Stephanie Preston

Film and Culture Mon/Wed 5:30 PM

10/12/15
8. If you were teaching this class list five films that you would use and
why. Be sure and explain how they would lead to greater understanding
of the cultures that compose our society.

If I were teaching the Film and Culture class five of the films that I would choose would
be; 1. Saving Private Ryan 2. Food Inc. in conjunction with Farmland. 3. The Boy in the Striped
Pajamas 4. Amadeus 5.Dead Poets Society. These films each cover a very prevalent issue that
has either shaped our country or is still relevant in todays society. In the paragraphs below I will
break down why I chose these five films and why I believe they would lead to a greater
understanding of the cultures that compose our society.
1. Saving Private Ryan
The first film I chose is Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan is about a group of U.S.
soldiers that go behind enemy lines following the Normandy Landings during World War II to
retrieve a paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed in action. This movie covers a wide
variety of issues. The first of which is war in general. This movie takes place during World War
II and it shows a lot of what war is really like. The thing that I love the most about this film is the
brother hood comradery that it shows between these men who have had no loyalty to each other
before this time and the dedication they have toward each other in the end. That is something that
can only happen from such a traumatic experience.
Saving Private Ryan used photographs from World War II to determine how the film
would look to portray as accurately as possible what happened. Philly.com even did an article
about the effects this movie had on war veterans stating that the movie was for many too painful
to watch. It is this sort of historical accuracy that makes it so this film makes it to my list of
movies to watch. I believe it is incredibly important for people to have an understanding of what
kind of sacrifice our military members give regardless of if they agree with the war or not.
2. Food Inc. / Farmland
The next film I chose is Food Inc. Food is a big influence and issue in todays society.
This film is a documentary that examines cooperate farming and the effects it has on the food,
animals, and employees. This film takes the stance that the way farming is done is unsustainable

and unhealthy. They blame the way things are done on the ever growing fast food industry saying
that the main focus of the food industry is to get the food out fast and cheap often overlooking
any negative consequences.
In response to this movie I think it would be a good idea to show the documentary titled
Farmland which is the agriculture worlds direct response to Food Inc. Farmland follows six
farmers and ranchers in the U.S. and their experience in farming and the food industry. I chose
these films because as a society it is important to be knowledgeable about where our food comes
from. These two movies show two extreme sides of the issue which will help students realize the
wide variety of opinions that exist on the topic and possibly help form their own opinions.
3. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The third film I chose is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Like Saving Private Ryan this
film is also takes place in World War II. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is about a boy named
Bruno who is the son of a Commander of one of the Nazi concentration camps. Brunos family
moves and he ends up living right by the concentration camp that his father commands. Bruno
goes exploring one day and finds the camp and ends up finding a friend in the camp. The tragic
end of the movie shows Bruno accidentally ending up in the camp and getting sent into the gas
chambers to die with his new friend.
The reason I chose this movie is not only because it talks about the Holocaust which is an
important historical time touch on but also because of Bruno. Throughout the entire movie you
see how happy and innocent Bruno is. He has no idea of the real terror that is going on around
him or why, but when he meets that boy in the stripped pajamas who is in the concentration
camp he doesnt see a horrible person or the religion he happens to belong to he sees a friend and
nothing else. I think there is something to be learned about prejudice and acceptance from
watching this film.
4. Amadeus

The next film I chose is called Amadeus. It is not an as well-known film as the others that
I have chosen thus far but for me it has many important messages. Amadeus is about Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozarts life as told by Antonio Salieri. The film begins with Salieri, old and in an
insane asylum, sharing his confession of being the reason Mozart is dead to a young priest.
Salieri believes that being a good composer and being able to be successful in music is Gods
reward to him for being good.
Through the film as Salieri is lost in the shadow of the great Mozart we learn that Mozart
is a crude and sometimes terrible man behind the scene. Seeing Mozart be so successful and yet
not nearly as Godly has he Salieri has a break of faith and a bit of a mental break down. At the
same time Mozart begins having his own mental breakdown as he is pushed to his limits to
create music for multiple shows and dealing with financial pressures at home. Toward the end
Salieri reveals that he had a plot to have Mozart write his own Requiem Mass and then he would
kill him and claim the work as his own to have the fame and glory, but before the Requiem could
be finished Mozart died. Salieri was convinced that God would rather kill Mozart than let him
share in the glory.
There are many aspects in the film that are important and I believe show different aspects
of todays society. The first big obvious social topic it confronts is jealously. The jealously of
Salieri towards Mozart completely consumed his entire life even after Mozarts death. The idea
of jealousy is so prevalent in our todays society, the notion that you must always have the best
and the newest to be the best or to be happy is so incredibly relevant. Secondly I believe it helps
uncover some of the faade of fame. Mozart was incredibly popular in his day and even now, but
regardless of his fame he often times had little to no money and he suffered from severe mental
health issues as the time and stress of what he was doing wore on. The true reason behind

Mozarts death is unknown so I have heard that that the degradation of his mental stability that
drove him to lose his family could also have led to his death.
5. The Dead Poets Society
The Final movie I would chose is The Dead Poets Society. This film is about a man
named Mr. Keating who teaches English and Poetry at a boarding school. Throughout the movie
Mr. Keating helps the boys learn how to break down their walls, express their emotions, and
think for themselves. At the same time the boys are learning these things from Mr. Keating they
all are experience great pressures from their parents and other teachers at the school to be a
certain way and do a certain thing. One of the boys named Neil was very positively affected by
Mr. Keating and despite his fathers demands to take the career path of a doctor he decided to
perform in a school play because that is what he wanted to do. At the end of the plays
performance his father shows up angry. Neil ends up committing suicide after his performance
because he is unable to cope with his fathers demands vs. his own wants.
The Dead Poets Society displays the extreme difficulties of being able to be a free
thinker and your own individual person while trying to please everyone around you. I think a lot
of people have this struggle of wanted to be their own person yet wanting to impress or please
those around them. This film helps show the impossibility of making everyone happy. It depicts
these young men who discover that being true to themselves is what really matters.
The movies I chose, Saving Private Ryan, Food Inc., The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,
Amadeus, and The Dead Poets Society, covered a wide range of social topics that either shaped
the way our culture is today or are similar to what occurs today like war, food, prejudice,
acceptance, mental health, jealousy, fame, free thinking and self-reliance, and suicide. I am sure
that there are many other topics that these films cover that I do not see but someone else might.
That is one of the reasons that I think these films would be excellent to show is a film in culture
class. They could each lead to such interesting discussions.