Lifetime Movie Network

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The Great Debaters

Movies like this one not only motive us to become better but encourage us to see beyond . We learn to understand things like racism and sexism. We have surely come some way now. It motivated me and movies like The Great Debater open our eyes to what African Americans went through.

question regarding The Great Debaters paper

hi professor, is it mandatory to include theories/themes from the sociologists in the paper? for example, do we give an example of a theory that relates to a sociology theme in the movie? or is it not mandatory? because if we do... it seems to be more like a research paper. can we just look for themes in the movie that relates to sociology and then explain how it was portrayed in the movie?

The Great Debaters - themes

There are several great themes in The Great Debaters. You can write a more trenchant paper by selecting a theme rather than trying to capture everything in this rich movie. Thanks, Boo2, for starting one on what W.E.B. Dubois calls "the colortocracy." That is one theme. This is a time to dust off your theory books or go on line and re-read some W.E.B. Dubois, for he speaks strongly and poetically of these themes:

• colortocracy - which Boo2 started in the prior post
• church and music - the rhythms "underneath" logic
• the importance of family - and the rarity of intact families among blacks, a tradition started by slave holders who liked to break up families
• education - as a way up and out. see how Dubois and Booker T Washington differ on this topic.
• WEB Dubois even wrote about what it was like to go first to Fiske and next to Harvard. At Fiske, all black, he finally felt free because he was no longer in what he called the two-ness or the double-standard; he didn't have to think about who he was vs. who he was thought to be as a black man--he simply could be.
• Communism and organizing labor -- Dubois joined the Communist Party officially at the end of his long life

DuBois began his chapters with verse--poems and scripture. He felt that though "non-rational", it held more truth than rationality.

there are other themes in this movie, too:

• socialization and the importance of structure for a child
• socialization and the distinction between authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive
• socialization and the difference between mom and dad roles
• self determination: help yourself, be vigilant, educate yourself - if you fall down, stand back up and try again.
• self as a political animal - the personal is the political - do not make jokes about yourself (remember when one student trying out made fun of himself and the teacher's reaction?)
• the sociology of law and social control
• fashion and style and dressing up in public - the dignified "vibe" of this group of people and the "vibe" of today's media-pop-casual-global culture. Aretha Franklin's hat and plaid underwear. Chopin and gangsta rap.
• Gender, Sex, Birds, Bees - that ever-present theme and drive
• themes captured in the debates themselves, e.g.,
  non-violence
  justice, fairness - is this natural in the human heart? she said something like "a law cannot override the sense of fairness we have inside."
  separate but equal or separate but unequal - and how it fits in with today's "diversity"
  diversity over unity

Hooray for Denzel Washington, Director. Remember this is not a movie review: it's not about "I liked it; I loved it." You are not a movie critic. You are looking for a sociological theme or two and how this movie illuminates them.

The Great Debaters

I found it intersting the color difference of the women in the movie. The two wives shown and the girl debater have light complexion while the main woman singing at the bar has a darker complexion. The bar can be seen as the bad place to be while the home and church is the place where the good women should to be. Good v. bad? Does the skin difference in the women represent this or am I just looking too much into it?

Combined Movie List

Here is a complete list of the various movies that have been recommended thus far. Please use "Comments" to add more movie recommendations to this post.

An American Crime
A Time to Kill
About a Boy
American History X .....LA-Venice: gangs-racial tensions, resolution
The Anniversary Party
Babel
Bobby
Boyz in the Hood
Bride Wars
The Bridge
The Century of the Self
Changeling
City of God .....kids without families Rio Drug wars. Escape through art
Crash LA .....ethnic stereotypes and resolution through communication
Death in Gaza .....documentary on boys and girls in Gaza, socialization
Dirty Harry
El Crimen Del Padre Amaro
Eyes on the Prize .....Montgomery Bus Boycott episode
Fight Club
Gangs of New York ...... Scorsese
Girlfight
The Great Debaters
The Green Mile
Home for the Holidays
I Am Sam .....special needs kid and brilliance and love
The Joy Luck Club
Kids
L.A. Confidential
Lawrence of Arabia
The Life of David Gale
Life Is Beautiful
The Long Way Home .....Origins of the state of Israel
Manchurian Candidate .....classic, young Sinatra - brainwashing
Murder in the First
My Life in Pink .....growing up different - and handling it
Paradise Now .....2 young Gaza men decide to be suicide bombers
The Pianist
Pride
Pride and Prejudice
Pulp Fiction
Real Women Have Curves
Schindler's List .....wealthy man saved Jews during Holocaust
Set it Off!
Seven Pounds
Shawshank Redemption
Slumdog Millionaire .....Poverty, violence, fantasy in Mumbai
Something the Lord Made
Swingvote
Turtles Can Fly .....kids in Afghanistan, 1week prior to invasion
V for Vendetta
White Chicks

MOVIES

I'm glad a lot of us are into movies! One I recently watched was "Swingvote." Some of my other all time favorites are: "The Great Debaters" and "Pride." If you are planning on going to the theatres, one I recommend is "Bride WARS," which illustrates and gives a good example of how competetive people can get when they really want something.

Great Movie depicting Sociology.

"Something the Lord Made is the story of two men who defy the rules of the Jim Crow South and start a medical revolution. Their patients are known as "blue babies" – infants suffering from a congenital heart defect that causes them to turn blue as they slowly suffocate. Alfred Blalock (Rickman) and Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) make a brilliant team, but as they race against time to save one particular baby, social pressure threatens to tear them apart. Blalock is the white, wealthy head of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Thomas is black and poor, a lab technician whose dream of going to college and becoming a doctor was ruined by the Great Depression even though he possessed the intuition and dexterity of a great surgeon".

This film depicts status and the discrimination against a black man who was a great surgeon. He could not afford to go to medical school but was mentored by a white Doctor and together they began the very first heart surgeries. Vivien Thomas was not recognized as a Dr. until many many years later. Although it depicts discrimination it also ends with a happy ending as he is finally recognized for his great efforts. Definitely a movie I would recommend.

My 3 movie picks

1. The Anniversary Party

2. Home for the Holidays

3. The Joy Luck Club

I can't say that these are the three BEST as there are many films that beautifully portray humanity and social interactions. However I chose the first two because they both center around either a party or a holiday, both of which brings (or forces) people together. Friends, family, neighbors, enemies....parties tend to create environments/situations that are out of the cycle or routine of everyday life and therefore tend create almost heightened or exaggerated atmospheres.

The third movie spans a much longer amount of time. The film portrays the lives of two generations - mothers (Chinese immigrants) and daughters (born in the US). The film does a fantastic job of illustrating generational differences and cultural differences.

Slumdog Millionaire

I want to add a favorite sociological movie after going to the theater this weekend. I saw the foreign film Slumdog Millionaire and loved it. I didn't know much about it, only that it was a love story about a kid contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It so much more than that. It's such a good movie. It touches on poverty, the struggles of people in the lower social economic status and the choices made to survive having to hustle to make a living. It touches on religious persecution and the lives of orphans caused by it. I definitely recommend watching this movie!

SEVEN POUNDS

This weekend, I had the opportunity to watch Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith.

Normally, I am not a Will Smith fan. I dislike the character which show him running. I find it very stereotypical, as if the only thing a black actor can do in a movie is run.

However, I found Seven Pounds an emotional movie to watch. I have not been able to figure out the significance of the title "Seven Pounds." Can someone explain the significance? Can someone count the seven strangers.

Thank you.

Films with Sociology Eyes

Two films I was going to mention have been posted more than once so here are my next three:
KIDS (1995) by Larry Clark
Fight Club (1999) by David Fincher
Gangs of New York (2002) by Martin Scorsese

CITY OF GOD FILM

I would like to suggest another great film which is called "City of God" (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund.

Favorite Movies

Here are my three favorite sociologically relevant films:
1. L.A. Confidential
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Pianist

Moives

Three movies that come to mind are:

A Time To Kill
About a Boy
Pride and Prejudice

FAVORITE MOVIES

Here are my favorite 3 movies pertaining to Sociology.

1) American History X (favorite of many in the class)
2) The Life of David Gale
3) I am Sam

THREE MOVIES

EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO, SET IT OFF!, SEVEN POUNDS

MOVIES

1)The Bridge a 2006 documentary film by Eric Steel.
2)Pride and Prejudice a 2005 movie film by Joe Wright
3)“The Century of the Self” (2002) Directed by Adam Curtis.

Amazing Movies

Some of the best sociological movies i've watched was American History X. The other two are Crash and White chicks becuase they make you think outside the box.

3 movies

Three movies that come to mind with a sociological concept are Crash, A Time to Kill and V for Vendetta. I know many people have seen Crash but it's a movie that many people can understand and relate to. A Time to Kills deals with injustice, life struggles, race and doing what's right even when others are against you. I love V for Vendetta because it questions the government for the bad that was happening to the country.