Ask Lemmy

Flowers for Algernon and FUCK NO I DID NOT LIKE IT AND WOULD NEVER HAVE CHOSEN YO WATCH IT IF NOT FORCED!!!!

My school made me watch Napoleon Dynamite. I already hated it before we were forced to watch it, partially because it was just not the type of comedy I enjoyed and I also did not appreciate the portrayal of the Mexican character (as a Mexican person myself). I think I read a book through most of it.

In grade 4 a teacher made us watch a ghost show (idk generic show about haunted castles in Scotland). I got scared and told my dad and she proceeded to tell the class that it was all my fault we couldn't watch TV anymore. For years after watching that movie, I would BOLT up the stairs in my house because I was scared of hearing the thumping of the dead body being dragged across the stairs (like in the show). Fuck you, Ms Sarginson.

Other movies I watched:

• Gladiator
• 300
• the boy in the striped pyjamas
• Schindler's list
• one flew over the cukoos nest (may or may not have instigated several sexual Danny Devito dreams throughout my life)
• to kill a mockingbird

• Zephirelli's Romeo and Juliet (mentioned many times in thread, this is the very porn-y version from the 60s that really shouldn't be)
• Amadeus
• a teacher in high school lent me a copy of Last of the Dogmen, which, in retrospect, he should not have done

I'm sure there were more, but I can't remember any others.

• For some reason we watched Beauty and the Beast in junior high
• In my grade 9 (or maybe 10, can't remember) Social Studies class we watched Not Without My Daughter
• At the end of the school year in grade 10 we had those few extra days with no curriculum, and we watched Se7en (no idea how this was allowed)
• In grade 10 we saw Romeo + Juliet (I think it had just come out on VHS and we'd just finished reading the play in English class)
• Cool Hand Luke sometime in grade 9 or 10, don't remember why
• Grade 11 we saw both The Great Gatsby and Othello in English class

I'm sure I'm missing some but these are the ones that stick out to me

I saw Blazing Saddles in a linguistic anthropology class in undergrad. That was pretty great.

I also had an upper level Japanese class where the entire semester was based around watching and discussing Ikiru, which became an immediate favorite movie despite it being so much work to learn to watch it in Japanese.

Soylent Green.

A lot. Some of them were genuinely great. Some were way less so.

• To Kill a Mockingbird: Earns every bit of reputation it has. Should be shown twice.

• Teacher's Pet: They showed this as a reward. I despised it. Seriously, it sticks in my head

• The outsiders: "Okay, I guess." I remember feeling it was a decent bit of storytelling, but I was too detached from the themes and era to care. Honestly, it was probably too old for kids to identify with.

• When the Levees Broke: In retrospect, one of Lee's weaker works. Nonetheless, it made a hell of an impact on us. We'd mostly seen helicopter's-eye views of New Orleans. Getting down in with the people was a whole different view.

• Tuesdays with Morrie: Apparently it's popular, but we all hated it. Felt it was sentimental slop.

• Brighton Beach Memoirs: Honestly don't remember much. We mostly cared that, at the end, they actually showed the nude photo the lead character received. As kids, that was mind-blowing.

A college class introduced me to "The Birth of a Nation" aka The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan

Did you enjoy it?

Fuck no. It is a deeply messed up racist pile of shit.

It certainly opened my eyes to it's place in history.

Since the film itself is best left to the trash heap of forgotten awfulness, here's two points from Wikipedia that feel worth remembering:

• "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history"
• was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House (for President Woodrow Wilson)

Selma

I took a history of film class in college and highly recommend it.

We went through classics from Citizen Kane to Do The Right Thing, and the discussion beforehand of the symbolism and camera techniques really helped me understand WHY they were good. I don't think I would have enjoyed most of them otherwise.

Schindler's List was shown in one of our history classes, I probably never would have watched it otherwise due to being black and white and me thinking I wouldn't like that.

I can't say that I enjoyed it, it's not a particularly "enjoyable" film. It was moving though, and talking in class about what humans are capable of was interesting.

I cannot specifically remember any of the others we watched, but I remember that I liked movie days because you tended not to get homework. They certainly weren't nearly as memorable though.

I went to school in Germany. Over the years we watched as a class

• Mr. Bean (English lesson)
• Schlaflos in Seattle / Sleepless in Seatte (as wished by the girls in class - English lesson)
• Und täglich grüßt das Murmeltier / Groundhog Day (English lesson)
• Das Phantom der Oper / The Phantom Of The Opera (Music lesson)
• 1984 (Politics lesson)
• Animal Farm (Politics lesson)
• Es war einmal das Leben / Once Upon a Time... Life / Original title: Il était une fois... la vie (Biology lesson)
• Apollo 13 (during the bus ride on a class trip)
• A Christmas Carol (at the last day of school before winter/ Christmas holidays)

Sometimes, I think it was in 6th grade, we had lesson in a room that was permanently equipped with a TV and VCR (as opposed to these portable TV carts a teacher had to roll into the room). When we behaved well (and we did!), we were allowed to watch MTV for the last remaining 10 - 15 minutes before lesson was dismissed.

I went to a Christian school in Australia. We watched:

• The Mask
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
• One Night the Moon
• Cool Runnings

I don't remember any others but there's probably more.

Pretty sure we watched The Outsiders in school. Good movie. Great book.

In the mid 90s I don't think I would have ever watched Lorenzo's Oil on my own. It's a drama about parents trying to find a cure for their kid's disease. A disease so rare there is no one researching it. Oh and it's directed by George Miller, director of the Mad Max movies.

Also the 60s adaptation of Flowers for Algernon "Charly" was wild to see as a kid. It's very much a 60s film. Still the only adaptation I've seen. Only ever saw it the once. But I recall the teacher standing next to the TV with a sheet of paper to cover the screen for a couple scenes ... I'm now incredibly curious what was in those scenes.

Webs, I think it was called. Truly terrifying example of dropping a nuclear bomb.

There was a scene in Braveheart we had to skip when we watched it in middle school. I'm sure many convinced their families to rent Braveheart from Blockbuster for "homework" later. At this point, I don't even remember what the scene was. Maybe there was a penis? Probably it was just butts or boobs. The corpses and violence were of little concern.

There was that one time we watched a particular version of Romeo and Juliet and the teacher was delightfully inept at skipping scenes. That girl was barely older than most of us.

One of my teachers would always play Mr Bean videos the day after a big test. I thoroughly enjoyed the videos and probably wouldn't have taken the time to watch them myself (maybe as an adult but not as a teen).

Gattaca

I saw Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates so. many. times. and no, I never would've picked it for myself.

Reefer Madness was highly entertaining. This was in the eighties.

The Red Balloon.

My high school computer science teacher would always put on Wargames for his class at the end of every semester. Took three of his classes and ended up seeing it three times.

You watched kids movies at school? I think we were only ever shown 3-4 movies that were relevant to the class (eg. The sound of music in English class) but I don't really remember them, they were pretty forgettable. The one I really liked though was 12 years a slave (in high school). It was really impactful and I wouldn't have watched it otherwise so appreciate that they decided we were mature enough for it.

Several in French class. Jean de Florette and its sequel are the ones I remember the most.

I never saw a single movie in school.