Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film directed by John N. Smith, written by Ronald Bass, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

It is based on the 1992 autobiography My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who in 1989 took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where most of her students were African-American and Latino teenagers from East Palo Alto, a racially segregated and economically deprived city.

Showing up the next day to begin teaching, however, she finds herself confronted with a classroom of tough, sullen teenagers, all from low-income working-class backgrounds, involved in gang warfare and drug pushing, flatly refusing to engage with anything.

LouAnne tries to encourage him to focus by paying a special visit to his family to congratulate him on his work and going to dinner with him as a way of instilling confidence and self-respect.

When LouAnne discovers that his life is in danger because of a personal grudge held by a recently released thug, she advises him to seek help from Principal Grandey.

The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Rife with stereotypes that undermine its good intentions, Dangerous Minds is too blind to see that the ones it hurts are the audience.

[11] Peter Travers in Rolling Stone described the young cast as "outstanding" and praised Pfeiffer's performance, but he said the film "often unspools like a hokey update of Sidney Poitier's To Sir, with Love".

[12] Kevin McManus of The Washington Post also praised the acting, though he wrote that the film "merits only a C", in part because of the script's lack of subtlety and the saccharine lines given to the students.

[13] Edward Guthmann in the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "It's contrived, it's hokey, but in Dangerous Minds, a Michelle Pfeiffer vehicle, it works surprisingly well... She's playing with a bag of clichés, but she's so plucky and likable, you overlook the hokum.

"[14] Time Out wrote: "Actually it's quite a respectable piece of work, with an impressive tough-love performance from Pfeiffer, but Ronald Bass's hackneyed screenplay is all carrot and no stick.