Group 1 Films: Instructor Comments
Here are a few comments to get you oriented to Group 1.
This collection of one dozen films is eclectic, in that aside from being about various aspects of American society, they don't have any particular theme. Seven of the 12 are fictional, that is to say, they are not based upon true stories of real people, though they are based upon actual historic events. Four of them (#1, 2, 7 & 8) deal with racial or religious issues, as do two of the history based films (#3 & 5.) Two deal with space (#6 & 12), one is about a genius (#10), and the remaining three are interesting films about periods in American history—the Depression, the 1950s and the 1990s. (#11, 9 & 4.)
“Come see the Paradise” is a film many of my classroom students had never seen, and a number of them were surprised that it had even been made. I think I came across it through a recommendation from a student some years ago. As far as I know it’s the only film that deals directly with the interment of Japanese Americans during World War II. I have always admired Dennis Quaid as an actor—I think he may be somewhat underrated. The movie also makes some interesting points about labor issues.
“Gentleman's Agreement” came out in 1947 at a time when anti-Semitism was still a very volatile subject because of the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust. From my own experiences growing up in New York in the 1940s I can attest that anti-Semitism was very strong. We don't hear much about it today except in the context of America's foreign-policy in the Middle East and our relationship with Israel. But many of the issues portrayed in the film regarding prejudice against Jewish people were, I believe, understated.
Mr. and Mrs. loving is a true story based very closely on the truth. The attorney who represented the Lovings before the Supreme Court still lives in Alexandria. He no longer practices law, but was involved in making the film. He also served in the Virginia House of Delegates for number of years. A friend of mine who was his legal secretary says the movie got him exactly right, even though the actor who played him never actually met Mr. Cohen. Much of the dialogue in the courtroom scenes is taken verbatim from transcripts.
“Grand Canyon” is just a favorite of mine. It's about people just trying to get by in a world that often seems more and more confusing.
“Inherit the Wind,” with its wonderful cast, is a film adaptation of a play based upon the famous Scopes trial of 1925 in Dayton Tennessee. Although fictionalized, it's very close to the true events, except for some of the romantic business in the film which was not part of the original story. The cross examination of Matthew Harrison Brady by Col. Drummond in the film is based upon the actual transcripts of Clarence Darrow's cross examination of William Jennings Bryan in the real trial. The film was remade a few years ago with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. Don't bother to see it, as it's nowhere as good as the original film with Spencer Tracy and Frederic March.
“October Sky” is a delightful film about some West Virginia boys who refused to accept their lot in life. Led by Homer Hickam, who later attended Virginia Tech and then worked for NASA training astronauts, the film is about four young men who, inspired by the Soviet launching of Sputnik, decided to get into the rocket business for themselves. They became known as the “rocket boys,” and their story still resonates in that part of West Virginia. Homer Hickam’s book “The Rocket Boys,” shows that the story was embellished and modified for the screen, but the essence of it is still true. Good performance by Chris Cooper as Homer’s dad.
“The Long Walk Home” is a story of what the famous Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 did to two families—one black and one white. The context was Rosa Parks's refusal to ride in the back of the bus, and the rise of Martin Luther King as a leader of the Civil Rights movement. But those things are in the background—the film is about what those public events meant to some private people.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is famous—both the book and the movie. Some film critics rate it as the greatest film of the 20th century; it certainly is a classic and one of the best movies ever produced in Hollywood. On a minor note, it was the first film in which Robert Duvall appeared. Perhaps it was Gregory Peck’s finest role, and that's saying a lot.
I almost took “A Beautiful Mind” off the list after reading the book of the same title by Sylvia Nasar. Although film seems to portray John Nash’s schizophrenia as well as his brilliance reasonably well, the film leaves an awful lot out and tidies things up quite a bit. If you want to make a real project of this film, I suggest you read the book and see the movie and then compare the two. Even the scene of John Nash’s acceptance of the Nobel Prize is not quite the way it happened, but in that case, at least, I think dramatic license was appropriate.
“The Grapes of Wrath,” based upon John Steinbeck's book, is another classic. There aren’t many people left who remember the Depression. I was born toward the end of it—1936—and although my family was not suffering as I grew up, the impact of the Depression was surely felt by my family and many Americans, well into the forties and fifties.
Tom Wolfe is one of my favorite writers. Along with “The Right Stuff,” some of his best works best-known works are “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” “Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers,” “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” “Hooking up,” and his novels, “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full.” Along with Hunter Thompson and others, Wolfe was one of the inventors of a new kind of journalism, sometimes referred to as “gonzo.” The film I believe captures both the remarkable story of the original seven Mercury astronauts but also the quirkiness of Tom Wolfe's book—it’s worth a read. My favorite scene—the press conference where seven pretty ordinary pilots are transformed almost instantly into seven superheroes, with Handel’s “Messiah” playing in the background. Those were different times.
Enjoy the films.
Back to History 262 | Updated August 31, 2004