martin ritt seem to be a director who be always interested in social issue ( a the son of immigrant and he have every incentive to be so and especially since he be blacklist in the 50 ) . conrack be base on pat conroy novel the water be wide and about his own experience in 1969 teach a school of impoverished black child about the outside world and much to the chagrin of the right wing superintendent ( hume cronyn ) . what add to the movie strength be the cultural and historical context represent conroy ( jon voight ) frustratedly tell another teacher how many of the child do not know about paul newman and sidney poitier and the vietnam war and or even where vietnam be . he proceed to enlighten them about all these factor . somewhere and i read a complaint that when conroy play music for the child and he only play white music . the truth be and you can not blame the movie for that while it be base on conroy real experience . either way and the movie a real gem .