Film and Values in the Classroom
This fifth grade curriculum unit is designed for students enrolled in visual art classes. Each week during a three month period, students will spend ten to fifteen minutes looking at short clips from at least one of the following films: The Lion King (1994), Au Revoir Les Enfants (1988), MacArthur’s Children (1985), Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Romeo and Juliet (1996). Each of these selected films has strengths; they all exhibit youthful characters, excellent character development, a theme of conflict, a test of loyalty, and a decision-making dilemma. When looking at these films, representing a variety of cultures, time periods, genres and subject matter, students will confront a variety of value systems, observe film characters' responses to those value systems, and unveil processes through which film characters make choices. In so doing, students will discover and examine their own values. As art students, they will look for filming techniques that support and strengthen the personalities of the screen characters and create works for themselves. For these students, film will become more than entertainment, it will be a consciously selected stimulant for thought and a crucible, not a mould, for their identities.
Although the depth of study in my proposed curriculum unit may seem ambitious, it has become clear to me that fifth grade students are searching for answers about their own identities. In our classroom, when the students and I study successful artists’ work and careers, the students become silent and intent as we discuss the artists’ innermost thoughts, passions and beliefs. For this reason, it seems clear to me, that our students are ready to confront their own beliefs, to identify their own values. These films are for mature students. Even so, I have included The Lion King, which appears at the onset a little less serious, simply because of the animation technique that students interpret as cartoon watching. I will rely upon the visual appeal of the animated film, Lion King, as a way to introduce the unit in a non-threatening manner. Students who are timid about examining their values will open up to this film. My art room is a safe place for most children to express themselves: this will be to our advantage. In the art room, we will approach self-discovery through the medium of film.
Change is often preceded by conflict (Bennis et. al, 93). Hypothesizing that children mature in part because of conflict or disagreement, I prepare this curriculum as both a means of disbursing information and as an investigation into the processes through which our students make conscious choices, that is, how they think through difficult decisions. By observing film characters’ conflict resolution or failure, our students will experience different ways to resolve their own conflicts. Some resolutions are positive and some have negative outcomes; students will select the outcome that they value and discuss why they value that particular outcome. It is possible for this curriculum to act as a drug -free stimulant expanding our student’s conscious decision-making power and preparing them for the maturity needed as they enter middle school.
The pilot school for this curriculum unit, J. P. Henderson Elementary School, will include this unit in the 2001 fall art curriculum. This school, a predominantly Latino working class neighborhood school on Houston’s Eastside, is one of Houston Independent School District’s “Exemplary Schools.” To be ranked as exemplary, an HISD school must have 90 to 100 percent of the students passing all parts of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The team effort of school administrators, faculty and staff working with students and parents has contributed to J. P. Henderson’s effective and successful instructional program. The school remains committed to providing each student the opportunity to develop not only excellent academic skills, but also to enhance their social, emotional, artistic and physical well being. Participation in University of Houston’s Houston Teachers Institute is a welcome addition to our neighborhood of support, since it will lead in return back to the classroom.
Students at J. P. Henderson Elementary School will participate in this art research for twelve weeks, meeting once each week for forty-five minutes. Art classes, limited to forty-five minutes, are ideal for viewing short film segments of ten to fifteen minutes. A fifteen-minute discussion and a sketching period of about twenty minutes will follow most film clip presentations. Every third class meeting, one third of our meetings, will be spent re-watching film clips, studying film-making techniques, sharing information, distilling observations and jotting notes in journals. This process will highlight similarities among the films and create continuity within the curriculum unit. It seems then that we will spend about twice as much time in actual drawing, painting and technique activities as we will on discussing values. Rightfully so, because this is an art class. Sketches will be compiled in sketchbooks or stored in portfolios created to hold records of our observations, insights, questions, and work products. The students’ images will not only disclose film character’s identities, but will pay homage to the culture represented on the screen whether European, Latino, Asian or Black.
For example, when sketching scenes from Romeo and Juliet, students could select different color palettes to reflect differences between the 1960s traditional version of the play and the contemporary 1996 modernized version. In contrast, a sketch from
Au Revoir Les Enfants might be rendered completely in subdued colors recalling scenes from the monastic boys school for those children whose parents wanted them sent away from the dangers in Paris during the 1940 Nazi occupation of France. Student portfolios will contain a variety of media: watercolor, ink, pencil, tempera, oil sticks, collage, crayon, prints and chalk on a variety of surfaces. Students may elect to sketch realistically, from their imagination, or in the abstract. They may also record their impressions as landscapes, portraits, group scenes; costume designs, action images, or stills. Student responses will be as varied as the students themselves.
Since filmmaking techniques will be explained and observed frequently, students will learn to recognize the techniques for themselves. Technical manipulations that we will observe and discuss are: special effects, focus, montage, speed, verbal and visual discontinuity, framing, perspective, sound, dissolving, panning, zooming, close-up, color and use of subtitles. We will make storyboards to illustrate some techniques, and create flipbooks or role-play with cardboard viewfinders to experience others.
Before I offer a synopsis of each film and describe the methods for presentation, discussion and illustration of each, let me explain why I have selected these particular films for this age group, fifth grade meaning eleven, twelve and thirteen year-old boys and girls. In most fifth grade classrooms there is a wide range of maturity levels among the students. This is especially true at J. P. Henderson where we have a large population of Latino students who are bilingual, confidently in command of two languages; some students who speak very little English, and a small group who are struggling to communicate. I am focusing on communication because clarity of thought and organization of thought are necessary if students want to share their ideas and feelings. Sharing one’s own thoughts helps create the individual personality and, of course, personality is the basis of friendship. Strengthening one’s own personality and creating new friendships are both indicators of maturity. By exposing students to other youth, in film, we can imitate the processes of interpersonal interaction and magnify the maturity process so that everyone can see it and hear it. We can do this amid various maturity levels and amid language barriers, in the presence of dichotomies like Spanish/English, confident/timid, male/female and teacher/student (Roger and Freiberg, 197).
The art works created by each student will be very personal. It is my hope that each student’s completed works remain together in a portfolio, which becomes a reservoir of thoughts accessible at any time. Rather than displaying the works in an exhibition of some kind, I would like to see the students invite parents to come to school and participate in the film discussions with the class before students take their individual works home to share with their families. By so doing, the students would encourage their parents and siblings to see the entire film with them at home. In the classroom students will help revise the general list of questions to be applied to any film. These questions can be found in Appendix E. That list will then become part of their portfolio. As an artist, I would feel fulfilled if the students actually discussed our question lists at home. I enjoy knowing that intelligent life is multiplying.
The Lion King: Synopsis
In light of the wide range of maturity levels among the fifth grade students at J. P. Henderson, I have decided to include a broader range of films than originally anticipated. I am introducing my curriculum unit with Disney’s The Lion King. This animated film, rated G, was directed by Roger Allers and Robert Minkoff and premiered in 1994. The film places us in the African Savannah, homeland of Black people. Through out the film we see and hear references, considered by some as positive and some negative, to Black Culture (Taussig, 1).
As the film opens, Simba, the lion cub, is heralded as future king of all animals on the African Savannah. This anthropomorphic cub’s innocence, like that of most children, makes him an easy target for his wicked uncle, Scar, who wants to succeed his brother, Mufasa, as king of the Savannah. In a successful attempt to expedite his desired position as king, Scar plots to have Mufasa killed by a runaway herd of wildebeests. Uncle Scar planned to have Simba trampled too, but Mufasa is able to save his son, Simba. From an outcropping of rock, Simba watches the horrifying scene as his father is trampled to death and Simba accepts guilt and blame for his father’s death. This scene is so violent, that one film reviewer, Dr. Arthur Taussig, suggests that children under twelve see this movie only with guidance (FilmValues, 1). I agree that the emotional intensity provoked by this scene is best experienced with a parent, teacher or mature friend. After his father’s death, Simba runs away: he cannot face his mother or his friends. He is found far away in the desert and befriended by a warthog, Pumba, and a meercat, Timon, who live by the philosophy, “hakuna matata,” a carefree life style. But as an adolescent, Simba accepts responsibility and returns to his home to confront Scar and become king. The film is a tragedy and a serious coming of age story lightened intermittently by the comic relief of Pumba and Timon. Two film reviews compare portions of this film’s narrative to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Ebert, 3 and FilmValues, 1). Both review sources describe the situations of family conflict over the throne and the hero’s conversations with the dead father’s spirit as references to Hamlet. Such references lend weight to the seriousness of this animated story.
Lion King: Value discussion
To prepare students for the ten-minute clip and fifteen-minute discussion time, copies of The Lion King synopsis will be distributed and each student will read along with the teacher. The first clip, approximately seven or eight minutes into the film, introduces Simba as an innocent little boy cub who is being tempted into wrongdoing by his uncle Scar, in this dialogue:
Simba: Yeah Uncle Scar, guess what? I’m going to be king of Pride Rock. I’m going to rule it all.
Scar: Oh Goodie! Yes, well forgive me for not leaping, bad back you know. So, your father showed you the whole kingdom, did he?
Simba: Everything!
Scar: He didn’t show you what’s beyond that rise of the northern border.
Simba: Well no, said I can’t go there.
Scar: And he’s absolutely right, far too dangerous! Only the bravest lions go there.
Simba: Well, I’m brave. What’s out there?
Scar: I’m sorry Simba, I can’t tell you. (The Lion King, 1994)
This situation, in which the dark side of the conflicting values emerge, demonstrates Scar’s use of reverse psychology to manipulate Simba into disobeying his father and thereby putting Simba at the mercy of a pack of hungry hyenas waiting beyond the rise of the northern border. After viewing the visual exchange between Simba and Scar, the teacher and students will be prepared to discuss values underlying the following issues: deliberately exploiting other’s weaknesses, disobeying parents, giving curiosity free rein, losing self-control, being gullible, using reverse psychology for one’s own benefit, disobedience, and protecting the innocent.
Film clip number two is a romantic scene with a blue background (Pacheco and Wakeman, 4). In this scene Mufasa tells Simba how disappointed he was with his behavior but also confides that his disappointment stems from a deep fear of losing his son. The scene begins on a somber note but ends with mutual understanding and male tussling:
Mufasa: I’m very disappointed in you. You could have been killed.
You deliberately disobeyed me! And what’s worse, you put
Nala in danger.
Simba: I know. I was just trying to be brave like you.
Mufasa: I’m only brave when I have to be.
Simba: Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.
Simba: You’re not scared of anything!
Mufasa: I was today.
Simba: You were?
Mufasa: Yes, I thought I might lose you.
Simba: I guess even kings get scared. (The Lion King, 1994)
The first film clip focused on the idea of loss and destruction while film clip number two introduced the bonds of family love and the tradition of patriarchal inheritance. Now film clip number three confronts us with the actuality of loss and destruction. Film clip number three is the scene of Mufasa’s death by the stampeding wildebeests. This scene is very frightening not only because of the physical action but because of the betrayal between brothers and the death of Simba’s father. Values to be considered for discussion are: death as a solution to a problem, fathers as protectors, self sacrifice, betrayal, blame, accepting guilt, family loyalty, the strength of love, and shame.
After presenting each film clip the teacher will begin the class discussion with questions and comments from the students. Then a written list of questions from appendix A.2 will be presented for students’ consideration. Ten minutes of discussion will precede a twenty-minute time period for drawing in sketchbooks or creating a finished works for portfolios. During this first film clip and study session, playing the clips and answering questions may take two class periods. We are establishing a new method for study and we need to set up housekeeping rules and procedures before beginning. It will take about ten minutes at the beginning of class to introduce the unit and orient the students to the study methods.
The Lion King: Art project
Before we begin applying pencil or paint to paper, students must choose either to create an animated flip book or to draw freestyle, in which they express their own impressions of characters from The Lion King. The lesson plan, Appendix A.3, outlines procedures for creating a flipbook. Students will focus on a character and use one simple act of motion to create their own animated flipbooks. Specific objectives for making flipbooks and for drawing animated characters are described in the lesson plans in Appendix A.3. The appendix also includes a list of materials.
The Lion King: Connection between value study and art work
I want to make a strong connection between the values discussed and the art works created. The students will probably verbalize that symbiosis while they are working, but it will disappear quickly unless it is cemented to the project in some way. Therefore, each student will create a title reflecting the value that he or she chose as a stimulus for creating his or her artwork. For example, a flipbook illustrating Simba tussling with Mufasa could address the value of parental protection if titled, “Dad wouldn’t want to lose me,” or “I feel safe with my Dad.” Conversely, it could address sacrifice or family loyalty if titled; “I’ll never forget Dad.”
Au Revoir Les Enfants: Synopsis
This film, like The Lion King, is a coming of age, loss of innocence story. However, it is a somber film from the onset. Writer, producer and director, Louis Malle, recalled a memory from his childhood as stimulus for Au Revoir Les Enfants (Good-bye Children). The story takes place in France during WW II, in 1944 (Ebert, 1). A young aristocratic boy, Julien (played by Gaspard Manesse), is being sent away to boarding school because his parents fear for his safety in Paris. After Julien’s difficult separation from his mother, he begins his own story of self-discovery. He is challenged academically by a Jewish boy arriving at school. None of the boys at the boarding school are told that Jean (Raphael Fejto), is Jewish, because he is being hidden from the Gestapo. Julien and Jean eventually befriend one another and learn piecemeal about each other’s lives. Julien manages to assemble a unique definition of what it means to be Jewish. Jean, always in fear for his life, is intrigued by Julien’s lifestyle. The boys learn that friendship erases the boundaries of prejudice and hatred but that war does not. Julien discovers to late that his Jewish friend, Jean, is hiding among the French schoolboys in hopes of avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. Ultimately it is Julien’s concern for the safety of his friend that leads to his friend’s arrest. After Jean and several others are arrested, Nazi officers assemble all the school- boys in the courtyard and humiliate them either for being Jewish or for harboring those who are Jewish. The incredible bond formed between the boys is not shattered even though a harsh new understanding of the world has stunned each of them.
Au Revoir Les Enfants: Value discussion
To prepare students for the ten-minute clip and fifteen-minute discussion time, copies of the Au Revoir Les Enfants synopsis, Appendix B.1, will be distributed and each student will read along with the teacher. The first clip chosen from the beginning of the film opens with a farewell scene at a Paris railroad station. The year is 1940 and the city, currently occupied by German soldiers, is in danger of being bombed. Even in the best of times, separation of mother and son is not easy, but in the midst of the horrors of WW II this separation is even more difficult. Julienne, age 12, is leaving his home and his aristocratic Parisian mother to travel to a Catholic boys boarding school outside the city. This opening scene is the first film-clip that we will watch. The moment is a tender one in which both mother and son try to accept the departure. Julienne is angry and embarrassed as he cries and yet he denies that his tears are real. When the musical sound of French voices is interrupted by the stationmaster’s harsh German voice, we recognize this as a symbol of the difficult journey ahead. Julien’s mother promises to write and visit, but they both know their relationship is changing. Julien lashes out saying he doesn’t give a damn about his father and he hates his mother. Julien’s older brother interrupts the scene long enough for the two to regain their composure. Julienne’s mother asks, “Do you think I like it? I’ll miss you all the time.” They both understand the looks and gestures that secure their love for one another. Mother says she would like to disguise herself as a boy and join him at school. It would be their secret. They smile, they hug and then Julienne departs. We will examine the values underlying this difficult process of separation when we discuss mothers’ desires to protect their children, fear of loosing one's mother and the ethics of civilian deaths during wartime.
Film clip number two, very briefly, follows the credits on the screen and establishes Julien as a bright and strong member of the school. This scene also introduces, Jean, the young Jewish boy who befriends Julien. The major issues to discuss about this scene are what does it means to be a friend and how does one become a friend.
The third film clip is almost three-quarters of the way through the film. It is the scene in which Julien and Jean, now good friends get lost in the woods during a game of orienteering. They spend several frightening hours alone in the dark before two German soldiers rescue them. Both boys are exhausted and frightened but Jean fears the German soldiers may be Gestapo looking for him. The scene symbolizes the fear and uneasiness about the unknown that these two boys constantly experience. Jean and Julien are among the few students who have realized the crisis of war. Issues for discussion here are as diverse as what it means to grow up, being responsible for yourself and why some people are hunted by other people because of their beliefs.
The fourth film clip is the film’s final scene in which two Gestapo officers visit the boarding school in search of Jewish boys in hiding. While the Catholic boarding school boys are questioned about the Jewish stowaways, Julien glances toward Jean for a split second. His momentary glance was the information for which the well-trained officers were waiting. Jean is arrested. Julien feels great remorse for being partially responsible for the arrest of his dear friend. Never before had the boys considered the consequences of war as personal. The director, Louis Malle, does not make Jean’s discovery a solitary event but rather has Jean discovered in front of all his classmates. In this scene the director, Malle, uses a strategy similar to the one used by Italian film director DeSica during the1940s when he filmed The Bicycle Thief. DeSica used a young boy as the witness to his father’s attempted theft and in doing so transformed a private act of stealing into an act witnessed by a social institution, the family (Bazin, 53). I think this
is the issue we need to focus upon in this scene. In Malle’s film the school students are called into the quadrangle and humiliated because they participated as sympathizers. But let us discuss how it would have felt to be Jean or to be Julien. What does it feel like to suffer silently, as Jean did, and then be discovered in public? We will discuss our view on tolerance, respect, shame, humiliation and innocence. This discussion may take more than fifteen minutes so we might divide this discussion into two class meetings.
Au Revoir Les Enfants: art project
The filming techniques reflect the somber tone of the film through color choices, grays and neutrals peopled with flesh tone. The solemn feeling is also emphasized through the simplicity of décor in the boarding school, which contrasts with the luxuriousness of aristocratic architectural interiors. Students will reflect these color schemes in their storyboard drawings. Storyboards consist of a sequence of frames indicating the movement and duration of scenes. Louis Malle makes excellent use of duration to set the pace of this film. The time interval between film clip one and two is filled with credit lines but, it is also a long duration image of Julien looking out the window of the train as it creates more distance between him and all with which he is familiar. This prolonged section of montage is also very effective in relaying the significance of this event for Julien. Desson Howe, a writer for The Washington Post, described Malle’s use of montage as a “virtual slide show of faces, buildings, rows of beds, and classrooms” (Howe, 1). We will take quick look at this footage as well because it is an effective means of setting the psychological stage as well making the transition from one physical scene to another. When we next see Julien he is with his new family, the teachers and students at boarding school.
To begin creating works, students may select any one of the scenes that we viewed and create their own storyboard illustrating the sequential nature and the duration of the montaged events. I will have two video monitors available so we can scroll through the scenes over and over as we work. The lesson plan, appendix B.3, provides step by step directions and examples of storyboards.
Au Revoir Les Enfants: Connection between value study and art work
Once again, I want to make a strong connection between the values discussed and the art works created. Therefore, each student will create a title reflecting the value that he or she chose as a stimulus for creating the storyboard. For example, a story-board illustrating the boys lost in the forest could be entitled, “I wasn’t sure I could find my way home and I was scared,” or “I was glad to have a friend with me.” In order to demonstrate the impact of a title, I will show students a landscape of a cornfield with crows flying out of it painted by Vincent Van Gogh, “Wheatfield with Crows.” Then I will show them the same image, but this time it will be accompanied by the title, “This is the last picture that Vincent Van Gogh painted before he killed himself (Berger, 28). The example will clarify the importance of a title.
MacArthur’s Children: Synopsis
This film, like The Lion King and Au Revoir Les Enfants is a coming of age story. This PG rated Japanese film with English sub-titles opens with a large group of children standing at attention in the quadrangle of their schoolyard. They are listening to a radio broadcasting the voice of their Japanese Emperor as he surrenders to the Americans at the end of WWII. The Japanese children appear to be either well-versed in stoicism or in a state of shock. Their schoolteacher is the only emotional one and she departs from the group before weeping. Immediately following this scene the director, Masahiro Shinoda, superimposes a running montage of scenes with large Japanese lettering cut from an American flag. The lettering, which parades across the screen, spells out the film’s title MacArthur’s Children (Setouchi Shonen Yakyu Dan). American music, circa WWII Glenn Miller, plays in the background as we experience a potent visual overlapping of two cultures. The film director uses superb visual imagery to focus our attention on his subject, forced assimilation of the American Culture by the Japanese. He presents incidents of struggle and resistance as well as curiosity and acceptance while filming his interpretation of the occupation of Japan following the war. Through skillful manipulation, Shinoda transforms the small Japanese Island of Awaji into a microcosm of post-war Japan. John Hart’s review of MacArthur’s Children presented an interesting insight into responses by both American and Japanese audiences in 1984 when he said:
But to Western eyes it is also a fascinating glimpse of a national period of readjustment that rarely has been treated in movies. Apparently it was fascinating to the Japanese as well: This was the top-grossing Japanese movie released last year in Japan, and it was Japan’s choice to compete in this year’s Oscar race for best foreign film. (Hart, 2)
A great portion of the film is seen through the eyes of a group of fifth grade students, who are curious about the Americans but protective of their own acculturated sense of order. In this film, the students’ coming of age occurs when they are challenged to play a baseball match with American soldiers.
MacArthur’s Children: Values discussion
Students in the art classroom will review four segments of the film, MacArthur’s Children. Before viewing segment one, they will read the synopsis and discuss any questions with the teacher. The first segment is the opening scene itself. After seeing the opening sequence, the students and teacher will address both parts of question number one from appendix C.2: How would you feel if you saw the letters U.S.A. cut from a piece of the red, white and green Mexican flag? How do you suppose the Japanese children who saw this portion of the film felt about that lettering? Responses may be as varied as feelings of resentment, curiosity, confusion or excitement. The students and the teacher will also discuss the significance of the lettering from an artistic point of view. They will question how a simultaneous vision of two incongruent elements, Japanese letter shapes and American flag texture, can be useful in predicting the subject matter of the film. After this discussion students need to ask each other what they think the film is going to be about?
Immediately following the trailing Americanized Japanese alphabet letters, Shinoda uses another effective montage technique. He alternates a sequence of color-images of Awaji, the Japanese Island, with a sequence of black and white images of General MacArthur. MacArthur’s descent from the steps of his American airplane, his address to the Japanese Emperor, and his interaction with American servicemen are interspersed with colorful images of Awaji. Through this visual montage, Shinoda reiterates his purpose – the mandatory assimilation of American practices into Japanese daily life. This is the film director’s second use of visual montage within the first few moments of the film. By repeating this technique he creates a strong visual argument.
The second film clip is a scene in Awaji’s fifth grade classroom. The teacher is instructing her students to blacken specific passages in their texts. By so doing they will erase evidence of knowledge accumulated and disseminated during centuries of Japanese tradition. It is a difficult moment for the teacher and she turns her back and restrains her tears. Some of the students, on the other hand, lash out at one another. One of the boys says that he will have to be gangster now because he no longer has the option of becoming a decorated Navy man. After watching this scene together the teacher will ask students to read and answer question number two from Appendix C.2, what do they think this fifth grade student is really trying to say? My students may suggest that being a gangster is just another way to be part of a group of boys or that there would be no honor in being part of a failed Japanese Navy. The teacher might suggest that the Japanese children probably felt much the same way that we would feel. They may have felt a little confused and fearful about their futures because the rules, what was expected of them, seemed to be changing. The teacher will continue the discussion by addressing question three as well: why do the boys begin to ink each others’ faces, do you imagine any reason other than playfulness and how do their actions relate to the blackening of text pages? The values being addressed in film clip number two include the presence and absence of role models, differing roles for winners and losers, and the importance and difficulty of re-evaluating our lives when dreams don’t come true. In closing this discussion, the teacher may find it helpful to ask students how they reevaluate and create new strategies when their initial plans are not successful.
Film clip number three is a short segment in which one of the fifth grade boys is asked by his grandfather to burn his childhood art works. The works picture an arsenal of Japanese Navy cruisers and destroyers. The artwork is dear to the boy because his mother who is now dead had saved the drawings for him. The drawings must now be destroyed because they represent the defeated Emperor’s reign. The boy’s grandfather asks him if he needs help and the boy responds that he can do it alone. After savoring each memory the boy collects the papers on his grandfather’s stone patio floor and burns them. He has said goodbye to a way of life that he treasured. After seeing this film chip the teacher will ask the students to talk about the similarities between this scene and the previous one.
Film clip number four will be viewed only after reading and discussing question four, Appendix C.2, which asks: How do you think the children on Awaji could begin to rebuild their dreams? Do friends help in this process? Having viewed the previous film clips, my students will have some new insight into the process of externally imposed change. Now we will turn our attention to the process of rebuilding a dream, that is, motivation from within the individual. New dreams can be spun, and plans for making those dreams are made by individuals who can visualize change. Now we will play film clip number four. It begins near the end of the film when the Japanese students are still approaching the American soldiers with caution, but we begin to see a steadily growth of curiosity. Now the Japanese children’s interest in American soldiers is focused on the game of baseball. So, this last film clip focuses on the sport of baseball as a means of communication and interaction. The student’s Japanese teacher learns the gist of the game of baseball by reading and looking at magazines. She includes her students’ families in her acculturation process by asking them to sew baseballs from rags and to form mitts from bits of fabric. The scenes showing construction of and play with the homemade equipment are very warm-spirited. The Japanese students’ experience of change is becoming not just about loss but also about acquiring new skills, insights, knowledge and friendships. We will consider what it means to be a friend and how to go about warming up to someone about whom you are curious. Values for consideration are, friendship can overcome differences, curiosity as a motivator, and the significance of games as a means of communication and friendship.
MacArthur’s Children: Art project
Students will respond to scenes in which Japanese children destroyed parts of their own personal history and parts of the Nation’s history. At the very beginning of the film we saw Japanese students inking their brushes and blacking out the sections of their school texts which referred to the Imperial Shrines and National Ceremonies and Holidays. We will experience the gravity of that blackening by blacking out a copy of a document, letter or art work that is significant to each of us. Each student will need a copy of one of the following items: a patriotic document like our National Anthem or our Declaration of Independence which the student has copied in his or her own handwriting, a work of art made by the student when he or she was a child, or an important letter from someone to whom he or she is very close. I think it would be wise for the teacher to collect this information well in advance and to make a photocopy of it, which we will use in the actual blackening process. Students, however, should not be aware that they were using a copy until after the project. We will use Bamboo brushes and India ink just like the Japanese fifth grade students used. During the process of blackening-out their documents, I hope my students will feel an emotion associated with loss. As a second part of our exercise we will create art works on the dried surface of our inked-out documents, letters or art works. Those art works will represent our new dreams based solely upon our memories of the information we deleted. The step by step lesson plan is outlined in appendix C.3.
MacArthur’s Children: connection between value study and art project
Our discussion of the film, MacArthur’s Children, has addressed the issue of loss brought about by circumstances beyond the individual’s control. The blackening of our personal documents has brought that experience closer to each of us. The process has been a memorable one and one that I hope my students will recall in conjunction with our topic, loss and the rebuilding of dreams. Therefore, I encourage each student to prepare a two-part title for his or her artwork, and to write that title on the back along with the date. One part of the title should reflect the feelings of loss and the other the determination to build a new dream. The titles and works will be shared and discussed among the students.
We will add these completed works to our portfolios.
Romeo and Juliet: synopsis
Shakespeare’s tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a courageous story of youthful love and a sobering study of rivalry between two families. The young lovers, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague, are played by teenage actors in the 1996 film version. For my students it makes the film more believable to know that Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) are just a couple years older than they are (Woo, 1). The final words from Shakespeare’s play convey the families’ responses to Romeo’s and Juliet’s resolution to be together forever. “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (Harrison, 510).
Romeo and Juliet: Values Discussion
Each student will compare and contrast film clips from the same six scenes of Romeo and Juliet (1968, 1996). The scenes are outlined in Appendix D.2. We will read the indicated verses before watching scenes performed, first in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production and then in Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 production of Romeo and Juliet. Students will notice immediately that there is a great difference between the two performances. Through the process of sorting out those differences, we will scrutinize values which Shakespeare’s characters hold dear and at the same time question our own value systems. Some of the first things our students will notice are the differences between the Academy award winning Elizabethan costumes designed by Danilo Donati for the 1968 film and the designer label clothing, Dolce and Gabbiano for the Capulet boys and Prada for the Montagues gang, in the 1996 modernized film ( www.tvguide.com , www.planetout.com ).
There are differences too among the Elizabethan gestures and sets and the modernized body language and street scenes in the two films. Students may wonder how both productions can be valid interpretations of Shakespeare’s renowned play.
By investigating current tends in cultural studies, I found that Mukerji and Schudson addressed just such issues in their book, Rethinking Popular Culture. They explore the division between “elite culture,” in this case, the culture which gave birth to Shakespeare’s literary tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, and “mass culture” or the commonplace upon which the modernized film (Romeo and Juliet, 1996) is based. Mukerji and Schudson found the once honored division of culture into two parts, elite and common or degrading was no longer meaningful in our contemporary society. Instead they pose an inclusive model that defines contemporary culture as one which would validate both the Elizabethan version of Romeo and Juliet (1968) and the contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet (1996) as culturally significant (Mukerji and Schudson, 2). Our comparison of the two Romeo and Juliet films will help us understand that issues addressed by the play are as important today as they were when Shakespeare wrote it during the fifteen hundreds. Our interpretations of what is right and what is wrong may vary, but the issues prevail: family loyalty, love conquers all, obeying parents, abiding by the law, forgiving others, honoring promises, belief in an afterlife. We will discuss how issues have changed by addressing the questions listed in Appendix D.3. As a result, we will discover that the literary tragedy is as an art form engendering emotion. In light of this understanding of tragedy, we will begin our art project, painting Abstract Expressionistic works that embody an emotional state.
Romeo and Juliet: Art project
After students have compared and contrasted film clips, they will begin the art project. Literary tragedies are laden with emotion so our art project will make use of those emotional states. As a class we will take a critical look at works of the Abstract Expressionists Movement and discuss the role of the emotions in such works. We will examine works from Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey, Robert Motherwell and Pierre Soulage. Examples can be found in The Art Book (Phaidon, 1999). Then the teacher will demonstrate the method that we will use in our classroom. Each student will paint an abstract expressionistic work in response to an emotional state seen in one of the film clips of Romeo and Juliet. Some students will focus on young love tenderly and innocently portrayed by Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, 1968) while others may focus on the violence emphasized by Luhrmann’s vision (Romeo and Juliet, 1996). In either case, we will use tempera paint to execute works that recall an emotion. The lesson plan is outlined in appendix D.4. Cinematographers, like visual artists, use color and movement to create energy levels and emotional states. We will experience the act of making an expressionistic record of an emotion in order to strengthen our recall of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet: Connection between value study and art project
Our discussion of the films, Romeo and Juliet (1968, 1996) has addressed issues of family loyalty during the physical and emotional upheavals experienced as Romeo and Juliet struggle for their identities. Our discussion questions and our art project have focused on the potency of our own feelings. Before we add our Abstract Expressionist works in our portfolios I would like each student to create a title for his or her work. That title must reflect a feeling which the student experienced during our film clip reviews, as well as a value that the student would like to integrate into his or her own identity. Students who would like to share their titles may do so.
APPENDIX A: THE LION KING DOCUMENTS
A.1 The Lion King: Synopsis
The students’ synopsis is the same as the synopsis in the narrative section of this paper.
A.2 The Lion King: List of questions for students
Values:
Film Technique:
A.3 The Lion King: Lesson plan
Focus: for value study
Objective: for value study
The teacher will assist students in identifying values addressed in the film. The value discussion will begin by reading and answering specific questions concerning this film. (Appendix A.2) Each student will select a value that appeals to him or her and write one or two sentences describing how that value was pictured and presented in the film. It may be helpful for students to choose the character that they would most like to be or not like to be- Mufasa, Simba, Scar, Timon or Pumba. The teacher will gather students’ information to share with the whole class. The teacher will summarize values that have been addressed so that students are aware of them when they begin to select titles for their art works.
Focus: for animation art project
Teacher and students will look at 3 film clips from The Lion King. The teacher will introduce the word animation as the technical name for the moving cartoon-like-characters just seen in The Lion King film clips. The teacher will show examples of artist’s renderings of the cartoon characters shown in the Disney how to draw book. The book also shows a picture of an actual lion that was brought into the Disney studio for the animation artists to look at while they were creating Simba, Mufasa and Scar. We will discuss the fact that the animators chose to use real life colors for the lions but used many other colors that were fantasy-like.
Objective: for animation art project
Each student will make either a flip-book or an animated drawing of two of the characters from The Lion King. Those animals’ interactions will be representative of the values which that student chose to examine. Two television monitors will be available for students to review the clips that they will study in detail. By looking at the scene again students can see the gestures and expressions of the animals. In addition the Disney animation book will be available for studying animals forms, expressions and the how to draw pictures of Disney’s characters.
Making an animated film strip
What movement will your animation show? Students will begin by drawing some sketches of the animals moving in different ways. On a strip of heavy clear plastic, like overhead transparency stock, students will draw six equal frames. Then with a thin permanent felt tip marker students will draw their animals in each frame. They will show slight progressive changes from frame to frame. To see the animation at work, tape a sheet of paper to the glass plate of an overhead projector. Allow light to shine through an area about the width of the transparency. Then pull the transparency quickly across the opening, The animation will come to life. Ask students to imagine a longer strip containing an entire scene. Ask students to discuss how this process of animation is like the process of making a film.
Making a flip book
What movement will your animation show? Making a flipbook is another way to illustrate the process of creating animation. To make a flipbook each student will need 5 index cards. Have students arrange the index cards horizontally across the table and number them 1 through 5. Choose a simple movement that you want your animals to make like raising a paw, turning a head, wagging a tail or blinking an eye. Begin by drawing the first stage of the movement on card one and the final stage on card five. Then students can fill in cards two through four, as part of the sequence of movement. When the drawings are complete, stack the cards and flip one corner of the stack to create movement. Most students will probably want to create a more complex sequence of movement by adding more cards to the stack. Ask students how this process of creating animation is like the process of making a film.
Purpose:
Making a flipbook or a filmstrip illustrates how films and animated movies are created. They are made from a sequence of still images which moved quickly so that our eyes see motion.
Materials: animated filmstrip
Overhead transparency film or medium weight clear plastic cut into two- inch strips.
Fine point permanent markers – black
Masking tape to mask an area on the overhead projector glass
Overhead Projector Small paper for preliminary sketching Pencils
Materials: flipbook
Plain white index cards – 5 per student Fine point markers or ball point pens – black
APPENDIX B: AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS DOCUMENTS
The students’ synopsis is the same as the synopsis in the narrative section of this paper.
Values:
Would you like to have a friend like Julien or Jean? Why?
Why does Julien remain loyal to Jean?
Would Julien’s understanding of Jewish people be different if he had stayed in Paris? Why?
With whom do you think Julien shared his new understandings?
What do you think became of Jean?
Film Techniques:
Did you read the subtitles or the characters expressions and actions? How did they help?
How did the director, Louis Malle, use montage: that is, how did he connect the scenes?
What was the significance of the color used in this film?
Focus: for storyboard
Objective: for storyboard
Each student will select a portion of a scene from Au Revoir Les Enfants and analyze it by making a storyboard. A storyboard is a tool that filmmakers use to convey their ideas about how a scene will look and the duration and juxtaposition of each frame within the scene. The storyboard was designed so that ideas could be seen, not talked about. They look like a grid of rectangles. For example, if you fold a piece of paper in the middle and then continue folding in the same manner when you open it you will see a group of boxes. Those little boxes are the frames into which we will sketch the sequence of actions that make up a portion of one scene. Filmmakers actually make these storyboards before filming. We are deconstructing the existing film so we are making our storyboard after the fact. The teacher will demonstrate storyboard making before students begin to make their own. Each student will use a grid of at least 12 images. The sequence of images will convey the duration, color, and general action of the scene. Two television monitors with the video, Au Revior Les Enfants, will available so students can stop action to study specific frames. Students will draw with pencil or pen and an add color with watercolor washes.
Purpose:
Through the process of mimicking this film making technique, students will begin to understand the clarity of vision and the length of time that is necessary to produce a film. Consequently, I hope they will understand the care with which directors choose their subject matter and realize that coming-of-age is a very important passage in their lives.
Materials:
2 Videos and 2 monitors Pens
White light weight watercolor paper 18” x 24” Pencils
Erasers Water bowls
Watercolor trays with brushes -2 sizes Paper towels
APPENDIX C: MACARTHUR’S CHILDREN DOCUMENTS
C.1 MacArthur’s Children: synopsis for students
The students’ synopsis is the same as the one in the narrative section of this paper.
C. MacArthur’s Children: List of questions for students
Values:
Film Techniques:
C.3 MacArthur’s Children: Lesson plan
Eradicating a Document and Creating a New Dream
Focus:
Objective:
Each student will blacken-out a record of something important that occurred in his or her past. These items will be used as reminders of our personal past or of our country's long standing traditions. Our purpose in so doing is to imitate the gestures made by the Japanese school children when they eradicated portions of their school texts. We will use India ink and Bamboo brushes to cover up the images or writings that lay before us on the table. Students will not talk during this exercise but will concentrate on the information that they are destroying. The wet papers will be set aside to dry and we will discuss how it felt to eradicate something important. When the ink has dried, each student will draw on top of the dried surface of his or her blackened document. The students’ subject matter will be, “a new dream or goal.” Students may use chalk, oil pastels, or a whiteout pen to complete their works. Students may find it useful to look at art books to help stimulate ideas for dreams. I suggest a variety of texts from the annotated student bibliography:
Garza, Carmen Lomas. Family Pictures: Cuadros de Familia.
Leaf, Margaret. Eyes of the Dragon.
Wardlaw, Alvia. What a Wonderful World! A Child’s View of the Art of John Biggers.
Purpose:
Artists consider the materials that they use because the material is part of the statement the artist is making. They can choose to honor or to defile. They often think it wise to consider the consequences of their actions before they begin.
Materials:
Each student will bring a copy of one of the following items:
India Ink Small containers or individual ink bottles
VCR Player and Monitor Resource books
APPENDIX D: ROMEO AND JULIET DOCUMENTS
D.1 Romeo and Juliet: Synopsis for students
Synopsis for students is the same as the synopsis in the narrative section of this paper.
Values:
Technique:
D.3 Romeo and Juliet: Selected dialogue for discussion
Passage # 1: Prologue (Harrison, 474)
Setting the scene by chorus (Romeo and Juliet, 1969) Setting the scene by television broadcast (Romeo and Juliet, 1996)
Passage # 2: Act I, scene i. Verona, a public place (Harrison, 474)
Introduction of the feuding families
Passage # 3: Act I, scene v. A hall in Capulet’s house (Harrison, 481)
The celebration where Romeo and Juliet meet
Passage # 4: Act II, scene ii. Capulet’s orchard (Harrison, 484)
The balcony love scene
Passage # 5: Act V, scene i. Mantua, a street (Harrison, 505)
Passage # 6: Act V, scene iii, lines 286–310.
A churchyard; in it a monument belonging to the Capulets. (Harrison, 509)
The closing scene where the Capulet and Montaque families are reconciled
D.4 Romeo and Juliet: Lesson plan
Emotions on view through Abstract Expressionism
Focus:
Objective: for value discussion Each student will compare and contrast film clips from the same six scenes of Romeo and Juliet (1968, 1996) (Appendix D.3). Teacher and students will read the verse, and then see the lines performed, first in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production and then in Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 production. Each student will have a copy of the lines and the list questions to be discussed (Appendix D.2).
Objective: for art project
As a class we will look at slides of several Abstract Expressionists work: Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey, Robert Motherwell and Pierre Soulage. Examples can also be found in The Art Book (Phaidon, 1999). Each student will paint an abstract expressionistic work in response to an emotional state seen in one of the film clips of Romeo and Juliet. Some students will focus on young love tenderly and innocently portrayed by Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, 1968) while others may focus on the violence emphasized by Luhrmann’s vision (Romeo and Juliet, 1996). In either case, we will use tempera paint to execute works that recall an emotion that we discussed. Then students will cover the tables with newspapers before laying out large sheets, 18”x 24”, of manila paper. They will focus on the emotion they wish to portray while working paint onto the paper using gestures such as: gentle dribbles, violent arcing curves, hairline streams or broad strokes. When the work is complete we will leave the papers on the table to dry. As students complete their works they will circulate around the room with the teacher to look at and discuss the works. When works are dry they will be added to the students’ portfolios.
Purpose:
Cinematographers like visual artists use color and movement to create energy levels and emotional states. We will experience the act of making an expressionistic record of an emotion in order to remember our discussion about Romeo and Juliet.
Materials:
Rented videos of both Romeo and Juliet films Monitor and VCR player
Newspaper 18” x 24” sheets of manila paper
Tempera liquid in a variety of colors Brushes – ½ inch and 2 inch sizes
Copies of synopsis, verses and questions Pencils and note paper
Student portfolios
APPENDIX E
Values:
Film Techniques:
Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema? Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
The text is a collection of film criticism essays including a detailed description of the philosophy and practical examples of The Italian School.
Bennis, Warren. Benne, Kenneth. Chin, Robert. Corey, Kenneth. The Planning of Change. New York, NY: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1976.
This text describes a number of theories on change as well as commenting on research and addressing practical experiences in applied social theories.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972.
This book is a collection of essays using words and images or only images to raise question on the nature of seeing. The essays elaborate upon ideas that are consistent with producing and viewing film. For example, the essays consider such statements as, seeing comes before words, seeing establishes our place in the world and there is always a gap between seeing and words.
Erens, Patricia. Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1990.
This collection of essays highlights films through the 1980s. The criticisms discuss feature length films, independent shorts, animation and educational films. Topics of discussion are: use of psychoanalytic theories, female spectatorship, women in film melodrama, and issues of race, class and sexual preference.
Harrison, G. B. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968.
The complete works compiled herein are written in contemporary American text rather than Globe text. This source includes a discussion of customs, phrases and words, which are not easily understood by today’s standards. Background information concerning the life and times of Shakespeare is exceptional in its’ detail.
Mukera, Chandra and Schudson, Michael. Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991.
This is a collection of essays investigating differences between high and low cultural concepts as seen through the eyes of anthropologists, sociologists, historians and literary scholars. The essay by Lawrence Levine addressing cultural integration and transformation of Shakespeare in American Society was of particular interest for this paper.
Newton, Paula. Being and Time: The Emergence of Video Projection. Houston, TX: Contemporary Arts Museum Publication, 1997.
This is a resource kit containing lesson plans, slides and information describing and discussing exhibitions installed at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. The lesson about projected video focuses on the work of Tony Oursler and outlines plans for making a flip-book. Teachers can borrow the kit free of charge as long as it is returned to the museum within two weeks.
Pacheco, David and Wakeman, Diana. How to Draw the Lion King. Laguna Hills, CA: Walter Foster Publishing, 1994.
This is a child’s picture book describing in detail how-to-draw characters from the film, The Lion King. It also has brief explanation about color selection and the process of creating an animated character.
Radway, Janice A. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
The author as a student of popular culture was searching for a non-statistically based means of studying society and human behavior. She employed ethnographic studies to investigate the popular genre of reading romance novels.
Roger, Carl and Freiberg, H. Jerome. Freedom to Learn. New York, NY: Macmillan College publishing Company, 1994.
This text discusses educational reform and sites examples in which these new methods seem successful.
Spector, Buzz. Verbally Charged Images. Chicago, IL: Bookspace Publication, 1984.
This publication addresses text as an adjunct to visual art forms. “The text,” it says, “it must be emphasized, never simply describes, illustrates or functions congruently wit the image.”
Stam, Robert. Film Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000.
This book surveys film theory from an international standpoint taking a look at early silent pictures and continuing through contemporary film.
Wesling -Whaley, Julie. Draw! Cincinnati: Northern Light Books, 1991.
This is a how-to book for children describing a number of art techniques. The collection includes making a flip-book and creating a storyboard.
Elliot, Donald. Lamb’s Tales from Great Operas. Harvard and Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 1981.
This book is illustrated with cartoon drawings of sheep in operatic clothing. It is a visual delight. Although it does not review the play Romeo and Juliet it does offer some insight into the Tragic Opera through a discussion of Madame Butterfly.
Garza, Carmen Lomas. Family Pictures: Cuadros de Familia. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press, 1990.
Carmen Lomas Garza is a well-known Mexican American painter working in the USA. Her images reveal close family bonds while the text crosses the boundaries of both English and Spainsh speakers.
Leaf, Margaret. Eyes of the Dragon. New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987.
This children’s book is based upon the Chinese legend of a painter, Chang Seng Yung, who painted four dragons on the walls of a temple. Two of the dragons came to life when the artist painted the eyes while the other two dragons, without eyes, remained on the temple wall. Reading this legend to the students helps establish a unique aspect of Eastern Culture
Pacheco, David and Wakeman, Diana. How to Draw The Lion King. Laguna Hills, CA: Walter Foster Publishing, 1994.
This is a child’s picture book describing in detail how-to-draw characters from the film, The Lion King. It also has brief explanation about color selection and the process of creating an animated character.
Phaidon. The Art Book. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999.
This is a quick reference guide to 500 paintings and sculptures by well-known international artists. Each work is represented by an image, a brief description, tidbits about the artist, information about technique or major art movement and the current location of the work.
Wardlaw, Alvia. What a Wonderful World! A Child’s View of the Art of John Biggers. Houston, TX: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1995.
This book is written for young children but is also an excellent source of imagery for any age. The collection of Biggers’ images is filled with excellent interpretations of family both as a single-family unit and as a Cultural family.
Wesling -Whaley, Julie. Draw! Cincinnati: Northern Light Books, 1991.
This is a how-to book for children describing a number of art techniques. The collection includes making a flipbook and creating a storyboard.
Emerson, Jim, “ Pick o’ the Pope,” www.cinepad.com/vatican.film) , (2 Jan. 2001)
This site is unusual because the reviews are based primarily on film content that supports Roman Catholic ethics.
Ebert, Roger, “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert/reviews , (18 Feb. 1988)
This review was lengthy and discussed issues in depth.
Ebert, Roger, “The Lion King,” www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert/reviews (4 Feb. 2001).
This critic examines a large range of films and is skilled at making comparisons.
Hartl, John, “MacArthur’s Children.” http// www.DVDLaser.com , (1985).
Critics on this web site began reviewing films in 1976 and have been quoted in Newsweek and The New York Times.
Horn, Paul, “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” http//www.planetout.com
/popcornq, (1996)
This web site reviews films incorporating youth, arts and literature.
Howe, Desson, “Au Revoir Les Enfants,” www.washingtonpost.com , (4 Mar. 1998).
This section of the on-line newspaper regularly reviews foreign films.
Taussig, Arthur. “Lion King (1994),” www.FilmValues.com/review , (Feb. 2001).
This site not only reviews films but also rates films according to violence, sex and bad language. It is geared toward parents seeking critical ethical analyses.
Woo, Kelly, “Fascinating Romeo and Juliet gives Shakespeare romance some modern snap.” http//www.nandonext.com, (17 Nov. 1996)
This review web site is staffed in part by high school students. The fact that Kelly Woo was a senior in high school when she wrote this review makes her an important role model for my students.
Movie DataBase, “Why must I be a Teenager in Love?” http//www.tvguide.com
/movies/database (1996)
This review gives a synopsis and also an opinion about some of the film’s techniques.
ANNOTATED FILM LIST
Disney, The Lion King, 1994. G.
Animals are stand-ins for people in this stirring African tale filled with moral lessons.
Malle, Louis, Au Revoir Les Enfants, 1987. PG, 104 minutes.
The headmaster of a Catholic boarding school decides to hide several Jewish boys at the height of Nazi-occupied France.
Shinoda, Masahiro, Mac Arthur’s Children, 1994. Orion Classics, PG, 120 minutes.
This film gives insight into the process of acculturating American values in Japanese communities just after WWII. Baseball becomes the common ground.
Luhrmann, Baz, Romeo and Juliet, 1996. 20th Century Fox, PG-13, 113 minutes.
This is a modernized version of Shakespeare’s tragic love story.
Zeffirelli, Franco, Romeo and Julie, 1968. Paramount, PG, 138 minutes
This is a beautiful period piece re-telling Shakespeare’s tragic love story.