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| Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine as Maxim and Mrs. de Winter in the Hitchcock adaptation (Wikipedia) |
Note: The suspenseful novel Rebecca has a Hitchcockian twist at the end. No wonder Hitchcock made such a successful film of it!
Get Ready: What would you do if you learned you had a painful, fatal illness?
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| Uncle Sam on a U.S. Army recruiting poster (Wikipedia) |
Note: When we want someone to give up, we tell them: "Say Uncle!" But the word has lots of other idiomatic uses besides.
Get Ready: What does the word "uncle" mean to you (besides the obvious, literal meaning)?
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| From the German film poster (Wikipedia) |
Note: This is one of the most harrowing movie experiences ever, made more so by its backstory.
Get Ready: Have you ever acted on an "impossible dream"? Why or why not?
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| The Prince meets Snow White (Wikipedia) |
Note: Who doesn't know the story of Little Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs? Still, it's always good to look back at the details to see what "really" happened.
Get Ready: What lengths will people go to in order to maintain their position at the top--best, smartest, most beautiful, etc.?
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| The producers and lead actors from the 1975 film version with their Oscars; Nicholson is second from left. (Wikimedia) |
Note: Ken Kesey's 1962 novel captured the zeitgeist (the "spirit of the age") of personal freedom and any restrictions that might be placed on it by external authority. The film version drove this point home.
Get Ready: To what extent should a person expect complete personal freedom, and to what extent must he or she be required to submit to authority?
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| A TV version of the Cisco Kid and his sidekick Pancho (Wikimedia) |
Note: The Cisco Kid is best known as a hero. Who knew that in his first appearance he was a murderous desperado?
Get Ready: Is it possible for person--real or imaginary--to be both a "good guy" and a terrible person? Must people always be one or the other? Think of some examples to prove your point.
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| A phoenix in a medieval bestiary (Wikipedia) |
Note: In the history of science, many imaginary animals were once thought to be real (though some were just literary inventions). Let's meet a few.
Get Ready: Can you name any imaginary animals that people once believed in?
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| Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in a poster for the 1939 film version of Gone with the Wind (Wikipedia) |
Note: The classic novel Gone with the Wind is set against the horrors of the American Civil War, but is really about the stormy relationship between two passionate people.
Get Ready: Would you ever marry someone for money?
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| Mary Poppins and the children by illustrator Mary Shepard in the first volume (1934) (Wikipedia) |
Note: The popular films about the "magical" Mary Poppins are based on a series of books about a woman who may actually be a witch!
Get Ready: How important is imagination (and fun!) in getting a job done, even a daily task like tidying up a room?
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| Westley (as the Dread Pirate Roberts) and Buttercup (from a book cover) |
Note: William Golding's The Princess Bride introduced many common expressions into our conversation, including my favorite: "Inconceivable!"
Get Ready: What are the key elements of an adventure story: a hero? a villain? a love interest? What else?
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| How Arthur drew forth the sword (Howard Pyle) (Wikipedia) |
Note: This story from the tales of King Arthur was retold as the first section of T.H. White's book, The Once and Future King. It was later made into a popular Disney animated film.
Get Ready: Do you think some people are "destined for greatness," or is it just because of luck and/or hard work that someone succeeds?
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| Butch Cassidy (Wikipedia) |
Note: For a long time, movie heroes were the "good guys." Then along came films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that glorified small-time crooks into tragic heroes, so that they are household names in America even today.
Get Ready: Do you think the hero of a story must be a good person to be admired?
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| Humphrey Bogart as Rick and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa (Wikipedia) |
Note: Everybody comes to Rick's, including his old flame Ilsa Lund--who dumped him in Paris--now seeking help to get her and her handsome husband away from the Nazis.
Get Ready: Have you ever run into a former girlfriend or boyfriend--or someone else that makes you feel awkward? How did it go?
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| Peter plays the pipes in Neverland. (Wikipedia) |
Note: Peter Pan, the boy who won't grow up, comes to the Darling's house and whisks away Wendy and her brothers to Never Land.
Get Ready: Peter Pan's author put pirates and "red Indians" in Never Land. If you were writing the book today, what sorts of people (or animals, or robots, etc.) would you put there?
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| Detail of a poster from the film (Wikipedia) |
Note: With the help of her comical henchmen, Cruella de Vil wants a coat made of the fur of Dalmatian puppies--but a network of dogs (and one cat) spoil her plans!
Get Ready: Do you think dogs (and cats) can communicate with each other in ways that we don't understand?
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| George Reeves as Superman (Wikipedia) |
Note: Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the first modern superhero, the "gold standard" for all others.
Get Ready: Why must even the strongest of heroes, like Achilles and his heel, need a weakness, a vulnerability?
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| Poster from the film (Wikipedia) |
Note: "Professor" Harold Hill comes to River City to start a boys' band--and scam the townsfolk in one of my favorite movies.
Get Ready: If a person preys on the weaknesses of others, but is an idealist at heart, is he a good person or a bad person? In other words, do actions speak louder than words?
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| The Lion, the Girl, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man (Wikipedia) |
Note: One of my favorite films (featuring one of my favorite songs) tells the story of an orphaned girl who learns "there's no place like home,"
Get Ready: How important is "home" to you? What do you think of when you hear the word?
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| Poster from the film version (Wikipedia) |
Note: Happy is the person who has read Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, or at least seen its outstanding film adaptation, starring Gregory Peck. It was the only book of Ms Lee's to be published until near the very end of her life. She died in February, 2016; in July, 2015, her sister authorized the publication of an earlier (and, most believe, inferior) draft of the same book titled Go Set a Watchman.
Get Ready: Atticus Finch is a "small-town hero" (to readers, at least). How important are such people, compared to the "grand" national heroes, for example?
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| The "original" Pinocchio (Wikipedia) |
Note: Many of us have enjoyed the 1940 Disney version of Pinocchio. But how many have read the 1883 Italian children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, on which it's based? The book is quite a different experience from the film!
Get Ready: Which values are more important: the "grand" ones like bravery and truth, or the "homely" ones like hard work and good behavior?
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