Almario, Jason Gamaliel G. VE013/A98 Reflection on The Emperor’s Club The Emperor’s Club is a very good film to watch with the entire family. The story is very simple.
It is set in an all-boys school called the St. Benedict's Academy. The story revolves around a classics class professor named William Hundert and the lives of his student. The turning point of the story is when a transfer student named Sedgewick Bell arrives who is actually a son of a U.S. Senator. Bell does not possess any good values at all and becomes the source bad influence to his classmates eventually. Mr. Hundert takes action upon this matter by making Bell into a good man whilst spending his years in St. Benedict’s. At the end of the film, one will find out that it
teaches many valuable things in life. One thing that the entire film teaches us is to never give up, there is always a way in making things the way one wants to. This is shown in Mr. Hundert’s determination in making Bell into a much better person. Although the process may be slow, he was able to convince Bell into studying diligently and eventually making him one of the top students in class. The only problem was that, he was too convinced of Bell’s changes that he overlooked things the way
they were. He gave Bell an undeserving opportunity of making him one of the representatives of the Emperor’s Club contest, even putting into account of sacrificing one of his more
deserving students just to put Bell in his place. Bell betrayed Mr. Hundert by cheating in that said battle of the wits contest. “A man’s character is his fate.”—that was what Mr. Hundert said in the beginning of the film. It
means that whatever character we choose is what will be in the future, if we do not intend to recollect, change, and fix our mistakes that we did i n the past. Bell changed but never really changed. He cheated the contest as he did not want the feeling of losing just like his father. The quote said above could also be equivalent to what Mr. Hundert said also, “The end depends
upon the beg inning”, which means the end will not exist if there is no beginning in the first place. Another thing that the film shows us is the act of forgiveness and giving someone another chance. After 25 years have passed, Bell proposes Mr. Hundert a rematch in the Emperor’s Club contest since he lost the first one because Mr. Hundert had known of his cheating in the contest and gave him a question not found in books. Mr. Hundert accepts and forgives although hesitated at first. The same thing happened yet again with Bell cheating for the second time. Mr. Hundert confronted Bell after the contest and gave him his final lessons to him.
“It is not living what is important but living rightly.”—can be reflected to Bell’s actions. He just
lived the way he sees in his father of being fully devoted to political affairs, rather than spending good times with his own family and givin g more attention to his son in making him grow into a good fine man. We should learn that we only have one life and we must do what we can to make it a wonderful and fruitful one by living the path that we all know that is the right one. Lastly, the film shows us to have courage to tell the truth no matter hard it may be. At the end of the film, due to the guilt of Mr. Hundert into f orging Bell’s grade, for him to participate the Emperor’s Club contest, he approaches his old student, who should had been in Bell’s place in the Emperor’s Club, and apologize s. This is a one big step for Mr. Hundert in confessing a 25
year worth of guilt to his old student. The old student on the other hand easily forgives him although he feels a little uneasy due to the depression he felt at that time is being reopened again. This came to a reflection to Mr. Hundert that although he teaches good values and principles to his students, he too had something that was lacking in him, and this experience made him undo the things he did in the past. These things happened because he was too afraid of the high ranking position of Bell’s father that he forgot to do what he think was right . Doing
so, he unconsciously made a big mistake of sacrificing a student, who he all know really deserved to be in Bell’s place in the Emperor’s Club. In conclusion, this film shows how a person can affect the other. If we will choose to be affected or not and what we think is the ri ght path to take, the final answer is always within us.
