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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
Our family has always been fond of “Out of the way, Peck.”
This list geared more towards high school age (in no particular order):
M
Metropolis
The Sorrow and the Pity
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Gone with the Wind
Citizen Kane
It’s a Wonderful Life
High Noon
The Seventh Seal
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Apollo 13
Duck Soup
Trading Places (end portion is the finest depiction of commodities trading ever) (yes there are clean versions)
Clean versions? We don’t need no stinkin’ clean versions.
I still claim that The Outlaw Josie Wales,” has more good lines per minute of dialogue, than any other movie.
When I showed just the end in a small class one time the kids begged to see all of it. I couldn’t hit the stop fast enough during a scene where a little too much female flesh was exposed. Whoa! Thankfully, no one complained.
Because of the 7-year age difference between child 3 and child 4, I am actively in that stage again where we’re watching certain things for the cultural/historical value and not just entertainment.
Last summer we sat down and partook of Gone With The Wind and over the Christmas break it was Lawrence of Arabia.
Here’s my list that I’ve used over the years:
The Awful Truth (Columbia 1937, dir. Leo McCarey) A great screwball comedy about how jealousy and misunderstanding can destroy a marriage. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are the couple plus a star turn by Skippy, the wire fox terrier whose best known for playing Asta in The Thin Man series. One of the lessons is how the law used to take divorce a lot more seriously. Before the decree becomes final there’s a one-year waiting period and if co-habitation takes place before that the divorce is off. Pair that to the Astaire-Rogers film The Gay Dicorcee (1934) which highlights the need to have a “co-respondent” to obtain divorce.
Holiday Inn (Paramount 1942, dir. Mark Sandrich) Besides being the film that introduced “White Christmas” it’s one of the few movies with a blackface scene still in circulation. (I think The Jolson Story is available on YouTube premium but that’s just a bad movie.)
Blazing Saddles (Warner Bros. 1974) and Airplane! (Paramount 1980) Just to understand so many of dad’s one-liners. Source of Authentic Frontier Gibberish™️.
Bridge on the River Kwai (Columbia 1957, dir. David Lean) Alec Guinness, William Holden and Sessuse Hayakawa are outstanding in this story about duty, responsibility and futility. It also helps your kid understand why you stand over him while he does chores and saying, “You… will… be… happy… in… your… work!”
1776 (Columbia 1972) It was Hamilton before Lin-Manuel Miranda was even thought of. Oh, for God’s sake, John, sit down!
Got to add Dr. Strangelove
Forgot to add that every child needs a healthy dose of John Wayne in their life:
Red River, The Quiet Man, The Longest Day, The Man That Shot Liberty Valance, McClintock! and True Grit for starters.
For high school kids: Miller’s Crossing. It’s the Princess Bride for post-adolescents:
–The Old Man’s still an artist with a Thompson.
–I’m talking about ethics. (i.e. If you can’t trust a fix, what can you trust?)
–I want me hat.
–We’ll see who’s smart.
And dozens of other quotes, that each are gold.
Cool Hand Luke: “What we have heah. . .is a failure to communicate.”
Dirty Harry
Rocky
Terminator 2
Kindergarten cop
scarface
Lethal Weapon
I would add A Christmas Story to the list. A ton of memorable lines from that one, like “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” But probably the one I hear quoted most often is: “Fra-gee-lay. Must be Italian.”
I asked Siri for My most quotable movie and She said, “Raising Arizona.”
I said, “Surely You can’t be serious.”
She replied, “I am serious, and don’t call Me Shirley.”
Apparently I left Her on Airplane! mode.
Buckaroo Banzai?
How have we all missed Airplane?
Sure, there’s a host of great lines (“Surely you can’t be serious…” “Looks like I picked the wrong week….”) but from a moviemaking perspective it was groundbreaking: in a clearly comic movie, there was no comedian. Everyone was not only playing the absurd lines totally straight, but the actors in those roles were widely regarded as Serious Actors that didn’t do comedy. Even the musical score was serious, as where previous comedies always had a Spike Jones orchestra style score to make sure the audience knew when to laugh (Animal House did much the same thing)
While it led to a long string of poor imitations, it’s still remarkably original.
Plus it may be the most un-PC movie that has slipped under the SJW outrage Radar
Ghostbusters (the original, of course), Fletch, The Burbs, …
When I was in high school, Cool Hand Luke was playing at a drive-in theater (Yes, kids, it was a long time ago). My date asked me what I wanted to do and I boldly declared I wanted to go to the drive-in. That boy must have be so disappointed when it became clear that I said that because I wanted to see the movie.
“Turn to the right!”
“I need me a toddler!”
“Gimme that baby, you warthog from hell!”
One or two people mentioned Star Wars, and I concur that is essential viewing. Everybody should watch the original trilogy at least once.
“Use the force.”
“I am your father.”
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
“There is no try. Do or do not.”
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
“Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”
“You don’t know the power of the Dark Side.”
Just the other day I was delighted to read a user review of a laptop on amazon that began with “She may not look like much, kid, but she’s got it where it counts. I’ve made a lot of special modifications myself.”
Wait a minute!!! Have all of you forgotten the best movie advice you could give a young person?
“Biology and the prejudices of others conspired to keep us childless.”
Hi (before the parole board): …that ain’t me anymore.
Parole Board Member: You’re not just telling us what we want to hear, are you?
Hi: No, sir, no way.
Parole Board Member: ‘Cause all we want to hear is the truth.
Hi: Well, then I guess I am telling you what you want to hear.
Parole Board Member: Boy, didn’t we just tell you not to do that?
“You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
I always was.
Young Frankenstein
“Walk this way.”
“What Knockers.”
“Well they were wrong then, weren’t they?”
“Put the candle back!”
“I was going to make espresso.”
“What hump?”
Even “Frau Blucher” isn’t bad, though a bit obscure.
We must endeavor to persevere.
“You take the blonde, I’ll take the one in the turban.”
“Abby Normal?”
“Mighty fine cereal flakes, Miz McDonough”
“Son, you’ve got a panty on your head.”
Should also consider a series of film nights that follow careers – like “Clint Eastwood month” – you could watch the actor master the ‘bad ass’ mojo and wear it like a boss from “Dirty Harry” to “Gran Torino”
Dirty Harry -1971
Pale Rider – 1985 (or High Plains Drifter – 1973/Outlaw Josey Whales -1976)
UnForgiven – 1992
Bridges of Madison County – 1995 – Just to show the range of Clint Eastwood
Gran Torino – 2008
Trouble with the Curve – 2012 – a baseball movie that reconnects a dysfunctional family. What could be more American?