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Humanities Core Course enriches Spring Quarter by offering you four FREE films related to the topics of this year’s program. Consider them our way of appreciating your ongoing hard work: you can take a bit of time off by going to the movies, and yet feel virtuous as you develop your understanding of course themes and exercise the critical thinking skills you’ve worked so hard to develop. |
Location: Humanities Hall 232 |
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The legendary Marlon Brando gives one of his best performances as a mercenary who enforces Britain’s colonial interests on a Caribbean island, and who is later forced to confront the unexpected and highly inflammatory consequences of his success. You’ll recognize themes you have encountered in Professor Haynes’ lectures such as the ideology and economics of empire and its consequences for colonials and the natives they exploit. This award-winning film was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, who also directed The Battle of Algiers.
Time and Date
Thurs, April 13: 4:00 p.m
Burn! (Italian Title: Queimada; 1969, 112 minutes) |
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Based on a true story from the 1930s, this much awarded Australian film presents the adventurous and moving account of three young "half-caste" girls who, like 35,000 other children of half Aboriginal and half European descent, are forcibly removed from their Aboriginal families by the Australian state and placed into training facilities, where they will receive the benefits of European "civilization" and be assimilated into the Euro-Australian population through marriage. Unlike many others of this "stolen generation," the three girls escape and fight their way back home--through 1,500 miles of hostile territory with little to sustain them except their wits and will. Themes of family, state, empire, nation, race, identity, "civilization," paternalism, and resistance to injustice will remind you of course topics.
Time and Date
Thurs, April 26: 4:00 p.m
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002, 94 minutes) |
The Year of Living Dangerously |
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Directed by Peter Weir, this film has won many awards including an Oscar for Linda Hunt’s cross-gender role as Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian male photographer. Formerly colonized by the Dutch, a seething Indonesia, under the rule of Sukarno and now on the verge of a Communist coup, provides the backdrop to a love story both exotic and erotic. Mel Gibson is a young, ambitious reporter who wants to get the story at all costs, even including his British love interest, played by Sigourney Weaver. The group of expatriates in the film will remind you of the ex-pats in Burmese Days.
Time and Date
Thurs, May 11: 4:00 p.m
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982, 117 minutes)
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The question of identity has featured in every text we’ve studied this year, from Antigone on. We’ve looked at identity from the perspective of politics, race, gender, family, state, nation, colony, and empire. This entertaining documentary, winner of thirty-five film awards, adds another dimension to the field by examining the historical and socio-economic consequences of the fact that corporations, arguably the most influential institutions in modern times, are given the legal identity of a person. Footage from popular culture and media, from talking corporate heads, and from analytic and opinionated commentators gradually develops a picture of national and multinational mayhem.
Time and Date
Thurs, May 25: 4:00 p.m
The Corporation (2003, 145 minutes) |
For comments or film suggestions for next spring, please email Dr. Hartz at plhartz@uci.edu |
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