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Movies and Cultural Literacy
Young people don’t need another excuse to watch movies, but I do think we need to acknowledge the role of films in a well-rounded education. What movies do kids have to see in order to fully participate in the national discourse, without which they would misinterpret phrases that are meaningful shorthand for those of us who have not been deprived of classic flicks? Here are a few of my ideas:
1.) Wizard of Oz: This movie has been mined for colorful analogies maybe more than any other. Recently I was nonplussed to find out from my daughters that many, perhaps most, earphones come with a microphone. For weeks I’d been wanting to alleviate the crick in my neck from doing hands-free the old way. My girls knew what I meant when I said, “You mean I had the ruby slippers all along??” And just last week a counselor I’ve been seeing brought up ruby slippers, yellow brick road, and strange characters on a journey. Opinion pieces bring us We’re not in Kansas anymore, The witch is dead, Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, and so on. Wizard of Oz the movie should be required watching as soon as children outgrow the tendency to have nightmares over bizarre winged monkeys, malevolent forests, cackling witches, and a tornado carrying one far away from home and family.
2.) The Matrix: At least for the valuable red pill/blue pill scene.
3.) The Princess Bride: Valued as a source of funny quotes for years– “Inconceivable!” “Mostly dead”– lines from this movie more recently entered political discourse with Inigo Montoya in a meme saying, “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
Surprise your child next week by announcing “educational movie night,” popping some corn, and streaming Raiders of the Lost Ark. What would you add to the list of these cheap and entertaining learning experiences?
Published in Entertainment
Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Provides the context for such phrases as “Bring out yer dead!”, “She’s a witch!”, and of course “Oh, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!”
I guess there’s a great hole in my education, and it may remain so. ;-)
Well, some of these aren’t suitable for younger kids, but:
-Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in – Godfather III
-Go ahead, make my day – Dirty Harry
-I wish I knew how to quit you – Brokeback Mountain
-Hasta la vista, Baby – Terminator 2
-If you build it, they will come – Field of Dreams
That quote from Field of Dreams appears often in our national conversation. And where would we be if we didn’t have “Go ahead, make my day”?
So many movie quotes have entered my vocabulary, and I’ve often forgotten where they originated. Then I’ll be watching an old movie, and one of those lines will show up, and I’ll suddenly remember: OH! So that’s why I say that!
You made an intriguing opening statement without including specific examples. I’m docking you several points.
Casablanca.
Oh! So we’re being scored on this?
I completely fail to understand how anyone could have made it to adulthood without seeing The Holy Grail. An additional piece of dialogue:
King of Swamp Castle: We live in a bloody swamp! We need all the land we can get.
Prince Herbert: But I don’t like her.
King of Swamp Castle: Don’t like her? What’s wrong with her? She’s beautiful, she’s rich, she’s got huge … tracts of land.
I’m paraphrasing, but “You’re gonna need a bigger OP”
The Godfather movies are the ones I find myself quoting the most (but then, I live in Jersey so . . . )
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“. . . sleeps with the fishes”
“Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.”
” . . . keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli”
Fredo saying “I’m smart”
And this one that we use at church whenever one of the men get a little whiny . . .
I am making my wife watch Cowboy Bebop
You beat me to it! There was a survey of the most famous quotes in movies. A few movies got a couple of quotes. If memory serves, Casablanca got 7 of the top 100 quotes.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory.”
Kung Pow will be required educational watching for our family thanks to my husband and his brothers.
Jurassic Park for “Life WILL find a way” and it’s useful shorthand for hubris.
Original Star Wars is likely a necessary, though I can’t think of any.
Sound of Music for Do Re Me and Favorite Things.
Singing in the Rain!
Which was actually a running gag among the film crew (regarding the awful filming conditions) that was ad-libbed into the movie by Roy Scheider…..
I don’t know which films to include. But after a century of film making, movies really should be a part of liberal arts curriculum.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
“That’s no moon…”
But yeah, Jaws should definitely be on that list…. but only if the “Making Of” feature is also watched. The story of that movie’s (unintentional) quality was a happy accident that exemplifies the saying “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”
Diamonds are a girls best friend
white Christmas
Yes. We grabbed a couple of new hires and interns at work and had a Casablanca viewing party (with beer and wings). Each time a cultural reference was said, we stopped the movie and played it again. They were catching on to the phrases like “I’m shocked, shocked that …”, “Round up the usual suspects!” and “Play it again Sam.” OK, he didn’t really say that, but that’s the (false) quote. Do kids know what their missing or do they have their own cultural references?
“Because no matter where you go, there you are.”
Where is that from?
Every generation has some of their own…
Rocky Horror, Dogma, Snakes on a Plane, Aladdin, Lion King, Space Balls, Blazing Saddles all have references in my age bracket. Its hard I’m sure when my kids are teens, they’ll add their own to the culture. The question is, what outlives the generation that propagated it to become part of our DNA on a widescale?
Casablanca probably won’t. Sound of Music likely will.
I think we’ve had this discussion before.
Here’s some others:
Casablanca: “We’ll always have Paris.” “I am shocked, shocked . . .” “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” “Round up the usual suspects.”
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “‘Tis but a flesh wound.” “I’ve had worse.” “I’m not dead yet.” “Run away.”
This is Spinal Tap: If only for “Turn it up to eleven.”
FIFY
Buckaroo Banzai. As James Lileks will agree, possibly the next to the greatest movie of all time.
Time out.
This post reminds me of the famous Fezzick Equilibrium. For those of you who aren’t versed in Equilibrium Theory, the Fezzick Equilibrium (posited, but never yet observed in nature) occurs when a family or other linguistic community have watched “The Princess Bride” so many times that
[Point of Order. During time out, no points may be docked for bringing up a movie that was already brought up, nor for not bringing up any examples. Now, if your family has watched the film enough times, I am sure you will agree that I might be wrong about this rule. It’s possible, Pig. I might be bluffing.
The Camp Family aren’t at the Equilibrium but at times I do have to consciously stop myself from using a quote in ordinary conversation, and find an alternative however clumsy.]
Time in.