Video Game Forums

This year, I'm teaching at a junior-high summer-school program (supplemental, not remedial). My primary duty is 7th-grade math, but each faculty member also teaches an elective class, and mine is Film Studies. This is the curriculum I'm in the middle of showing my class, along with why each feature was chosen (it's a 25-day program, but there are 7 days when elective classes don't meet):

Day 1 -- Elements of Film (roles in filmmaking, Aristotelian components of drama, elements of photography)
Day 2-3 -- The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, 1982): Hand-drawn animation, non-Disney animation, loose adaptation
Day 4-5 -- The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987): Frame story, dramedy, medieval period film, tight adaptation
Day 6-8 -- To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962): Black & white cinema, drama, social justice themes
Day 9-10 -- Operation Condor (Jackie Chan, 1991): Hong Kong cinema, practical effects/stuntwork
Day 11-12 -- WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008): Computer animation, silent film, science-fiction
Day 13-14 -- She's the Man (Andy Fickman, 2006): Shakespearean plot, drag performance, farce
Day 15-16 -- Big Fat Liar (Shawn Levy, 2002): Meta-humor, Hollywood studio politics
Day 17 -- Writing reviews (each student chooses 1 of the previous movies to review)
Day 18 -- Marvel One-Shots (Various, 2011-2014): Short-subject film, franchise chronology

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

...man. I wish I'd had you for a teacher back in school. My teachers were all such festering fuddy-duddies.

Great choices. I particularly love your including The Princess Bride and She's the Man.

I had to watch to kill a mockingbird in middle school. Thought the book was o.k---->eh, fell asleep during the movie. It was hot and we were in one of the few air-conditioned rooms after recess. We had just finished up crazy games of knockout on the basketball courts so it was lights tf out for me. There was a girl in my class obsessed with it her whole life and I never understood why because of all the things to be obsessed over you know? Found out, later on, she had a baby and named it "Scout." My eyes rolled so hard that the wind blast from the rotation pierced a hole in the clouds above.

That's the end of my story.

Wall-E is the cutest s**t in the world don't @ me

@steeze
I have no intention of arguing with you; I just loathe the phrase "don't @ me."

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

If I had a film class to teach, I believe I'd devote a session to 'Conan the Barbarian'. Just talkin about how hype it is, the great performances and baller music, how it is and is not a faithful adaptation of the old pulp novels. Maybe if I was real lucky I'd get through King Osric's speech, and Valeria's death and funeral, 'Orphans of Doom' and all, without crying so hard I couldn't talk.

These kids are in 6th-9th grade; I would have to get a permission slip for anything rated R.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

@CaptHayfever That's probably the first time I've ever used it lol.

'Conan's rated R?!? I was eight the first time I saw it. It's not like it's full of swearing-----------just lots of blood and violence, and gore, and sex and nudity. Cannibalism. Sad parts. Arnold punching out a camel whilst laughing uproariously.

I mean heck I would rate it based on the camel abuse alone

Yeah. PG, for 'pure genius'.

I'm not impressed. You've just selected a bunch of decent movies. If you really want to guide the next generation, you need to include a few stinkers. Maybe even low-budget knock-off films starring Rob Schneider. THEN they'll build character.

Booyakasha wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:20 am

Yeah. PG, for 'pure genius'.

Arnold is a pure genius alone. I'm actually following his "blueprint to mass" which is just basically a part of his weight lifting routine. Absolutely brutal.

smh Return of Jafar isn’t even on here,

So, the schedule turned out a little different than expected; we ended up scrapping review-writing day & doing the One-Shots then instead, but we also ended up with 2 more classes after that instead of 1, so now we're in the middle of Monty Python & the Holy Grail to round things out.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Wait-----------'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' is PG, and 'Conan's an R?!? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

Holy Grail came out before PG-13 existed, & it doesn't hit the R criteria: No f-bombs, no nudity (other than drawings of butts), minimal gore.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

^And the gore was pretty obviously all tomato juice, at that.

Man. Like, if anyone needs to know why I love Conan so much...



Conan waxes rhapsodic about his childhood, and offers Subotai a free exit pass. Doesn't want to see his best friend in the world die the way his gal did. And Subotai turns it down gentle, without a moment's pause. Real friendship.

This was deleted from the theatrical cut. Like, Conan and Subotai's talk, it got cut out. It should have stayed in. It's so good. And everything else is even better.

Conan the Barbarian was one of those rare successful adaptations that strayed from the source material. Like it had the sword-and-sorcery part yeah but also put this whole Nietzsche reference into Conan's journey when he was just a rogue in the stories. It was still so good. Unfortunately I don't think my friends appreciated it. The first time I saw this movie, they were falling asleep at right around that scene when they fight in the ruins. Even so, one of my friends and I greet each other by saying "Crom!" and clasping our hands like they do in the movie.

Man, I want another Arnold Conan movie now. With all the new sequels going on that ignore bad sequels, they could still do it. They could do some King Conan **** where Conan is older now and sits on an uneasy throne. Do it. Do it now.