This article examines teaching practices and pedagogies shown in three Hollywood movies. Although some government reports and the media articles may assert that the quality of teaching in public schools is poor, by contrast mainstream movies of the "urban high school" genre often champion teachers who are able to make a difference in classrooms with difficult students. However, it will be argued that rather than contradicting government or media claims, the teaching depicted in these movies reinforces government discourses and shapes popular sentiment about what counts as good education. The ideas contained in movie stories provide a rich source of cultural material for analysis and models for further storytelling. The movies chosen for investigation have a common location, all being public high schools in the East Los Angeles area, and the stories' main characters are teachers able to change the lives of their students. The selected movies show events from 1982 to 1994 and claim to be based on true stories or a teacher's account of personal experiences. This study of three movies shows changes in the orientation to and the practices of teaching over time, including representations of teachers, teaching strategies, students, and examples of student learning. These mesh to show different approaches to education and how they are made meaningful. (Contains 1 note.)