Movies to show my students

[Colossus]

So my students have worked hard for the year, and I have not given them much in the way of entertainment other than some games oriented towards English speaking. So as the year winds to a close, I wanted to let them watch a movie for a couple classes.

However, I don't just want to pick a random movie of my liking, but rather choose one that might help them understand American culture a little better. I was thinking I would show the movie over two classes for 40-50 minutes each class and then talk about the movie for the other half of class.

I was considering the first episode of the show "Firefly" as that is one of my favorite TV shows and the premise of the movie is that the United States and China merged as a global superpower to explore space. They even speak in Chinese (particularly so they can get away with swearing).

Still that wouldn't be very informative as to CURRENT American culture.

Any thoughts/success stories you have?

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EDIT: As long as we're on the subject--if I show a video, should I give them subtitles to work from or no? For example, I am in the process of watching Idiocracy and I wonder if they would have difficulty following the movie without them. Most of the time, they don't know what I'm saying.

[muyongshi]

I would just ask that you don't pick one that makes them even more confused about REAL American culture (ie Desperate Housewives, 24, and well you get the idea) but it is hard to find one that really reflects appropriately as all TV shows/ movie will only show one aspect.

In terms of a classic The Goonies! But that doesn't have much to do with real life either.

One that is really interesting and a great movie is Finding Forrester....

[c_redman]

This may be a controversial choice, but I can't think of any movie that represents American culture more than Idiocracy. No, seriously.

Idiocracy is a 2006 American dark comedy directed by Mike Judge' date=' and starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. The two main characters submit to a hibernation experiment that goes awry, and they awaken 500 years in the future, to discover that dysgenics, rampant marketing, and cultural anti-intellectualism have resulted in a uniformly stupid human society.[/quote']

On the surface, it's a lowbrow comedy, but as a satire it does effectively address relevant issues--consumerism, poor-quality mass entertainment, private influence of government, elections based on popularity, etc. As a specific example, water is only clean enough for toilets, while everyone drinks and crops are irrigated by commercially supplied Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. The company that supplies it also owns the FDA (the food and drug administration in the USA). There are also may uses of wordplay that shouldn't be too difficult to understand for students.

The MPAA rated it "R, for language and sex-related humor." The specific examples I remember are that Starbucks gives, umm, manual stimulation services, and the Fuddruckers restaurant chain changed it's name to something obscene that you could probably guess.

[heifeng]

ferris bueller's day off!

[imron]

I was considering the first episode of the show "Firefly"

Shiny. I say go with this

[roddy]

If you're going to go that route, just show Serenity - you could ask them to spot all instances of 'Chinese' in the movie, but that could be a bit challenging. But you could break that up over two viewings, and you get to 'finish' something, rather than just showing them a first episode of a TV show (and of a season that didn't even finish, sob, sob.)

Anyway, I'm off to be a leaf on the wind.

[imron]

I dunno, the first episode is movie length, and still contains a complete story. Plus it might get them interested enough to watch the rest of the episodes in their own time.

[heifeng]

I've been thinking about this question for a while, what movie 'represents' America. Well, I have thought it through:

Roger and Me

But if you want more light hearted movies

Ferris is still a nice choice though. Or even fast times at ridgemont high.

[Colossus]

This may be a controversial choice, but I can't think of any movie that represents American culture more than Idiocracy. No, seriously.

Idiocracy is a 2006 American dark comedy directed by Mike Judge, and starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. The two main characters submit to a hibernation experiment that goes awry, and they awaken 500 years in the future, to discover that dysgenics, rampant marketing, and cultural anti-intellectualism have resulted in a uniformly stupid human society.

On the surface, it's a lowbrow comedy, but as a satire it does effectively address relevant issues--consumerism, poor-quality mass entertainment, private influence of government, elections based on popularity, etc. As a specific example, water is only clean enough for toilets, while everyone drinks and crops are irrigated by commercially supplied Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. The company that supplies it also owns the FDA (the food and drug administration in the USA). There are also may uses of wordplay that shouldn't be too difficult to understand for students.

The MPAA rated it "R, for language and sex-related humor." The specific examples I remember are that Starbucks gives, umm, manual stimulation services, and the Fuddruckers restaurant chain changed it's name to something obscene that you could probably guess.

Question is: Would my students get it?

[Colossus]

I've been thinking about this question for a while, what movie 'represents' America. Well, I have thought it through:

Roger and Me

But if you want more light hearted movies

Ferris is still a nice choice though. Or even fast times at ridgemont high.

I would if I didn't loathe everything about Michael Moore. And I'm not about to go and confirm everything the believe about America just to get a nod of approval. China already gets enough anti-foreign propaganda as it is.

[imron]

Save Ferris!

[Rincewind]

I'm more concentration on UK culture than US, so I showed my classes (which for some reason are 99% female!) two UK films:

"Out of Africa" which is form 1986 and won many Oscar thingies;

"The Queen" a more recent film form 2006/7 which also won some of those little statue things.

These gave the students a background to history and culture without touching on any violence or sex. Also, a story of a lone woman struggling in a world full of men is quite popular with the girls.

Another teacher at my school has shown more American movies including: Dr Doolittle, Herbie, and some reality show that escapes my memory right now. As you can probably tell, my colleague is a woman, hence her choice of naff rubbish. The students like them though, so what do I know.

More recently I've been using short video clips rather than full DVD's. I just download them off of Youtube. You get a 5 min clip, show it once, then go through again, pausing to explain difficult bits. Then discuss. Should last you 20 mins. Can do 3 clips to a class.

[c_redman]

Question is: Would my students get it?

I think there is a good chance they would. As a satire, it isn't too deep; it's pretty obvious about the aspects of culture it is poking fun of. My little experience with Chinese literature includes some Wang Xaiobo, so I assume that Chinese are not strangers to dark comedy or subversive satire.

I did think of some other good choices, though.

Better Off Dead

Better Off Dead takes place in the fictional town of Greendale in "the state of Northern California" and centers on high-schooler Lane Meyer (John Cusack)' date=' whose girlfriend Beth (played by Amanda Wyss) dumps him for the captain of the high school ski team, Roy Stalin. Lane cannot get past this rejection and decides that death is the only way out of his misery. His half-hearted attempts at suicide, however, always manage to leave him alive, with comedic consequences. On one occasion, for example, he falls from an overpass and lands in a load of garbage. Two black men trimming trees see him in the garbage truck and one says "Man, that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that."

Lane's family is odd; his mother (Kim Darby), a sort of deranged Stepford wife, may be the world's worst cook, and his genius little brother never speaks, but can build laser guns and attract trashy women. Lane's best friend (Curtis Armstrong) attempts to inhale everyday substances, like whipped cream or snow, as if they were cocaine. The film also introduces two Japanese drag racing brothers, one of whom learned English by impersonating Howard Cosell.

A memorable scene occurs during one of Meyer's melancholy periods while working at the fast food restaurant. He imagines the food (the burger representing David Lee Roth) singing and dancing (via claymation) the popular Van Halen track "Everybody Wants Some." After this daydream, he is confronted by his boss Rocko (Chuck Mitchell, of Porky's fame) as the food has burned. In another reference from the movie to popular culture, Cusack is forced to wear a chef's hat with a pig's nose and ears attached (another reference to Porky's).

As Lane attempts to either end his life or win back his ex-girlfriend, he gradually gets to know a new girl: a French foreign-exchange student named Monique (played by Diane Franklin, who also starred in other 80's teen dramedies The Last American Virgin and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure). She is staying with Lane's neighbors across the street, who are so annoying that she pretends she cannot speak English. Monique turns out to be a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers (as she calls them) and is a tough, confident soul. She helps Lane fix up his 1967 Camaro, and rekindles Lane's confidence and will to live through "language lessons" in the international language of love.

The climactic scene involves a ski competition against the ski jock Roy Stalin on a treacherous slope called the K-12. As the two rivals race, a persistent paperboy pursues Cusack, repeating that he wants his two dollars (spawning the catchphrase, "I want my two dollars!" which has become more well-known than the film itself). As Lane races down the mountain on one ski, he overcomes a life gone downhill to find happiness.[/quote']

Some aspects of American culture from the movie:

- American high schools: jocks and nerds, dating, homework, school dances

- fast food workers

- skiing

- foreign exchange students (be sure to mention real host families aren't really like that)

- highly un-Confucian relations toward parents and siblings

- paper boys

- learning English by imitating Howard Cosell (which may be offensive to the audience, but I hope not, because it's a funny gag)

- Van Halen

- race relations (not really, except for the joke mentioned in the summary)

Back to the Future

Do I need to summarize this? It's a classic by now. It includes American culture from both the 80's and the 50's. Bonus for plutonium-stealing Libyan terrorists.

[fireball9261]

How about some nice biographical films about famous Americans? Or a movie of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I know there was a black and white old movie. It might show your students that there are also adventurous farmer boys in U.S.

Reds -- they might relate.

Citizen Cain - I haven't seen it, but I heard it's good and representative.

It's a Wonderful Life - A nice small town life.

The Grapes of Wrath - about the great depression in U.S. and they might relate to some aspects of China.

Bonnie and Clyde - The outlaws are always favorite stories for Chinese.

West Side Story - Great movie, great music, and related to Shakespear. Good for discussions about racial relationship (of immigrants) in U.S.

Rebel Without a Cause - excellent film. It represents American youth and very similar to many Chinese youth also. I felt related to it when I was a teenager.

Dances with Wolves - Good intro to the Indians and Western world. Just the subtitles for the Indians would be a little hard for the students to follow.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - An interesting racial relationship movie. Excellent discussion material.

[ipsi()]

I second Firefly/Serenity, though I'd make sure they had a decent mastery first, and explain that not all the words/phrases used would actually be spoken by real people.

If you're interested in different cultures, try hunting down a copy of Whale Rider. While I haven't seen it myself, it's done extremely well for a small, low budget film coming out of New Zealand. Sione's Wedding is another, maybe. World's Fastest Indian is about a New Zealander, but spends most of it's time in America. It's definitely worth a watch.

Yes, I do know you asked for American Films, I'm just putting these out there in the event that you want to show them other countries as well. (Yes, I'm slightly biased).

[fireball9261]

I also like Ferris Bueller's day off, but I think I like the TV series that was based on the movie much better. I forgot what it was called. However, I think this subject might actually twist their concept of America even worse, and I am not sure about whether they could get the jokes.

I also like Firefly/Serenity. You could point out the bad Chinese pronounciations of those American actors and actresses in the movie and ask your students to figure out what exactly are these people saying in Chinese. You could also ask them to explain in English to you some of the Chinese words they used in the movie/series.

[Colossus]

Figuring out the Chinese that they say in Firefly would be interesting, but I don't have time to show more than one episode, and they only speak Chinese I think 6 times in 1.5 hours.

[fireball9261]

Oh well. I had a good time figuring out the Chinese swear words in Firefly. You could also teach them the English equivalent. However, the students' parents are probably going to protest to your boss, and your boss is probably going to fire you.

[magus]

how old are your students? most kids love comedies and animations.. if they are just kids, guess The Simpsons would be good enough for them