Language-related popular films?

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Here's some stuff I have on my website for my course "Language and Popular
Culture." Some of this may duplicate things others have said.

Hal Schiffman
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Star Wars, various:

C3PO and Ninetynine:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/c3po.html

In Jabba the Hutt's throne room:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/huttese.html

Mutual passive bilingualism:
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/popcult/scifi/greedo/greedo.mov

Executive Decision: depiction of terrorists:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/execdec.html

Phenomenon:  Guy who gets hit by lightning, learns Spanish (and
Portuguese) instantly:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/phenom.html

Dances with Wolves: Dunbar learns Lakota in no time:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/dww.html

Amistad: an AFrican language depicted sympathetically:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/amistadf.htm

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/moviestuff/showoff.html

Filmscript of "The Empire Strikes BAck"
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/popcult/scifi/filmscrp/EMSTRBAK.TXT

Filmscript of "Return of the Jedi":
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/popcult/scifi/filmscrp/rotjedi.txt

Filmscript excerpt where C3PO meets the Ewoks:
http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/popcult/scifi/filmscrp/EWOKC3PO.HTM

Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus:  (racism):
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/blondven/blondven.html

Bruce Willis in The Siege:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/handouts/demoniz/TERR05.htm

Helen Keller depicted in "The Miracle Worker" (I have a copy of the movie,
but no text to accompany it; Anne Bancroft starred in it.)

"Nell" and other "wild child" movies:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/wildchild.html

Bibliographies of material related to film study:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/bibliogs/filmbib.html

UCal Berkeley bibliography on film, race and ethnicity:
http://lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/EthnicImagesVid.html

Website on Navajo Skinwalkers:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/american/skinwalkers/

Disney films contain many stereotypes about ethnicity and language, so
here is a website at UCal Berkeley devoted to Disney:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/disney.html

Website with many links to filmscripts:
http://davidgoldner.com/MovieScripts.htm


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On Tue, 15 Aug 2006, Kerim Friedman wrote:

> Teaching in Taiwan, I find my students do not have the English ability
> necessary to follow films like "American Tongues" and "Cross Talk" -
> but many Hollywood films, and some documentaries from the Discovery
> Channel and National Geographic, etc. are available here with Chinese
> subtitles at the night market. Which brings me to my question: Can
> anyone think of popular films (contemporary or classics, US or
> foreign) with language related themes that might be suitable for
> teaching? I've thought of a few, but I'm not too happy with the list
> so far:
>
> Windtalkers (2002)
> Pygmalion (1938)
> The Unconquered (1954)
> Enfant sauvage, L' (1970) (many more such films about feral children
> are listed at http://www.feralchildren.com )
> Children of a Lesser God (1986)
> Ishi: The Last Yahi (1992)
> Lost in Translation (2003)
> The Conversation (1974)
>
> I almost added Blazing Saddles for the Yiddish-speaking Indian chief,
> but then thought better of it...
>
> Obviously some of these films are better than others (as far as
> teaching is concerned) - but I just wanted to put something out to jog
> people's minds. Send your suggestions to me at this address (off
> list): oxusnet [at] gmail [dot] com.
>
> I'm traveling for a while, but I'll edit together all the suggestions
> and mail it back to the list  (and on the web) when I get back.  When
> you send your suggestions please state how I should list your name and
> affiliation if I post this list publicly on the web.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Kerim
>
>