Experiencing the artistic excellence of these great classic films, today's college and high school students can gain greater freedom to pursue deeper moral inquiry while learning how to deal with toxic social pressures. The key to this experiential learning is the mysterious way classic movie storytelling elevates and inspires moral emotions that powerfully overcome negative ones, if only for a few hours. With face-to-face conversations about films like It's a Wonderful Life and The Best Years of Our Lives, we gain solidarity over anger, courage over fear, elevation over depression, understanding over confusion. This art form is unquestionably the most cherished aesthetic legacy of the last century we have in our postmodern culture, always proving capable of bridging even the deepest of political chasms. Becoming more detached from social media, even for several hours, the rising generation can discover the power of transcendent beauty, goodness and truth. This generation can experience culturally and aesthetically, what it is to BE in solidarity in community.
Part One
It's a Wonderful Life, Roman Holiday, 12 Angry Men & A Raisin in the Sun
Classic Cinema Conversations
Renewing the Ethic of Community in the fragmented
cultural spaces of our public square
It is all about what most of us love the most --- solidarity over isolation, magnanimity and justice over faction and tribalism, elevating our common humanity over group identity politics.
The key to rebuilding solidarity in community with classic films is experiencing the "turning points" we discover together in viewing and conversing about each film. We are socially engaged with each other to explore - through themes and characters - essential truths about our human nature we can see and understand. As social beings it has been said that we are "hardwired to connect." And as viewers of great classic films we experience these stories as participants in the quest for community; we are not merely operating as individual observers being entertained. When we experience the turning point for the characters, we are making the turn with them. Experiencing this mid-20th century art form, we discover with Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey the meaning of community, we feel deep empathy for Audrey Hepburn's Princess Ann and Gregory Peck, the man she loves, in Roman Holiday.
The transcendent beauty of the truths and goods we witness in these films is almost never in question. Yes, there will be a few individuals with negative opinions, but not very many. Curating the great classics, our choices at Educational Guidance Institute are largely determined by the collective favorable opinions of film critics and fans over the decades during and since the years of Hollywood 's Golden Age. We offer the classics that are loved by many over all the years, and disliked by very few even today. In an age when there is so much cultural focus on each of us getting what we want in our individual desires and preferences as autonomous selves, the great film classics allow us to walk the road of civic friendship that maybe about 80 percent of us want to walk in our culture and our communities, which is our common home.
It's a Wonderful Life - 1946
Our Search for Meaning and Belonging
"Friendship is the glue that we must have" -Aristotle
Eight decades after it was released, It's A Wonderful Life has not lost its place at the very top of the American Film Institute's list of the most inspirational films of all time. One of my favorite parts in It's a Wonderful Life are the two scenes that depict the relationship between George and Mr. Gower: Mr. Gower embracing young George in his drug store and their meeting in the fantasy sequence in Martini's bar. Some IAWL fans claim Frank Capra wants us to see a glimmer of recognition of George in Mr. Gower's eyes in the Pottersville sequence. What we intuitively know from this scene is before we can even think about the meaning of life, we have to really know one another as human persons.
Pondering the isolating chaos of Pottersville versus community life in Bedford Falls
Roman Holiday - 1953
Experiencing the Charm of Audrey Hepburn & Witnessing Self-Giving Love
Joseph Epstein in Charm: The Elusive Enchantment, describes charm as "a combination of verbal skills, physical attributes, all that taken together and more, still more." For Epstein, as well as many of us, Audrey is at the top of the list of female charmers.
A Good Heart on Display
"For the last five or so years of her life---she died at sixty-four---Audrey Hepburn worked seven or eight months of the year for UNICEF. She visited Somalia and Ethiopia, and did se without any of the perks expected by the high-level celebrity that she indubitably was: She flew coach, rode in trucks, ate the same food as everyone else. Always a nervous public speaker, she nonetheless gave endless speeches in the attempt to arouse interest in and raise money for the plight of starving children in Africa and Asia, and the speeches were apparently effective. A good heart on display, such as Audrey Hepburn possessed, one free from falsity and fakery, might itself be a strong definition of charm."
12 Angry Men - 1957
Rediscovering Essential Civic Virtues: Justice and Magnanimity
Examining the findings in The Coddling of the American Mind, we see the urgency of sharing these classics with young people today - joining them in confronting the cultural toxins that are tearing us apart. For example with 12 Angry Men -- we rediscover along with twelve men in a jury room, - in Lincoln's phrase , the better angels of our nature.
A Raisin in the Sun - 1961
Recovering the Vital Power of Cultural Memory
A Raisin in the Sun and Moral Energy
Part Two
Understanding Our Human Nature in the Art Form of Classic Cinema
A Tale of Two Cities, Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives, No Way Out, High Noon, and The Big Country
"Only by knowing the kinds of beings that we actually are with the complex mental and emotional architecture that we happen to possess, can anyone even begin to ask about what would count as a meaningful life."
-Jonathan Haidt The Happiness Hypothesis
Chapter 10, "Happiness Comes from in Between"
Understanding Who We Are and the Psychology of Flow
A Tale of Two Cities, Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives & No Way Out
Viewing and conversing about great movie classics as a social experience of FLOW - we sense being a part of a whole greater than ourselves.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi cites multiple case studies of people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds experiencing Flow - ice skaters, mountain climbers and importantly for this discussion, participants in theater performances. In the aesthetic excellence of classic cinema direction, dialogue, and performance - viewers across the generations can experience Flow. As Csikszentmihalyi explains, "Flow helps to integrate the self because in that state of deep concentration, consciousness is unusually well ordered. Thoughts, intentions, feelings, and all the senses are focused on the same goal. Experience is in harmony."
Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes that "A key element of optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. Even if initially undertaken for other reasons, the activity that consumes us must be intrinsically rewarding." He says, the term "autotelic" derives from two Greek words, auto meaning self, and telos meaning goal. Engaging in classic film study, students have opportunity to build positive psychic energy with an art form steeped in mid-20th century history and culture -as we can experience on Turner Classic Movies. As moral participants in the drama, we gain confidence to, quoting Aristotle, "strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us."
A Tale of Two Cities - 1935
Consider how the film version of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities allows us to experience positive emotions that push aside the three untruths described in The Coddling of the American Mind: emotional reasoning, the us vs them mentality and seeing ourselves as victims in a fatalistic world. In our pilot, high schoolers discussed the contrast between the characters, Madame DeFarge and Miss Pross. The story provides a remarkable antidote to our contemporary affliction of Group Identity Politics. While both women are from the lower class, they have opposing moral codes. Madame DeFarge is bent on revenge against anyone in the aristocratic class including little Lucie Darnay. Miss Pross, on the other hand, understands human nature and operates as a moral equal within the family she loves and serves.
Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt - 1943
Studying the Geography of Good & Evil from a Psychological Perspective
In our age of expressive individualism, the world is often seen as centered around the self-sufficient and autonomous self. Yet scientific evidence confirms mounting rates of anxiety, depression and suicide. The three great untruths identified in The Coddling of the American Mind, in the words of the authors, "have flowered on many college campuses, but they have their roots in earlier education and childhood experiences, and they now extend from the campus into the corporate world and the public square, including national politics. They are also spreading outward from American universities to universities throughout the English-speaking world. These Great Untruths are bad for everyone. Anyone who cares about young people, education, or democracy should be concerned about these trends." One of the toxic aspects of social media is the transformation of patterns of moral inquiry from the pursuit of wisdom to mere information-gathering. With Shadow of a Doubt we can enter into this Hitchcock masterpiece as moral participants not information-gatherers seeking entertainment.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's No Way Out - 1950
Learning how to become Moral Actors on the Stage of Life
Moral Foundations Theory - Care vs Harm in No Way Out
Learning to care in the flowering of true friendship: Edie and Gladys
In The Righteous Mind, Professor Johnathan Haidt outlines the elements of Moral Foundations Theory resting on an extensive body of psychological and neurological research. As stated on moralfoundations.org, "the theory proposes that several innate and universally available psychological systems are the foundations of 'intuitive ethics.' Each culture then constructs virtues, narratives, and institutions on top of these foundations, thereby creating the unique moralities we see around the world, and conflicting within nations too." In the No Way Out narrative, Linda Darnell's character changes from an isolated, fearful self to a person caring and working against harm - through her friendship with Gladys. Their friendship develops when they learn, through conversation, that they have the same view of human nature and the moral life.
The Best Years of Our Lives - 1946
At the Intersection of Culture and Community
With William Wyler's Oscar-Winning Best Picture of the Year
What we learned from our pilot with high schoolers is that the mysterious touchstones of culture and community are more easily identified in a film like The Best Years of Our Lives, which carries within itself the historic era of World Wart II. Here are some excerpts from participants in the pilot:
"Without Fred, Homer might have broken up with his girlfriend and remained in a state of despair. Even though the men had a tight connection, they had disagreements, but they still respected and valued each other even when they crossed the line in certain instances. The brotherhood that they formed did more than any therapist or doctor could have done for their mental state of mind and their readjustment to life outside of war."
-Joseph
One young lady wrote that the film "focuses on themes like sacrifice and loss....and might be thought of as dark or sad. It is a sad film for sure, but along with loss, the film also focuses on the hope needed to overcome difficult times." Speaking of Homer and Wilma she comments, Homer "worries what everyone at home will think about his steel hooks. This worry gets inside his head, and he starts to overthink things, thinking that his family and girlfriend see him as helpless. He had planned to marry his girlfriend Wilma, but thinks that she will not want to marry him now. However, he later finds out that Wilma is willing to marry him despite the difficulties." She notes that through the movie, "we see that no matter what we may be struggling with, no matter what hardships we have to overcome, we can do it with the help of the people that God places in our lives. We do not have to face it alone."
-Grace
"Not all war wounds are physical, while some are, others can be harmful in a mental sense. Each veteran deals with his or her wounds in a different way, as shown in the movie. Al takes to drinking to help him cope with civilian life while Homer tries his best to perform normally with claw-hands, and Fred suffers from war-time nightmares and a one-sided marriage. This goes to show that we should respect our veterans more and try to help them heal...Al, Fred, and Homer proved that while wounds might be deep, that they can still heal.
-John
Another young woman said, "Wilma and Homer's relationship was my absolute favorite to see. Wilma is unrelenting in love and support of Homer. Homer is dealing with something pretty intense, he's lost his hands. He needed Wilma to see him so vulnerable for her to realize what she was getting into. Homer needed to know that she was willing to care for him even in this state. He finally realizes she loves him and is willing to care for him."
-Kay
Working with William Wyler in The Best Years Of Our Lives
A Commentary from Virginia Mayo
Considered one of the most down-
to-earth and versatile actresses of her era, Virginia Mayo gives a brilliant performance as the self- centered character Marie. Virginia was told that William Wyler was very tough to work with. Yet, as she relates in an interview, Wyler just let her her go ahead with all of her scenes, never asking her to do any scene over again. Virginia plainly stated, "He seemed to think I was on the right track." The legendary golden age director John Huston once said to her at a party, "Virginia, you should get an Oscar for your work in that movie."
Life and Death Moral Choices in the Trenches of World War I
The recollections of World War I that professor Heinrich Rommen shared with us in his Just War seminar at Georgetown University in 1962 express so well the deepest truths that philosophers of his day grappled with out of their own life experiences. Rommen himself had escaped from the Gestapo to come to America and eventually teach political philosophy at Georgetown. As Rommen taught us, we are always in the intersection of an interconnected world where the innate personal, psychological, and ethical sensibilities we carry within us meet up with the real world around us. Here is his own personal account of a meeting in World War I at this intersection. (A future post will feature Gary Cooper in the WWI story of Sargent York.)
High Noon & The Big Country
Moral Choices and the Common Good at Stake in 2 Western Classics
"The shift to a more righteous and tribal mentality was bad enough in the 1990s, a time of peace, prosperity, and balanced budgets. But nowadays, when the fiscal and political situations are so much worse, many Americans feel that they're on a ship that's sinking and the crew is too busy fighting with each other to bother plugging the leaks."
-The Righteous Mind. Chapter 12, Can't We All Disagree More Constructively?
Professor Jonathan Haidt wrote these words in The Righteous Mind a decade ago and we can all say confidently that "things" on today's political landscape have grown worse since then. One of the reasons why Classic Movie Storytelling is so efficacious in our "information age" is that our participation in the classic movie experience of storytelling does not require us to choose political or religious sides - at least for several hours!
Both High Noon and The Big Country give a vision (negative and positive) of the vital civic virtues - solidarity, gratitude, magnanimity and moral courage. Enough of us must practice these civic virtues to live and even flourish together in the polis ( our political community). The Us vs. Them mentality has greater difficulty taking hold when we are participating in the drama of the story. Why? Because the characters and what they are thinking and doing simply carry almost all of us into a higher realm where we encountering transcendence.
The Failure of Enough Citizens to Fight for the Common Good
Fred Zinnemann's High Noon - 1952
We see in High Noon the deep deficits in characters that do not change: the cynicism of the judge, the self-seeking ambition of Harvey, Marshall Kane's deputy, the deadly political pragmatism of the Mayor in the church scene, the tribalism of the men in the bar, the cowardice of one of his best friends, and the sad fatalism of his former boss. None of these disordered civic attitudes are evident when friends get together to celebrate the wedding of Will and Amy Kane. It is right after the wedding that the Marshall realizes he is called to a higher civic duty.
The Struggle to Order Our Lives Together in
Political Community
A Case Study in William Wyler's The Big Country - 1958
For a political community to survive, Civic Norms must carry more weight than greed for power.
In The Big Country, we see some characters changing and defending the common good while others remain locked in their own self-interest. Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) cannot break through the greed for power and control seen in the major - his future father in law (Charles Bickford). Steve Leach (Charlton Heston) tells the major, "I just can't do it major, I just can't." The character of Rufus Hennessey, the head of the opposing tribe, does finally act on the truth that he is willfully causing harm. Burl Ives gives an Oscar winning performance as Rufus. By selling the Big Muddy to Jim, Julie (Jean Simmons) makes the right decision for the common good of the warring political community.
EGI's Civics 101 Classic Film Study Project can be implemented in any educational setting for high school and college students. Please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to chat with you on how to get started!
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