MOVIE LIST for PSYCH 193 (Discourse, Self & Gender)

times have to be arranged - Thursday evenings<?>

(1)        Role Reversal

(2)        American Graffiti (1973)

 

(3)        Stand By Me (1982)

 

(4)        Fast Times at Richmond High (1982)

 

(5)        The Breakfast Club) (1985)

 

(6)        Ferris Buehler’s Day off (1986)

Or

Foxes (1980)

 

(7)        Kids (1995)

 

(8)        Remember the Titans (2000)

 

(9)        Bend it Like Beckham (2000)

 

(10)        Dazed and Confused (1993)

 

(11)      Kids (1995)

 

(12)      Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

            Or

                        The Sum of US

 

(13)      The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2000)

 

(14)      <a current show that we jointly visit in a theatre in town> (at any time over the course of the semester) (to see ourselves within an audience)

 

 

RATIONALE for picking these 14 titles for screenings:

v     OVERALL: to develop a sense of how young males are represented in ‘the media’ (the media here is movies across the last 20-30 years): What are the issues (according to these films) that young males grapple with? What are the themes that we can see popping up again & again? What are the ideologies (or “master narratives”) that seem to run through these films (and possibly through ‘the minds’ of a lot of viewers)?

I wanted to get a ‘good’ sample of “not the worst” and “not too much avant-garde” movies – movies that are/were somewhat ‘popular’, so we can take them as representatives of the taste of ‘the American people’ (and possibly also an international audience) -- reflecting some ‘general ideas’ about gender, sexuality and adolescence (with our focus on a critical analysis of ‘masculinity’ and ‘manliness’).

v     The films start from being produced ‘way-back’ in the seventies/eighties, all the way up to pretty recently made movies. So they reflect different “production times”. In addition, most of these movies ‘look back’ and re-present male adolescents growing up at a particular time before the movie was produced. So they re-present that particular time from the angle of its time of production (which makes a good historical perspective of ‘growing up’ across the last 30 years a lot more complex). However, I hope that we nevertheless can work up different themes and ideologies (“master narratives”) of what it meant ‘to be young and male’ at different times, leading up to the ‘here & now’ – at least from the angle of movies produced over the last 30 years <using a small sample of only 14, and discussing it from OUR perspectives>.

 

WORK WITH THE FILMS:
(A)       I suggest that we (individually) prepare for the screenings. We can do this by making use of the web and reading some reviews (from way back when the movie was produced to more recent reviews) – just so we get a sense of what critics have said about the movie. We even MAY want to engage in a discussion about the movie before its screening on the blackboard!

(B)       We will start (immediately before the screening) with a brief discussion of the movie (10-15 minutes), so we have a little of a joint orientation to what to expect and what to pay attention to.

(C)       Right after the screening, we will have another 15 minutes to collect our “first impressions”.

(D)       Then, we will write a short summary and critical evaluation (2 pp double spaced – or more). --- Here are some guiding questions for this summary/evaluation:

• what was the movie ‘ABOUT’? (i.e., how did it ‘hang together’? what was its ‘theme’?)
• what can we say with regard to ‘ADOLESCENCE’? (i.e., did it represent the topic of ‘adolescence from a particular perspective?)
• what can we say with regard to ‘MASCULINITY’? (i.e., did it represent the topic of ‘maleness’/’manliness’/’masculinity’ from a particular perspective?)
• what other aspects did we ‘learn’ (e.g., about the ‘time’ that was represented <”the sixties”> or about the time this movie was made)?

These are the titles of the 14 movies we will screen weekly at ??? in ???.

Now, you may have seen some (or most) of them and have your favorites, but, at the same time, strongly dislike some of them. Let me suggest the following: In case YOU want to have one or another of the movies ‘out’ and replace it with another movie, you need to do some ‘convincing work’: This ‘convincing work’ should optimally consist of a discussion among all of the participants on the blackboard, during which we all come to a consensus. ---- In other words, there is room to change our screenings, but we need to go about it in a way that makes sense to all of us.

Schedule Information	Assignment Information	Movie List for screenings
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