Film about insurrection in a boys' boarding school (around 1979)

I'm searching for a film that I saw when I was a child. I'll try to describe the few details I remember about it:
My guess is that the film might have been released around 1979.
It was about some kind of insurrection in a boys' boarding school, which the despotic teachers try to crush.
Also, I seem to have a vague memory about the film's poster: there were the faces of the teachers (probably the schoolmaster among them). Those faces might be like some background image with some other depiction on the foreground.


Any help would be appreciated.

First that comes to mind is this film...(it might be too old to be what you're looking for):

'If...' (1968)

Possibly Taps (1981).

If....was also the first film that came to my mind.

Thank you all for your responses.


"If..." is indeed too old. Also, the poster seems to be very different from what I remember. And I seem to recall that the students were younger.



"Taps" looks too different.


Perhaps the film was not in English? I really don't know.

What type of things happened during this 'insurrection'? Was there violence, murder, explosions? Or did they just play pranks on the teachers?

I'll put this one out there, just in case. The plot is not quite what you've described, but the date of the film is a match - and the story takes place in an English boarding school.

'Absolution' (1978)

One more here also. From reading the comments on IMDb, there were a few people who saw this film as children and were very freaked out by it. A remake of a French film, it's the 1974 made-for-TV suspense-thriller (produced by ABC) called 'Reflections Of Murder'. The story involves a vicious bully of a schoolmaster at a boy's boarding school somewhere in the U.S.A.

Somebody has uploaded it to youtube - but the video quality is poor I'm afraid:

A couple of other suggestions:


Heaven Help Us (1985)


Also, there's this other film that I can't quite remember the name of it, but I'm sure someone here knows it -- I don't think I've ever seen it, but I seem to remember reading a plot description that might be close. The title is either the names of the three boys the film is about, or the initials of their names.

(Edit: Unman, Wittering and Zigo)

Here's the film I was talking about:


Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)

I barely remember anything at all.
I would say: no explosions at all. Not that violent. Probably no murders either.
I don't think they played pranks either. As far as I can remember, it wasn't a comedy.

The other proposed movies don't seem to match either.


It's also possible that I was wrong on stressing the insurrection part. Probably I should have described it as a boarding school with some despotic teachers, and some students rebelling against them.
I do remember a small group of students plotting rebellious actions.

Some of your ideas regarding plot details might be off a little, given how much time has passed since you saw the film. Here's a movie (and a poster) worth a look, just in case:



'Teachers' (1984)

Thanks for your answer, scallywag.
A film from 1984 is definitely too recent to match the one I'm looking for.
Also, my recollection of the poster is more like an effect that you often see on film posters where the faces (just the faces) are in the background of another scene, like the ones you can see on films Avatar and Cloned (sorry, the system doesn't allow me to post links).


An example of an image that seems to match my recollection is the disk cover of "Present", by the band Van Der Graaf Generator (again, sorry for the lack of links). But probably with some other scene on the foreground.

If I manage to find that film it will be certainly interesting to check the accuracy (or lack thereof) of these old memories from my childhood.

I'm assuming it was English, because the first thing I thought of was the Turkish Chaos Class.

Here's a good possibility. The date is a match and, going by your description, even the poster looks right.

'Hail Hazana' (1978)
¡Arriba Hazaña! (original title)


Here's a short clip:

I'd certainly have to watch it, but I think I can safely say... you freaking found it!


It ticks all the boxes, date, plot, and even some fuzzy memories that I didn't express because I wasn't even sure if they were product of my imagination.


I can't believe you managed to find it with such vague clues. You're a genius, scallywag.

Happy days dmore!....but surely, it's the creators of the Internet (and the IMDb website) who are the geniuses, not me. Imagine trying to track down a lost film without access to those amazing tools -- you'd be old and grey at the end of your quest

Also an excellent book was mandatory English school reading back in the 70s

coolll