To my knowledge, I managed to get through high school without being shown Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. (I'm guessing my teachers were leery of the nude scene.) I do have very strong memories of taking a field trip to an actual movie theater with my English class to see his Hamlet, though, since its release coincided with our reading of the play. Probably the only version of that play most of my classmates ever saw.
I think I'm a bit younger than Keith. I watched both this and Polanski's "Macbeth" in high school, and thought both were great, though my mind is a little blown at the knowledge that the generic old British dude at the start is not someone I would then have recognized as The Greatest Actor Of All Time.
I do remember being shown an exceptionally campy program about the Roman empire in high school Latin class. Oh, and a life-skills class in the last year of high school, meant to prepare us for what college would really be like, showed us "Higher Learning"---that was certainly a choice.
1. I think the advance in technology since we were kids really helps. A smartboard-sized projector is 76 inches which is way better than the cathode-ray-on-wheels we had as kids. No squinting required
2. With that said, I got a lot out of the movies we watched in high school. I had a satire class where we watched Being There, Dr. Strangelove, and Best in Show. All became movies I liked a lot and still like
3. I like to think that my students get a lot out of the movies we watch. I also try to pick movies the students will like and will advance the material. After the AP exam is over in AP Government, for instance, we'll watch The Hunger Games and Pan's Labyrinth and discuss authoritarianism vs. democracy. In US History we'll watch War Horse and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Students normally respond pretty well
4. It's weird how we've gotten so much more tolerant of a lot of things ("bad words," marijuana, gambling, etc.) but nudity has gone the other direction. My 9th grade teacher showed us the full Romeo and Juliet with the nude scenes in and no one accused him of pedophilia. Though it did lead to some hilariously ostentatious gay panic from all the boys. "Oh god a male ass! AHHHH COVER MY EYES!")
I watched this in 9th grade, and I remember the teacher pulled out a big piece of posterboard to cover the nudity. That's the main thing I remember, to be honest.
I saw bits of this film, the Luhrmann version and the original WEST SIDE STORY in 8th grade English and I always preferred this one though I’ve never seen it in full.
I also watched this is in 9th grade and in my early 80’s classroom, we got a heads up about the nudity but it wasn’t otherwise censored. I don’t have any strong memories of it (nudity aside) but I feel like I would prefer the Luhrmann version were I to revisit one.
My dad taught high school English and, whenever he taught "Romeo and Juliet," he dragged out the VHS copy and we, as a family, watched it. He didn't bother to fast forward through the nudity with my sister and me, but he did warn us about it and that "should you feel the need to say anything, then leave the room." We didn't say anything and it was never mentioned again.
In the 8th grade, my English teacher showed the Zeffirelli film and (unwisely) let the movie play with the nudity intact. She was chagrined but very few complaints came in. One year later, my ninth-grade English teacher made a long announcement about the nudity and that she was not going to fast forward through it. This resulted in one student mentioning that "in that scene, all Romeo and Juliet are doing is talking..."
That got more of a reaction than anything in the film. The nude scene played and nobody said a thing.
But one student was surprised about the amount of blood on Tybalt's sword when he stabs Mercutio (she wasn't allowed to watch gory movies).
This is one of a triad of films we screened at my school.. The first I believe was actually in middle school: The Outsiders. Kids were pumped that there was going to be swearing, as I recall. Talk about an all star cast, even then! Was this the first bread pack movie? I remember really liking the film - it had it all, beautiful actors and actresses, love, violence, and of course, Robert Frost and only gold can stay.
The second was this movie. It made no impression on me whatsoever, which leads me to believe I really need to watch it again. If it was raining that day, I have no doubt I fell asleep.
The third was Paths of Glory. We were all very surprised at seeing a super young Kirk Douglas - his son was hot stuff then, and we couldn't get over how much they looked alike. Now Michael Douglas looks a whole lot like his father, circa 1990s. 🙂 Ah, time...
I started reading this thinking "I've seen that movie a couple of times" only to realize by the end that I don't think I've ever seen it. We never got a school screening. I was stuck in Baptist school for junior high so we definitely didn't get nudity and only got Antichrist movies. In public high school I can only remember being shown NIGHT AND FOG (fun!).
But this will put the movie at the top of my watch list now. Thanks!
We got an extremely angry email from a teacher this morning taking the piece to task for talking about using movies as a “crutch.” I think Keith intended it lightly, referring to that Gore Vidal miniseries, which isn’t the greatest education you could get. But I think it can be valuable in getting students to think critically about adaptation and creative interpretation and how different mediums work. You just have to be good at your job.
Isn’t the “nudity” exactly one brief scene where you see Whiting’s ass and Hussey’s breasts for a second each? Like it’s not exactly Blue is the Warmest Color.
"...It is half covered by the old crack about no actress being ready to play Juliet until she is too old for the role.”
The Dripping Yellow Crystal Ball predicts that in five to ten years, someone's gonna take a crack at doing a CG-deaged Romeo and Juliet. They will still be youngish actors, say in their mid-20s to early-30s, but young enough to pull off making them look like teenagers. It's a no-brainer Branagh is the likely bet to take this on: I imagine he'll even entertain for two minutes the idea he can be Romeo himself before someone talks him down off that ledge.
"Has anyone ever had a good experience watching a movie in a classroom?" Yep, albeit mostly of the last-week-of-term variety. I had a relatively decent VHS collection and was only a five minute walk from school, so I could nip home and grab something if circumstance permitted. The Action Cage trifecta of CON AIR, THE ROCK, and FACE/OFF were key texts of the dossing-off curriculum.
The only movies I remember watching in an educational context were Luhrmann's ROMEO & JULIET and Branagh's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Baz's R&J hit VHS in '97, so right on time for my English GCSE. My History A-Level took in 1800s/1900s British politics, and the two World Wars, so BLACKADDER THE THIRD and BLACKADDER GOES FORTH got a lot of classroom play.
To my knowledge, I managed to get through high school without being shown Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. (I'm guessing my teachers were leery of the nude scene.) I do have very strong memories of taking a field trip to an actual movie theater with my English class to see his Hamlet, though, since its release coincided with our reading of the play. Probably the only version of that play most of my classmates ever saw.
I think I'm a bit younger than Keith. I watched both this and Polanski's "Macbeth" in high school, and thought both were great, though my mind is a little blown at the knowledge that the generic old British dude at the start is not someone I would then have recognized as The Greatest Actor Of All Time.
I do remember being shown an exceptionally campy program about the Roman empire in high school Latin class. Oh, and a life-skills class in the last year of high school, meant to prepare us for what college would really be like, showed us "Higher Learning"---that was certainly a choice.
Some thoughts from a public high school teacher.
1. I think the advance in technology since we were kids really helps. A smartboard-sized projector is 76 inches which is way better than the cathode-ray-on-wheels we had as kids. No squinting required
2. With that said, I got a lot out of the movies we watched in high school. I had a satire class where we watched Being There, Dr. Strangelove, and Best in Show. All became movies I liked a lot and still like
3. I like to think that my students get a lot out of the movies we watch. I also try to pick movies the students will like and will advance the material. After the AP exam is over in AP Government, for instance, we'll watch The Hunger Games and Pan's Labyrinth and discuss authoritarianism vs. democracy. In US History we'll watch War Horse and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Students normally respond pretty well
4. It's weird how we've gotten so much more tolerant of a lot of things ("bad words," marijuana, gambling, etc.) but nudity has gone the other direction. My 9th grade teacher showed us the full Romeo and Juliet with the nude scenes in and no one accused him of pedophilia. Though it did lead to some hilariously ostentatious gay panic from all the boys. "Oh god a male ass! AHHHH COVER MY EYES!")
I watched this in 9th grade, and I remember the teacher pulled out a big piece of posterboard to cover the nudity. That's the main thing I remember, to be honest.
I saw bits of this film, the Luhrmann version and the original WEST SIDE STORY in 8th grade English and I always preferred this one though I’ve never seen it in full.
I also watched this is in 9th grade and in my early 80’s classroom, we got a heads up about the nudity but it wasn’t otherwise censored. I don’t have any strong memories of it (nudity aside) but I feel like I would prefer the Luhrmann version were I to revisit one.
My dad taught high school English and, whenever he taught "Romeo and Juliet," he dragged out the VHS copy and we, as a family, watched it. He didn't bother to fast forward through the nudity with my sister and me, but he did warn us about it and that "should you feel the need to say anything, then leave the room." We didn't say anything and it was never mentioned again.
In the 8th grade, my English teacher showed the Zeffirelli film and (unwisely) let the movie play with the nudity intact. She was chagrined but very few complaints came in. One year later, my ninth-grade English teacher made a long announcement about the nudity and that she was not going to fast forward through it. This resulted in one student mentioning that "in that scene, all Romeo and Juliet are doing is talking..."
That got more of a reaction than anything in the film. The nude scene played and nobody said a thing.
But one student was surprised about the amount of blood on Tybalt's sword when he stabs Mercutio (she wasn't allowed to watch gory movies).
This is one of a triad of films we screened at my school.. The first I believe was actually in middle school: The Outsiders. Kids were pumped that there was going to be swearing, as I recall. Talk about an all star cast, even then! Was this the first bread pack movie? I remember really liking the film - it had it all, beautiful actors and actresses, love, violence, and of course, Robert Frost and only gold can stay.
The second was this movie. It made no impression on me whatsoever, which leads me to believe I really need to watch it again. If it was raining that day, I have no doubt I fell asleep.
The third was Paths of Glory. We were all very surprised at seeing a super young Kirk Douglas - his son was hot stuff then, and we couldn't get over how much they looked alike. Now Michael Douglas looks a whole lot like his father, circa 1990s. 🙂 Ah, time...
I started reading this thinking "I've seen that movie a couple of times" only to realize by the end that I don't think I've ever seen it. We never got a school screening. I was stuck in Baptist school for junior high so we definitely didn't get nudity and only got Antichrist movies. In public high school I can only remember being shown NIGHT AND FOG (fun!).
But this will put the movie at the top of my watch list now. Thanks!
We got an extremely angry email from a teacher this morning taking the piece to task for talking about using movies as a “crutch.” I think Keith intended it lightly, referring to that Gore Vidal miniseries, which isn’t the greatest education you could get. But I think it can be valuable in getting students to think critically about adaptation and creative interpretation and how different mediums work. You just have to be good at your job.
Isn’t the “nudity” exactly one brief scene where you see Whiting’s ass and Hussey’s breasts for a second each? Like it’s not exactly Blue is the Warmest Color.
"...It is half covered by the old crack about no actress being ready to play Juliet until she is too old for the role.”
The Dripping Yellow Crystal Ball predicts that in five to ten years, someone's gonna take a crack at doing a CG-deaged Romeo and Juliet. They will still be youngish actors, say in their mid-20s to early-30s, but young enough to pull off making them look like teenagers. It's a no-brainer Branagh is the likely bet to take this on: I imagine he'll even entertain for two minutes the idea he can be Romeo himself before someone talks him down off that ledge.
"Has anyone ever had a good experience watching a movie in a classroom?" Yep, albeit mostly of the last-week-of-term variety. I had a relatively decent VHS collection and was only a five minute walk from school, so I could nip home and grab something if circumstance permitted. The Action Cage trifecta of CON AIR, THE ROCK, and FACE/OFF were key texts of the dossing-off curriculum.
The only movies I remember watching in an educational context were Luhrmann's ROMEO & JULIET and Branagh's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Baz's R&J hit VHS in '97, so right on time for my English GCSE. My History A-Level took in 1800s/1900s British politics, and the two World Wars, so BLACKADDER THE THIRD and BLACKADDER GOES FORTH got a lot of classroom play.
My American History teacher showed us Martin Ritt's The Molly Maguires during my senior year. He'd probably be out of a job if he tried that today.