Spring 2009 1960s Movie Reflection Prompts

Due Wednesday April 29 2009

One tool to assist you in making meaning of your class viewing experiences and your personal experience in this course is the reflections you will write. In these reflections, you will engage with the ideas presented in the media we watch and process the intersections of your personal experience with this course.

For each reflection, you will be given a set of framing questions to address. You may choose to address some or all of the questions, and you are also invited to add your own reflections beyond the scope of the questions. To prepare to write your reflection, I suggest that you sit with and think about the framing questions (or other questions of your choice) for a good while. Live with the questions, and let them live in you. Then sit and write your way into your response. If you are fully engaged with the questions, you may not know where your writing will take you, and that’s a good thing in a reflection. Each reflection should take you someplace you didn’t know you were headed, as you discover the meaning the class experience has for you as an individual. Write the reflection only you can write.

Reflections must be turned in during class. If you are unable to do this, you must make special arrangements with me personally, each time, in order to be able to turn the reflection in at all.

Reflections must be printed on ONE single sheet of paper. No stapled papers will be accepted. Reflections must be no longer that two pages--or two sides of one page. Reflections must be in a standard font, with standard margins. Reflections must be double spaced.

Reflections are worth 5 points each. If you turn in your reflection on time (during class!) and have clearly engaged with the questions, you will receive full points for it. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss any questions you may have about your reflections.

The point of watching a movie set in the decade we are about to study is to get you in the mood of the decade. In teaching this course a few times, I have noticed that each decade we study seems to be so different from the current decade that students have a hard time truly grasping it. We will watch a documentary about each decade, but all those facts and events don't seem to help students grasp the feeling of the decade, the prevailing mood of the decade, how people who lived then thought, what was normal to them, what was important to them.

So when you watch one of the movies set in the decade we are about to study, try to absorb the mood of the decade. Try to get a feeling for what it might be like to live in that decade.

Movie Options

Across the Universe

• At the Thanksgiving table, one of the characters is getting a lot of pressure from his family to go to college. How does that compare to your family? What did they tell you about college? Did they want you to go? Or were they against you going?
• When you think about the strict societal mores, norms, and roles of the 50s, what is your impression of where those mores, norms, and roles went in the 60s?
• As you watch, what are some differences you see between the 60s and our current time?
  
• Politics is a divisive force between the main couple in this movie. What about in your family? Does everyone hold the same political beliefs? If they don't, what happens?
  

Mermaids

• Charlotte's mother only cooks hors d'oeuvres. What about your family and cooking? What is normal for your family regarding meal? Does anyone cook? If so, who?
• Mrs. Flax was odd as a mother. What are your thoughts about what makes a good mother? Is Mrs. Flax a good mother?
• Charlotte says to her mother "Sometimes I feel like you're the child and I'm the grown-up." What about in your family? Who played what role?
• The Flaxes don't sit at the table when they eat. What about your family? Did you eat meals together at the table?
• Charlotte and Rachel have different religions. What about in your family? Are you religious? Did everyone in your family have the same religious beliefs?
• Charlotte is 15 and doesn't know how babies are conceived. Her mother, who is so sexual, hasn't had "the talk" with Charlotte. What about in your family? Did you get the told the facts of life by a family member? Through health class at school?
• As you watch, what are some differences you see between the 60s and our current time?

Dirty Dancing

• Baby and her sister Lisa play very different roles in their family. Though both girls, they are night and day. What about in your family? Do you have siblings? Are you more different than the same or vice versa?
• In the scene on the golf course where Baby asks to borrow $250 from her father and tells him she can't tell him why she needs it, he trusts her completely and gives her the money without another question. Compare this to your own relationship with your parents. Also, do you think anyone should trust someone that much?
• In the same scene, Baby says "Someone is in trouble and you always told me that if someone was in trouble I should help." Compare this message to the messages you got form your parents about other people, helping, etc.
• As you watch, what are some differences you see between the 60s and our current time?

Catch Me If You Can
The Graduate