My course on the history of the Vietnam War necessarily contains a great deal of visual media, most often in the form of newsreel footage and clips from documentaries. However, since the Vietnam War has inspired dozens of fictional Hollywood films, I also have students watch clips from several of the most canonical films on the subject. As any instructor knows, showing a “movie” in class has its advantages and pitfalls, the latter most often expressed in a sort of collective disengagement from an academic mindset, as students naturally fall into the more passive role of viewer. How do we break through that passivity and get students to engage critically when watching a form of media that they are accustomed to consuming as entertainment?
Oliver Stone‘s 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July often ends up being a critical text in my course, simply because the narrative (and the ways that director Oliver Stone presents that narrative) engages some of the war’s most fundamental historical issues. The film also, however, stars Tom Cruise, a celebrity with a considerable amount of pop cultural baggage whose name often elicits rounds of giggling from students. Since my goal is to avoid having them fall into the passive receiver role of pop culture consumers, I find it is useful to play along with the jokes for a bit before subtly steering the discussion into more “academic” areas. In a matter of five minutes, a joke about Cruise jumping on the couch on Oprah can become a conversation about American male celebrities, which leads us to John Wayne, which leads into issues of American masculinity and directly into the critical aspects of the film we are about to watch.
Despite these pre-watching efforts though, students often can’t help but get caught up in what they are watching, particularly when it takes the form, essentially, of an action film. This is why I think it is vital to avoid turning on the movie and letting it run for more than five minutes at a time. After all, if you are asking students to consume this text in a different way than they are used to, it is important that you present the text in a different way. One way that I found effective is to break the film up into tiny clips that are watched and then written about (or discussed) in low stakes exercises. This way, students are constantly forced out of the role of viewer and back into their role as critical thinkers approaching a text. Even if that text includes Tom Cruise and machine guns.
Here’s a quick clip from another Oliver Stone film, Platoon (1986), followed by an example of the kind of free writing prompt that I have found useful for stimulating discussion and leading into more complex writing assignments. By limiting the viewing experience to this short scene, one that has been selected carefully for its density of critical material, I hope to focus the students’ attention on just a few important elements. As you can see from watching the clip and reading the prompt below, assignments like this contain more than enough historical, sociological, and ethical issues to keep everyone busy and, more importantly, to demonstrate how to begin unpacking the complex mechanics underlying popular culture:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in_dNxlnFKA&feature=related[/youtube]
Exercise
The character Barnes is presented as the ultimate cynical warrior, immune even to death, and his character is contrasted with Taylor and Elias, who are ostensibly “good” warriors. What makes a soldier “good” or “bad” in the context of this scene?
Barnes’ statement “there’s the way things ought to be, and the way things are” seems to apply to the Vietnam War and history in general. Do you agree with his attitude? Why or why not?
David, I think you are bringing up really interesting points! I like showing a movie in class, once per semester, but I have never tried parsing the film out in the way you do. I think I will try it next time.
I know that our students will inevitably become “receivers” when they watch a movie in class, and people argue whether we misuse valuable class-time by showing these films. However, oftentimes I find that my students do not become quite that “passive” while watching the movies I show. I had animate discussions following our movie sessions, and I had not so lively ones as well; it mostly depended upon the movie I picked. I remember showing “No Country for Old Men,” in which, by the way, one of my favorite male actors, Javier Bardem has a line very similar to the one Barnes is saying in the Oliver Stone production. My students loved the movie, eagerly responded and we used the following class-period analyzing themes like the American South, serial killers as a quintessentially American phenomenon, Puritanism and violence, etc. I showed the movie because I was teaching Faulkner at the time.
I have a feeling that that particular group of students of mine would have hated if I kept interrupting their movie-experience, and part of me wants my students to have that “as if I were with the character right now” feeling of verisimilitude that really good books and really good movies can create for you.
David, I was really interested in this post, as I am currently in the process of developing a documentary and “movie” based course on crime and punishment. I’ve never shown a fictional drama to students and have been curious (and concerned) as to how it would work, and am definitely going to consider your ideas about having students view films.
However, I’m not sure to what extent I agree with your concerns about letting students get “caught up” (this reflection is of course coming from someone who, like I said, has never shown a drama to students). Presumably most students are viewing the movie for the first time. I know when I first view a movie my “critical thinking skills” take a back seat. Not that I turn my mind off, but it seems I need to get caught up to some extent before I can step back. I don’t know how I would feel about watching something for the first time with interruptions.
I think it could be beneficial to have students get emotionally involved, and then have them reflect on their experience as consumers in addition to making links to significant concepts. Also, often when I show documentaries that I’ve shown several times before, if I let myself watch along with students I notice things I hadn’t previously, and might not have noticed if I was guiding them through the process (I know documentaries are different, of course).
In case anyone’s interested, the movies I’m considering showing in the course I’m developing are “Monster’s Ball” — concerning corrections officers; “The Woodsman” — about a sex offender reintegrating into the community; and “Dead Man Walking” — about the death penalty. All would be tied into specific readings.
I am a high school student and my teacher while going over War War II allowed our class to watch Valkyrie starring of course Tom Cruise. Of course our teacher told us that this is a movie and that the overall point of a movie is to be entertaining, but he requested that we look beyond the aspect of the action scenes and to look the overall story. Once the movie was over we read Operation Valkyrie by Pierre Galante. The movie really provided a visual for us, but the book told the history.
I think Hollywood movies like Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise is very good for classrooms as long as there is some sort of lesson or teaching attached to it.
Yes, James, I agree, there has to be a point to the watching, and it is real fun discussing in the class something we watched together!
I will check out Operation Valkyrie ASAP! Thanks for the tip!
No, I do not want to monopolize the conversation here, but, still on the note of Tom Cruise and the classroom, I would just want to recommend Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs with Cruise as one of the main protagonists. I know it was new in 2008, but I just watched it, and I think it is a timely, thought-provoking piece, similar to Syriana. However, I wanted to mention it mainly because there is a scene in it with Robert Redford playing the professor and his students having an oral presentation that got me thinking about my BPL rehearsals….