Vietnam War Movies

 

There are some GREAT Vietnam movies.  Most are Rated R so get permission from your parents before you watch.  The BIG thing you need to know is the Home Front and protests.  But these movies will give you a great visual/image of what our troops went through in the jungles of Vietnam.

Oppenheimer

 

A great movie about the creation and building of the Atomic Bomb is Oppenheimer.

Hidden Figures

 

This is an AMAZING movie about the 3 extraordinary women who helped NASA get John Glenn to space only using their minds to perform complicated mathematical equations!  Watch if you have not!

My favorite scene!

African American Movies to see!

 

Here are some great movies about African American History that all Americans should see, but there are so many more.  Here is a small list:

Movie about the case that decided slaves are property not people.

A true depiction of slavery.   They show real horrors of slavery!

A great movie about Jackie Robinson

You get a real sense of Dr. MLK Jr. and what he was facing

About Fred Hampton's assassination

Remember The Titans

 

A GREAT Historical Movie is Remember the Titans.  The movie is about the 1960s and the beginning of Integration in schools in the South.  This movie focuses on a football team that struggles with integrating , and how they deal with it.  The coach is Denzel Washington who brings the team together.

I showed the scene 2 weeks ago for the Gettysburg scene.  Washington uses the Battle of Gettysburg as a lesson to bring the team together!  It is powerful.  Below is the scene.

Glory - 1st All Black Troops

 

Frederick Douglass, a famous abolitionist, came up with the idea for all Black Troops.  He convinced President Abraham Lincoln, and the 54th Regiment was born on January 1, 1863.  Douglass's sons fought with the 54th. The biggest frustration was they did not see battle.  Most troops were sent to Indian Territory to protect supplies and forts.  They proved themselves out west with bravery and courage.

They mad a movie about the 54th called Glory.  The cast is fantastic Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freemen, and Denzel Washington.  If you have not seen this film please watch!  You get a real sense of what these guys had to go through!

The military will stay segregated till the 1950s, Korean War.  All Black Troops were always stationed out west.  The Native Americans said their hair looks like Buffalo hair so called them the Buffalo Soldiers.  My Grandfather wrote the Standard on the Buffalo Soldiers.  I am so proud of that and Arlen Fowler is my Grandpa.  He is sadly gone, but when he was still alive he came to my classes to talk about his book.  One thing he said that will always stand out to me is how he described the Buffalo Soldiers.  He said it is a story that needs to be taught!  They demonstrated courage and bravery!

The Great Debaters

 

A GREAT movie to see is the Great Debaters.  It is about a debate team from Wiley College in 1940 deep South.  Of course, Denzel Washington plays the debate coach!  The movie follows their journey to a debate tournament at Harvard University.  Of course they make it!  But along the journey you see what life in the Jim Crow South looks like for African Americans.  

In class we talked about Thoreau and Civil Disobedience.  Thoreau hated President Polk and the Mexican American War so he protested peacefully or Civil Disobedience by not paying his taxes.  So now when you protest or resist peacefully one calls it Civil Disobedience.  In the movie when they make it to Harvard for the debate - Harvard tries to throw them on their toes and changed the theme of the debate to Civil Disobedience, but it worked in thier favor.  The last line always gives me goose bumps.

I also love Denzel Washington's introduction to his debaters!

42 - The first Black man in Baseball

 

This week we discussed early Slavery in America.  Someone brought up how White Southerners made Medical Reports declaring African Americans as inferior.  That is crazy to me, and thankfully has been proven wrong.  White people and Black people are the same medically, but a Black person has more Melanin in their skin.

This conversation made me think of the movie 42.  The story of Jackie Robinson the first black man in Baseball (MLB).  He broke down so many barriers, and had to deal with so much racism.  It was the 1940s when Jin Crow ruled.  The movie focuses on the racism he had to deal with.  It makes you wonder - could you handle all that he did?  I think no.  It was in his contract not to get upset if someone spits on you.  What?!?!

New Napoleon Movie

 

Darning Thanksgiving Weekend a new movie about Napoleon Bonaparte is coming out directed by Ridley Scott.  I literally can not wait to see this!  Napoleon had an extraordinary life - makes sense Scott made a movie.  The painting above is how Napoleon wanted to be displayed to the world!  He thought so highly of himself.  And for awhile he was on a roll.  France was in the middle of it's Revolution, and extremely vulnerable.  Napoleon took advantage of the situation that France was in.

He was doing so well Napoleon became emperor of France!  What makes that moment stand out?  He was in Notre - Dame de Paris, and took the crown out of the Pope's hands, and says "No one crowns me, but me!"  They painted that moment, and you can see it at the Louvre in Paris, France.

Finally came the end of Napoleon, and he was put into exile!  A little before that he is the one that sold Louisiana to President Jefferson  This movie looks amazing!  I hope it does not disappoint!

Harriet

  

They made a movie about her life!!!!  EVERYONE should see this!!!!  I cannot wait!!!!

I hope this happens in 2020:

Get rid of Jackson!!!!!

Captain Marvel

This movie shows the power of the human spirit!  And it rings Do Not Give Up!  This is a Girl Power Story, but a Human Power Story!  Go See It!

Notorious RBG!!!

The Post

Last night I saw The Post!  Wow!  It was fantastic!  The movie follows The  Washington Post getting their hands on the Pentagon Papers and wrestling with the thought to publish or not to publish.  The government and President Nixon does not want them to publish.  The Papers were a government study to see the effects of the Vietnam War.  In the study the government admits they are lying to the American public.   The movie highlights a major issue:

One of the amazing things about this film is that it is relevant.  In the  1970s the President tried to limit the Press, but it is a good reminder that the Press cannot be limited.  I think the current government needs to remember that. One line or quote I loved was, "The News is the rough draft of history!"

The Press has done so much for us!  It can be a game changer!  One example was the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  The game changer was for the Nation seeing the violence and oppression being committed at the marches.  

Children being fire hosed at the Children's March in Birmingham 1963.

Police attacking marchers in Selma

Marshall and LBJ

Two GREAT Movies are coming out about Thurgood  Marshall an President Johnson!   They both look fantastic!

Avatar

 

Last year after we studied The Trail of Tears in Oklahoma History, a student asked if we could watch the film, "Avatar?"  I was confused by the question?  I had seen "Avatar."  Who hasn't?  So why was a student asking to watch the movie?  We did not have time - so I laughed the question off.  That student was probably sad.  I looked into it, and I guess the way the humans treated the Na'vi (blue people0 in the film is a direct comparison to the way the Native Americans were treated during Indian Removal.  So this year we watched it in class.  Here is a brief synopsis of the film:

 

AVATAR Synopsis

 

 

The students wrote a comparison between Avatar and the Trail of Tears.  One student said it was a great modern visual of the Trail of Tears.  I loved that sentence because it is so true.  I graded binders while the students watched it.  I would occasionally look up and watch the film.  It is shocking how similiar the two are!  One student wrote they had seen the film before, and thought Wow that was a good film.  This time around she saw the comparison, and wondered if the filmmaker purposely put that into the film?  I'm not sure either, but it makes you wonder!

 

Jake and his love

 

Jake preparing for battle

 

Here are some of the Big Comparisons students said over and over:

 

1. Both were asked to relocate
2. Americans wanted something resourceful on their land
3. Both were called Savages
4. The General in the movie and President Jackson were the same
5. In Avatar there is a happy ending - the Na'vi fight back and win!

 

The Na'vi's sacred tree



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iron Jawed Angels

This is my favorite banner during the Woman's Suffrage Movement!  It is powerful, and it is crazy to think that it took such a long time for women to get the right to vote!

With the election today it made me think about the fight different groups through out American History have had to fight to vote!  Women started the fight in 1848 at Senecca Falls Convention.  And it will take 72 years to get the vote!  It took till the 20th Century for women to get the right to vote, and our country was founded in the 20th century!  What is wrong with that picture?  Here is a description of what these brave women went through so ALL WOMEN could get the right to vote:

The women during Women's Suffrage were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison

guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a

rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing

sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,

when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered

his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because

they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. 

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food-

all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,

they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured

liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for

weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle

these women waged so that women could pull the curtain at the polling

booth and have their say.

'What would those women think of the way women use, or don't use, their right

to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women,

but those of us who did seek to learn.'

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

So do your part, and VOTE!  It has taken blood, sweat, and tears to have the right!

The King's Speech

I love movies!  And I love when the movies take a historical event.  Because then it is exciting, and engaging.  You get a sense of what that event was all about!  How people felt, and what they went through!  There is a huge differenc reading about an event, and watching it!  A great historical movie is The King's Speech.  It came out a few years ago, and I was blown away!  It was the best movie I had seen in a long time!  I think I saw it three times at the theater - It was that good!  I knew it would win Oscars.  Colin Firth who plays the King won Best Actor!  And it was so deserved.

The King's Speech follows the King of England during WWII.  He must inspire his country at a horrible time, but there is a problem.  The King of England has a horrible stutter.  Radio has been invented, and all of his advisors want him to address the nation.  But he can't, and it is painful to watch!  So he hires a speech therapist to help him.  The relationship he develops with the therapist is so much fun to watch.  It is an outstandiing movie!  Rent it today!

The real King

Act of Valor

Last night I went to see the film, "Act of Valor."  First I have to say it is Rated R so make sure you get parental permission to see it. :-)  It was very good, and the cool thing was the fact that the actors were really Navy Seals!  These men really do what they potray on the screen.  When the movie is over you just sit there amazed at what these men do everyday.  Quickly I was so thankful for our Armed Forces who risk their life to make sure we have freedom, protection, and liberty.  How do you say Thank You for that?  I don't know but every time I meet a member of our armed forces I say Thank You!

They ended the movie with this poem from Tecumseh.  Tecumseh was a native american warrior.  What he says about dying is moving, and it was a great way to end the film.  Also the movie has been out for a while, and it was a sold out crowd last night.  As the poem was being read in the film you could hear many sobs and sniffles.  So of course that made me cry more!

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

~ Chief Tecumseh (Poem from Act of Valor the Movie)