something of cultural value today.

But I think you should be hitting the books a little harder. In fact, a lot

harder. I think Danny should be teaching you here, not taking you on a tour of

Manhattan. Did you know Manhattan is an island?

That's right. When the settlers first came here.

The Indians were on the shores to greet them. And the Indians' first words to

the settlers were, Hey!

You can't park there!

Then he thought of that.

Oh, I'm not surprised.

First of all, he comes in here cracking jokes.

Then he thinks it's terrific that you throw books.

Now he takes you on a sightseeing trip all day.

You left out he took us to see Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Then forget I said it.

I'm not forgetting anything.

I've had it.

When he shows up here tomorrow afternoon, I got a lesson for him.

Come on.

Hi, Mr. Drummond. How's my favorite rich person today?

You're not going to like him.

You're fired.

But why?

Because I want a teacher, not a social director.

Oh, that.

But you don't understand.

That's all part of learning.

Those kids spent their lives growing up in Harlem.

They don't even know their own city.

New York has the richest ethnic traditions of any city in the world.

Besides, there's still Willis' problem.

Why does he have this block?

Look, it boils down to this, Danny.

You're just not my idea of a tutor.

Now, understand.

Their mother died a few months ago.

Their father died a few years ago.

And now it's my responsibility to educate them as I see best.

So I'm going to write you a check.

What did you just say?

I said I will write you a check. No, no, no.

About their father. That he died a few years ago.

Could it have been in 1975?

Yes. What about it?

Well, every time I ask Willis a question about 1975, he draws a blank.

I'm sure that what he has is what's called a break in learning.

A traumatic experience causes a block in a kid, and he doesn't even know it.

Well, they would have picked that up in public school.

How can they?

The classrooms are overcrowded. The teachers are too busy collecting the

the guns, the grass.

Hey, Mr. Drummond. Hi, guys.

Read this letter for my teacher.

Letter for your teacher?

Okay.

Hey, Willis, this is marvelous.

Your teacher says you made marked improvement, and if this continues, you

soon be back on the basketball team.

Here, read it for yourself.

We don't have to. We already steamed it open.

It's what you call a sneak preview.

We knew you'd tell us anyway.

I'm really proud of you, Willis.

Me too.

When you get to be on the Knicks, I expect free tickets.

You got him, bud.

You know,

I'm kind of proud of myself.

School ain't as bad as I thought.

Thanks a lot, Danny.

Don't mention it, man.

Well, I guess I'll take that check now, Mr. Drummond. All right.

No wonder you're so rich. You write the checks, but you never spend them.

Not only was I wrong about you, Danny, but I'm very grateful for the discovery

you made.

It's going to help us all.

I hope you want to stay and help Willis and Arnold. I thought you'd never ask.

Ah, great. I'm glad you stayed.

Willis, I know that I can never replace your real father.

But I'm going to do my best to be the next best possible dad you could have.

Thanks.

Oh, excuse me.

Hello?

Oh, yeah, Mr. Yamashita.

Nope.

No.

Look, I'm tired of going over this over and over again. That is my final offer.

Take it or leave it.

would say you can't win them all

now

the world don't move

to the beat of just one drum what might be right for you may not be right

nothing but the chief and they got different strokes different strokes