Teaching with Movies
September 10, 2020 4:54 PM Subscribe
Looking for movies that double as a teaching tool.
I’m looking for movies that are so well done they have been or could be used to learn about said concept. It doesn’t just have to be accedemic, it could show a period in time, or explain string theory. This is a surprisingly hard topic to sum up, so I’m hoping these examples will better demonstrate what I’m thinking of.
My Cousin Vinny has been used as a teaching tool in law schools for over 25 years because it’s an accurate portrayal of voir dire.
I just found out that Groundhog Day has been used as a teaching tool for the Buddhist concept of Samsara.
Are there any other movies you can think of that Illustrate a concept/ idea/ record of a time so well it could be shown to someone to teach that concept?
I’m looking for movies that are so well done they have been or could be used to learn about said concept. It doesn’t just have to be accedemic, it could show a period in time, or explain string theory. This is a surprisingly hard topic to sum up, so I’m hoping these examples will better demonstrate what I’m thinking of.
My Cousin Vinny has been used as a teaching tool in law schools for over 25 years because it’s an accurate portrayal of voir dire.
I just found out that Groundhog Day has been used as a teaching tool for the Buddhist concept of Samsara.
Are there any other movies you can think of that Illustrate a concept/ idea/ record of a time so well it could be shown to someone to teach that concept?
A Clockwork Orange as an illustration of aversive conditioning?
posted by DrGail at 5:09 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by DrGail at 5:09 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
They used to show us Anatomy of a Murder to illustrate how to ethically prepare a witness to testify without actually coaching the witness.
Other People's Money has been used in business schools to teach the concept of leveraged buyouts.
posted by holborne at 5:10 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
Other People's Money has been used in business schools to teach the concept of leveraged buyouts.
posted by holborne at 5:10 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
I watched The Return of Martin Guerre no fewer than a dozen times, maybe more, in high school and college, in a variety of subjects. French, medieval history, historiography, history and film. It’s adapted from an academic book, and the author, Natalie Zemon Davis, served as both a consultant on the film and as president of the American Historical Society. It’s kind of the paradigm as to how to make an historical film.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:24 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 5:24 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
“Forrest Gump” is sometimes used to show a snapshot of 1960s American history; “The Butler” is sometimes called a “Black Forrest Gump.”
posted by Melismata at 5:28 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Melismata at 5:28 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
A couple of months ago I had my sister and her husband watch the opening scene of "Baby Driver" because I like it.
My sister teaches voice lessons and is getting a doctorate in opera, and she said "Oh! This will be perfect for teaching my students about diegetic music!" I hadn't heard the phrase, and she explained that when the character in a film hears the same music that the audience hears and interacts with it, it is considered diegetic.
At that point, I switched to a clip from "Anna and the Apocalypse" (warning: this clip features a bit of zombie violence) where two characters are singing parts of the same song while listening to it on headphones. She liked that example too.
posted by tacodave at 5:47 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
My sister teaches voice lessons and is getting a doctorate in opera, and she said "Oh! This will be perfect for teaching my students about diegetic music!" I hadn't heard the phrase, and she explained that when the character in a film hears the same music that the audience hears and interacts with it, it is considered diegetic.
At that point, I switched to a clip from "Anna and the Apocalypse" (warning: this clip features a bit of zombie violence) where two characters are singing parts of the same song while listening to it on headphones. She liked that example too.
posted by tacodave at 5:47 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
Here are a few, though of varying quality and relevance. This is surprisingly hard to answer!
Moneyball was a very interesting and AFAIK semi-true illustration of the collision of data science and sports.
Fight Club, for all its flaws, is an interesting (not to say accurate) depiction of dissociative identity disorder. (I realize this is stupid in some ways — I mainly mean it's an effective way to transmit the magnitude of the idea and its reality to the person suffering from it. Maybe I'm off base here.)
Grand Prix's depiction of its races — especially the first — was educational and raw. Ronin similarly seemed like a course in extreme driving.
The latest Emma is, I'm told (I wasn't there) very period-accurate in its costumes, a surprisingly rare thing.
Days of Heaven has some good depiction of migrant workers in the '20s.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:58 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Moneyball was a very interesting and AFAIK semi-true illustration of the collision of data science and sports.
Fight Club, for all its flaws, is an interesting (not to say accurate) depiction of dissociative identity disorder. (I realize this is stupid in some ways — I mainly mean it's an effective way to transmit the magnitude of the idea and its reality to the person suffering from it. Maybe I'm off base here.)
Grand Prix's depiction of its races — especially the first — was educational and raw. Ronin similarly seemed like a course in extreme driving.
The latest Emma is, I'm told (I wasn't there) very period-accurate in its costumes, a surprisingly rare thing.
Days of Heaven has some good depiction of migrant workers in the '20s.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:58 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
We watched the movie Matewan when we were learning about unions in high school
posted by gideonfrog at 6:33 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by gideonfrog at 6:33 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm a fan of accuracy movies.
Both Upstairs, Downstairs and Gosford Park are known for their accuracy in depicting Edwardian servant life and house management. They both used ex-servants as consultants with deep knowledge of the style of household operations and social structures in real life.
I'm not a teacher, but I often use Multiplicity as an illustration of (parts of?) Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, i.e. when talking shit.
The Battle of Algiers depicts the early years of modern guerrilla warfare and terrorism. It was famously screened at the Pentagon in 2003.
I love Bamboozled's history of the minstrelsy era. There's a truly historical section of Tap with a challenge circle including one of the Nichols Brothers, Sandman Sims, Sammy Davis Jr., and a bunch more OG hoofers conducting a lesson in the art.
The Duellists depicts early 1800s French military scenes on both sides of Napoleon's exile, and is an exhibition of several different swords used in fighting and the different styles of each. Based on a Joseph Conrad short story so you get some extra schooling assignments you can squeeze out of the idea.
On preview: Matewan is a good one, yep.
posted by rhizome at 6:53 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
Both Upstairs, Downstairs and Gosford Park are known for their accuracy in depicting Edwardian servant life and house management. They both used ex-servants as consultants with deep knowledge of the style of household operations and social structures in real life.
I'm not a teacher, but I often use Multiplicity as an illustration of (parts of?) Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, i.e. when talking shit.
The Battle of Algiers depicts the early years of modern guerrilla warfare and terrorism. It was famously screened at the Pentagon in 2003.
I love Bamboozled's history of the minstrelsy era. There's a truly historical section of Tap with a challenge circle including one of the Nichols Brothers, Sandman Sims, Sammy Davis Jr., and a bunch more OG hoofers conducting a lesson in the art.
The Duellists depicts early 1800s French military scenes on both sides of Napoleon's exile, and is an exhibition of several different swords used in fighting and the different styles of each. Based on a Joseph Conrad short story so you get some extra schooling assignments you can squeeze out of the idea.
On preview: Matewan is a good one, yep.
posted by rhizome at 6:53 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
The ending of Trading Spaces has been used as a walkthrough of commodities trading.
posted by cowlick at 7:26 PM on September 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by cowlick at 7:26 PM on September 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
We watched the opening scene of The Big Lebowski to when the teacher taught us the concept of "show, don't tell".
On the other hand, we also learnt that you can 'show' with dialogue a la American Beauty.
posted by antihistameme at 7:50 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, we also learnt that you can 'show' with dialogue a la American Beauty.
posted by antihistameme at 7:50 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
(Warning: Child of the 1980s)
The writers of "Wargames" interviewed a RAND security engineer for the project, and it's a nice introduction to game theory as applied to nuclear deterrence.
"The Martian" and "Apollo 13" do a good job conveying the technical difficulties of space exploration, and I'd say "Contact" discusses the philosophical implications of extraterrestrial life pretty well.
And this is a controversial pick, but "Ed Wood" is the best movie about a startup ever made.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:22 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
The writers of "Wargames" interviewed a RAND security engineer for the project, and it's a nice introduction to game theory as applied to nuclear deterrence.
"The Martian" and "Apollo 13" do a good job conveying the technical difficulties of space exploration, and I'd say "Contact" discusses the philosophical implications of extraterrestrial life pretty well.
And this is a controversial pick, but "Ed Wood" is the best movie about a startup ever made.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:22 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
I used to use The Truman Show when teaching Plato's Allegory of the Cave. (I did have to explain that reality TV wasn't really a thing yet when it came out, and so the whole thing was shocking and novel.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:30 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:30 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
The Big Short was how I learned about how the mortgage crisis actually went down (and what a tranche was).
posted by Mchelly at 8:35 PM on September 10, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 8:35 PM on September 10, 2020 [9 favorites]
Just watched it again the other day: Jackie Robinson’s widow says that “42” is a very accurate description of what happened during his first years in major league baseball.
posted by Melismata at 8:36 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 8:36 PM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
And while not a movie per se, Mike Judge's "Silicon Valley" is basically a semi-satirical documentary.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:46 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:46 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
Not a movie, but the episode 'Big Brother' from the tv series 'Yes Minister' could be used to teach about data protection.
posted by rjs at 9:23 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by rjs at 9:23 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
This page has links to a wide range of other reference sites listing films that are useful in teaching about psychology, mental illness and cultural context of psychiatry.
posted by metahawk at 11:19 PM on September 10, 2020
posted by metahawk at 11:19 PM on September 10, 2020
Das Boot felt like a viscerally authentic glimpse into the realities of submarines and submarine warfare in WWII, but it's been a long time since I saw it, and its basically sympathetic portrayal of these particular Nazis without the context of the vast evil of their cause might be a lot harder to take these days.
posted by jamjam at 12:59 AM on September 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 12:59 AM on September 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
Not a movie, but the episode, episode 10, "Galileo Was Right" from the series From The Earth To The Moon is a great intro. to Geology and why we care. Note, this is a "docudrama", not a documentary, and each episode in this mini series is standalone, so the episode does not need to be viewed as part of the series to work.
posted by gudrun at 6:34 AM on September 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 6:34 AM on September 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
Another TV show episode, but I’ve heard that the Office (US) episode Boys and Girls has been used in law school classes to show how corporate union busting works.
posted by lunasol at 9:14 AM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by lunasol at 9:14 AM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
I was reminded while reading the FPP about farming on the blue today about the film 'At Any Price', its a bit of a Zac Efron trying to do serious drama vehicle, but its pretty good at making some visual points about the modern economics of farming. The director, Ramin Bahrani, has some other form for looking at socio-economics in his films, '99 Homes' being probably the best known. Points include the need to scale, industrial farming and the rental of land for wind turbines.
posted by biffa at 12:35 PM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 12:35 PM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:08 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]