chapter_15_section_4_notes.ppt | |
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Several Clips about a variety of things in Sect. 4
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from a book written by Margaret Mitchell with the same name. It is set in the 19th-century American South, and tells a story of the American Civil War and its aftermath from a white Southern point of view. The film received ten Academy Awards, a record that stood for 20 years. The film was the longest American sound film made up to that time (3 hours 44 minutes long, plus a 15-minute intermission), and was one of the first of the major films shot entirely in color. It became the highest-grossing film of all-time, and held that position for over 25 years. The clip above shows the ending and the most famous line in American movie history according to the American Film Institute.
The Wizard of Oz
The above scene is taken from the original 1939 classic movie Wizard of Oz. In the scene, Dorothy (actress Judy Garland) fantasizes about escaping her miserable existence in Kansas (right in the middle of the Dust Bowl... those scenes are all filmed in black and white to signify the difficult lives people had) to a land far away. She temporarily gets her wish when a tornado/dust storm causes a window frame to break and knocks her unconscious. While knocked out, she dreams about her and her dog being swept away to a fantasy land in the sky (filmed in color) and a journey to meet a man who supposedly has the power to get her back home to her family. The film was named the most-watched motion picture in history by the Library of
Congress in 2010.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is based on a fairy tale from the early 1800's in Europe. In 1937, it was the first feature length animated movie ever released. Today... it remains a favorite for children everywhere.
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger theme song is one of the most recognizable ones of all time. The show started off on radio, with people listening to the adventures of the cowboy and his loyal Native American sidekick Tonto on a regular basis. It eventually became a TV show in the late 1950s.
War of the Worlds
The minute and a half clip summarizes the panic due to the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells science fiction classic story War of the Worlds. It also contains excerpt from the original broadcast itself. The story of Martians invading Earth scared many listeners at the time who didn't realize it was just a story and not the real thing. The book (and radio broadcast) eventually inspired a 2000s Tom Cruise movie with the same name.
Marx Brothers Comedies
The Marx Brothers were a family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers’ thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them (Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera) in the top twelve. The brothers were also included in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of the most significant screen legends, the only performers to be inducted collectively. The core of the act was the three elder brothers, Chico, Harpo, and Groucho; each developed a highly distinctive stage persona. The 3 minute clip above is taken from the 1932 Prohibition era film Horse Feathers.
Who's on First
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first performed the famous "Who's on First" skit as part of a theater performance in 1937 and made the duo famous. Over the course of the next two decades, it was performed on the radio, in movies, and eventually on TV. In 1999, Time
magazine named the routine Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th century.
The Three Stooges
This is a typical 15 minute Three Stooges short that you would have seen as part of your movie theater experience in the mid 1930s. They remained popular and generated new material into the 1950's, and their skits are still shown occasionally on cable TV.
Modern Times
Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film by Charlie Chaplin that depicts his character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression. These conditions were created, at least in part, by how efficient modern industry had become with highly productive machines replacing the need for people doing many factory jobs. The entire movie is great, but the scene above is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen in any movie. We will watch this entire movie at some point during the semester... probably in one of the earlier chapters (13 or 14).
Bound For Glory
Above is the trailer for a movie that is an excellent biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Oklahoma home in the 1930s to find work, and discovered the suffering and strength of America's working class. His travels around the country (mostly by train) inspired him to write many memorable songs, most notably This Land Is Your Land... which is featured in the movie. We may (or may not) watch this entire movie during class, depending on how much time we have. I'll likely show a couple of scenes at some point since I own the DVD. A few that I typically show include from 20:20 - 23:15 shows what it was like to live through a Dust Storm, 31:45 - 44:00 shows what it was like to hitch a ride on a train, the dangers that were involved, Okies discussing how great California is going to be, and what could happen when you get caught by people working for the railroad, and finally from 2:16:10 - 2:17:50... you'll actually hear the real Woody Guthrie talk about his music.