Jon Voight is Pat Conroy, the young white teacher assigned to an all-black school on Yamacraw Island off the coast of South Carolina. The children are deprived to the point of disability, and the school principal and superintendent are both cynical, reactionary disciplinarians - and both racist, though the principal is black. Conroy gradually wins the interest of his students, and manages to teach them about music, reading, baseball and swimming - the latter important as the water between the island and the mainland is used as a metaphor throughout the film. When he insists on celebrating Halloween by taking the kids across the water, Conroy is fired. With Conrack (based on Pat Conroy's account of his own experience), director Martin Ritt once again was praised for his focus on the processes and effects of racism in America. However, the film was also accused of being sentimental: "...the very fact that (the water) cuts the island off...also effectively insulates the action from those socio-economic factors which might disturb Ritt's stance...." --John Raisbeck, Monthly Film Bulletin