What's Playing?

The clips given above are fairly representative of the respective movies. "Gosford Park" is a richly intriguing movie, but it would be quite a challenge to make it work as Movie Talk material. "Home Alone" is pretty light fare as far as artistic merit is concerned, but it is almost perfect for Movie Talk.

"Gosford Park" contains long scenes and sequences of scenes in which nothing seems to be happening. As you watched the clip, what could you think of to say by way of narration? To be sure, there are plenty of people, objects, and actions to describe, but the things you could say about them don't add up to much. "A woman kisses a dog" would be one good line, but most of the narration would go like this:

"He takes off his hat."
"She stirs something in a bowl."
"She speaks to the man on her left, then she turns to the man on her right."

A little of this sort of narration is fine, especially if the people, objects, and actions have some apparent relevance to the plot; but five or ten consecutive minutes of such disconnected commentary would bore those who understood it and baffle those who didn't.

The problem is that the visible events in these scenes have little to do with the story. The dialogues are where the interest lies, because the characters' comments to and about one another gradually reveal relationships and plot elements that must be understood if the movie is to make any sense at all. However, it seems next to impossible to paraphrase or otherwise explain all these conversations about unseen people and affairs, in a way that will be comprehensible to students with very limited understanding of spoken English.

"Home Alone," on the other hand, is abundantly visual. The events are the story; a rather silly and slapstick story, to be sure, but one that has a certain entertainment value. And it is very easy to produce a running narration that is closely tied to visible, meaningful events:

"The little boy holds his air rifle."
"Two men come to the door."
"We see their shadows on the curtain."

Even the spoken dialogue in "Home Alone" is generally quite easy to deal with. Much of it will be at least partially comprehensible to many of the students, and in any case the dialogue in this movie is not usually essential to the plot. Relatively little paraphrasing will be required.

To be sure, there are scenes in "Gosford Park" that would lend themselves fairly well to Movie Talk, and "Home Alone" has a few scenes that would cause difficulty. The point is that the former is mostly unusable, while the latter has great potential and poses very few problems. Between these two movies, it's an easy choice.

Here is a rule of thumb that may be helpful in deciding whether a movie can be used. Turn off the sound, watch a few minutes, and record yourself narrating what you see. Do this at several points in the movie. If your narrations sound like someone telling a story that makes sense, then the movie has promise as Movie Talk material.

2. What About the Affective Factor?

If students feel relaxed and interested in the movie you are using, you have the affective factor working for you: they will be receptive to the comprehensible input you provide, and the prospects are good for significant amounts of language acquisition to take place. But what if the movie you are using is boring, upsetting, or offensive to the students? It seems reasonable to assume that negative affective factors would then be working against you, greatly reducing the prospects for language acquisition, no matter how suitable the movie might be in terms of Movie Talk.

In some parts of the world, of course, the consequences of showing a movie that violates cultural or religious norms may be quite serious. We must therefore stress the vital importance of making sure that all movies used for pedagogical purposes are acceptable in the eyes of everyone concerned.

It is also very important that you, the teacher, feel positive about the movies you use. Movie Talk requires a certain amount of energy and enthusiasm on the part of the teacher. If you don't like the movie, it will be difficult for you to find its full potential and present it convincingly. (Obviously, teachers who like a broad spectrum of movies are especially well suited to Movie Talk!)

3. What Are Some Tried and True Movies for Movie Talk?

We will make no effort here to provide a long list of movies. Rather, we will offer a few examples of movies that have been used fairly often, with good results.

Those who like the "oldies" may be pleased to learn that the very first movie used for Movie Talk was "The African Queen." (At this time, it may not be available on DVD in all regions.) The second, if our memory serves us, was "Rear Window." An even older classic that has been used occasionally is "The Wizard of Oz."

Dramas of various kinds have been quite successful. As you may have guessed, we have used "Places in the Heart" more than once. Another personal favorite has been "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle," although the content is probably not suitable for all audiences.

Fantasy/adventure movies work well. "Jurassic Park" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" are two that come to mind.

Comedies are also good, if the humor is primarily visual rather than verbal. "Home Alone" is one example; "Big Business" is another.

One teacher we know recommends several movies with one-syllable titles: "Babe," "Big," and "Dave."

We hope these examples give you some idea of the range of movies that can be used. If you do very much with Movie Talk, you will soon develop your own list (probably with more recent titles than the ones given here).

1. What Kinds of Movies Can Be Used with Movie Talk? The effectiveness of Movie Talk depends largely on the amount of interesting, relevant comprehensible input the teacher can provide to the students. Movies, as we have seen, serve as visual aids; the teacher narrates the scenes and (when necessary) paraphrases dialogue to help the students grasp the plot. We will now take a close look at what this means in terms of the usability of different movies.
To get started, please view this sample clip from the movie "Gosford Park." How well do you think this would work with Movie Talk, as it has been described and demonstrated in previous units?
Next, watch this sample from "Home Alone." How does it compare with "Gosford Park" in terms of Movie Talk?