Analytical Movie Review

EDUC 201

         This project is a critical analysis of a movie on education.  A list of movies you may use for this assignment is attached; I own copies of all of them and will lend them to you (under certain conditions).  You will need to watch a movie and then write a paper analyzing the film in relation to three of the issues of the course (finance, governance, race, gender, SES, law, religion, language, teacher working conditions, curriculum, purpose of schooling, the nature of teaching, etc.)

         First, you need to determine how the issues are represented in the movie.  Then, you need to critically examine those representations.  To critically examine the representations of the three issues, you need to question the representation -- especially if you agree with the representation.  Is the representation accurate or inaccurate?  How does this representation influence how the audience views the issues in education?  If someone were to disagree with you on the representation’s accuracy or inaccuracy, what would their argument be and how would you respond to it?  You can not wholly accept or reject the representation of the issues.  You need to be able to step back and examine the movie from a variety of point of views.  Your primary purpose is to discuss how accurately the movie portrays schools, schooling, teaching, teachers, students, administrators, etc.  Critique the representations.  If this were the only thing we knew about education in America, what would we really know?

         As you can see, an analytical movie review is not a summary of a movie or a discussion of what you liked or did not like about the movie.  The purpose of the analytical movie review is to explore the presentation of three educational issues in the popular media. 

         No more than two individuals may work on the same movie.  Allocation will be on a first-come basis, so if you have a particular one you want to do, the sooner you tell me, the more likely you are to get your first choice.

         Even though more than one person may be reviewing the same movie, your work must be your own (though I don’t mind if you watch it together).

         Your grade on these papers will be a combination grade reflecting both the quality of the writing and the discussion of the issues.  I will grade these with an A through F scale.  The grade criteria are as follows: A = Excellent/Superb; B = Better than Average, goes beyond the requirements; C = Meets the requirements, but doesn’t go beyond them; D = Doesn’t meet the requirements, but shows some effort; F = shows little to no engagement in the assignment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movie List

 

“Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939)

“The Corn is Green” (1945)

“Blackboard Jungle” (1955)

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969)

“To Sir With Love” (1967)

“Up the Down Staircase” (1967)

“Conrack” (1974)

“Teachers” (1984)

“Stand and Deliver” (1987)

“Dead Poet's Society” (1989)

“Lean on Me” (1989)

“Renaissance Man” (1994)

“Dangerous Minds” (1995)

“Mr. Holland's Opus” (1996)

“High School High” (1996?)

“One Eight Seven” (1997)