Movie Options and Voting

After Spring Break, we will be watching a movie before we get into the last three novels of the course.  The goal is to use a film to introduce our next unit, Unit 3: Historical Truth.  This unit deals with the "truth" of history as 1) a synonym for "the past," 2) a man-made, subjective record of that past, and 3) an ever-pressing influence on the ways we conceptualize our relationship to time.  I know that's complicated, but the short version is this: we want to investigate what art can tell us about the way we think about who we are and where we've been. 

As I said on Thursday, movies tend to put classes in a bit of a bind: it's great to watch them, especially in a course like this one, but it's difficult to organize because 1) there isn't really enough time to watch a movie in class and 2) it's hard to get 35 people together any other time!  So, here's what we're going to do: below, I have listed five movies for you to consider.  One of them--Rashomon--is short enough that, if we start 5 minutes early, we can watch it all in a single class period.  The other four are longer, and so they would require a meeting most likely during the evening of the week of 3/15-3/19.  The day and time of that meaning have not been determined yet--that's something we would work out together.  The plan, then, is to use this comments section to vote, as a class, on what you want to do.  We can either:

1.  Meet 5 minutes early on 3/18 to watch Rashomon in its entirety, and then discuss it on 3/23,

or

2.  Meet one evening at the time that is most convenient for the majority of you to watch one of the other four movies listed below.  If we do this, we will meet in a screening room here on campus and I will bring food...let's say, pizza...and if you bring a few bucks with you, we can eat and watch the movie.  If you cannot attend the screening at the agreed-upon time, you will be responsible for watching the film on your own before the next class period and writing a one-page essay reflecting on it.  The essay will not be required of those who attend the screening.  I know this sounds unfair, but I've done this enough times before to know that if I give you an option to skip the screening and watch the movie on your own, 1) you won't go to the screening and 2) you won't watch the movie. 

***Please vote on which option you would prefer (1 or 2) and which movie you would prefer (1-5) in the comments section of this post!***

THE MOVIE OPTIONS:


1.  Rashomon (1950):  In 12th century Japan, a samurai and his wife are attacked by the notorious bandit Tajomaru, and the samurai ends up dead. Tajomaru is captured shortly afterward and is put on trial, but his story and the wife's are so completely different that a psychic is brought in to allow the murdered man to give his own testimony. He tells yet another completely different story. Finally, a woodcutter who found the body reveals that he saw the whole thing, and his version is again completely different from the others.

2.   Jarhead (2005):  Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, a Camus-reading kid from Sacramento, enlists in the Marines in the late 1980s. He malingers during boot camp, but makes it through as a sniper, paired with the usually-reliable Troy. The Gulf War breaks out, and his unit goes to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. After 175 days of boredom, Desert Storm begins. In less than five days, it's over, but not before Swoff sees burned bodies, flaming oil derricks, an oil-drenched horse, and maybe a chance at killing. Where does all the testosterone go?

3.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004):  A man, Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend Clementine underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realizes that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

4.  Inglourious Basterds (2009):  In Nazi occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl's plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history.


5.  The New World (2005):  When 17th century explorer John Smith and a few men go up the river to trade with the Indians, he befriends the princess Pocahontas and they fall in love. While in love, Smith must obtain his duties as president of Jamestown fort and challenges to himself what is the better path for himself to take: stay with the fallen apart colony or go up the river and love Pocahontas in the wild.