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With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

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HOLLYWOOD FILMS AS A TEACHING TOOL

I teach history, and I have a problem. Actually, I have two problems. For one thing, my students have a
preconceived notion that history is dull because it deals only with events long ago and faraway, and that the
discipline is fundamentally irrelevant. In addition, my students have inadequate writing skills which need
to be improved. Rather than simply complaining about this state of affairs, I have developed a project which
seeks to bring an immediacy and interest to historical events and which further attempts to get students
writing about something which interests them. Specifically, I use Hollywood feature films to enrich and
enliven my classes in a project that could easily be adapted to other disciplines.

The films I have chosen either portray major historical events, such as Inherit the Wind (the Scopes trial) or
All the President’s Men (Watergate), or have major historical events as background, such as the Civil War in
The Birth of a Nation or the Russian revolution in Reds. Furthermore, these films must be available on
videocassettes which are cheaper to buy than reel-to-reel films are to rent, and which moreover allow
students with busy schedules to see the film at their leisure.

The project works like this. A student views the film, either using the videocassette at the college or
renting one for a nominal fee, or he sees it on cable television. The student then reads an essay I have
written which sets the film in historical perspective, critiques information in the film, and suggests parallels
with other historical events. The student chooses a topic from a list I provide, topics which run the gamut
from traditional book reports, to small and large research projects, to interpretive essays. Moreover,
students are encouraged to develop their own topics. Each topic involves pre-arranged credit. Therefore,
the student either receives credit for the paper, and so completes his contract, or he does not. I mark the
papers and permit students unlimited rewriting within two weeks towards the end of the semester.

The project has many advantages. My students are more visually than print oriented, and so react
favorably to films in a way they do not to print material. Moreover, in critiquing a film, students utilize
skills they already possess and hone life skills. Equally important, they are developing new skills of writing
and research, a task they will do more cheerfully if they are interested in a topic in the first place. Finally,
instructors need not be film specialists, nor even familiar with the film, because they grade the project
papers on the basis of knowledge they already possess, such as how a good paper should look.

This project can be used in classes other than history, of course. For example, The Grapes of Wrath could
be used to investigate how a film differs from a novel. One student in fashion design researched the
costumes in Beckett (and found them inaccurate), while another interested in acting used Marlon Brando’s
performance in On the Waterfront to discuss the method school of acting. A music major did an excellent
paper on the "Pineapple Rag" after seeing Ragtime. The project has even been used with success in
computer science; a colleague in that field has students look at War Games and research what kind of
computer could have been used.

Some students interested in specific areas which I can cover only briefly in a survey course have used the
film project for further study. Thus, women’s studies are addressed in the essay on Adam's Rib, a Spencer
Tracy/Katherine Hepburn vehicle, while Indian history is important for Fort Apache.

The project has met with great success. Once students understood that the use of films was not an
invitation to sloppy work, they came to appreciate the chance to explore a topic they chose on their own.
Some told me with great pleasure of the conversations their viewing of the film engendered with their
families, and everyone agreed the project had sharpened their critical viewing and writing skills. Finally, no
one who saw films like The Deerhunter or Chaplin’s City Lights ever again thought of history as being dull!

Marlette Rebhorn
Austin Community College

For further information, contact the author at Austin Community College, P.O. Box 2285, Austin, TX 78768.

 

 

@; Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

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