Language-related popular films?

[Robin Queen]

Here is a partial list of films and television shows I've used in my  
courses in the last couple of years (sorry I don't have them  
annotated)--most of these are not fundamentally about language, but  
they all have interesting linguistic components.

For teaching about language in the US, I think "Crash" is probably  
one of the best films out there right now.  "Children of a Lesser  
God" is also good  (though much older) if you want to discuss ASL and/ 
or multilingualism.  Animated films almost all have great linguistic  
examples--especially Shrek and Shark Tale (though these might be more  
difficult for ESL students to pick up on because of the animation).   
Also the comedians Margaret Cho, Chris Rock, George Lopez and others  
often riff on language and some of that is easily available for  
download (video and audio).  Thanks to Lisa Del Torto and Katherine  
Chen for finding most of these.

Cheers
Robin

Firefly (TV show set in future where the shared language is a mix of  
English and Cantonese)
Airplane! (great scene of "jive" translations)
8 Mile (nice rapping--works very well set in contrast to the rapping  
in Malibu's Most Wanted)
Fast Times at Ridgemont HIgh
Rain man
Whose LIne is it Anyway (improv TV show--great examples of linguistic  
indexicality)
Mean Girls
Coming to America
Good Will Hunting (there's a great scene in a bar that shows  
different rates of r-less and r-fullness in Boston)
Dave Chapelle (often does "whitey" voice)
Dr. Doolittle (all the speaking animals use different sociolinguistic  
indexes)
South Park (especially for "taboo" language)
Undercover Brother
Malibu's most wanted
My big fat Greek wedding
King of the Hill (TV show)
Mambo Italiano
American HIstory X
Life of Brian
Crazy in Alabama
Malcolm X
Jungle Fever
Escanaba in da Moolight (regional variation from the upper Penisula  
of Michigan)
Fargo (Upper Midwest juxtaposed against New York)
Bring it On
Barbershop
Rush Hour
Traffic
Chasing Amy



On Aug 17, 2006, at 10:20 AM, Dr. Mark Peterson wrote:

> I've done three columns on this for the SLA based on member  
> contributions, over the years but Anthrosource doesn't archive  
> Anthro Newsletter back that far.  Here are the films that were  
> mentioned in the columns, along with credit where possible:
>
>
> Bambi
>
> Has anyone watched Bambi's language acquisition process recently?   
> B-b-b-birds?  Kate Riley
>
> Beavis and Butthead Do America
>
> Contains a humorous scene based on the prescription against using a  
> preposition to end a sentence with.  Ronald Kephart, University of  
> North Florida.
>
> Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
>
> There are wonderful moments when the protagonists struggle with the  
> Spanish language, which they need in order to flee to Mexico.  Once  
> there they manage to rob a bank with their obviously limited  
> Spanish, but these limits become painfully obvious when they  
> encounter real Mexican bandidos.  A great excuse for linguists to  
> see this classic again.  Marie-Lucie Tarpent, Mount Saint Vincent  
> University.
>
> Canadian Bacon
>
> And there's the scene from "Canadian Bacon" between John Candy and  
> Stephen Wright.  Stephen Wright, playing a Canadian, says "What's  
> this aboot?" and John
> Candy (or somebody else) says "We're going to knock that 'oot' out  
> of your speech!"  Very funny.  Shana Walton
>
> Dances with Wolves
>
> Kevin Costner, oops I mean Lt. Dunbar, learns Lakota in absolutely  
> no elapsed time between scenes.  Hal Schiffman, University of  
> Pennsylvania.
>
> Dead Dog Cafe
>
> On a slightly different tack, CBC Radio One in Canada has a First  
> Nations satire program called Dead Dog Cafe.  Usually there is a  
> segment called Conversational Creein which the hosts teach non-Cree  
> speakers useful Cree phrases like Please ask the chauffeur to bring  
> the car around.  Amusing for the dabbler and a spring-off point for  
> undergrads who aren't ready to handle things like Hill's mock  
> Spanish article right off the bat.  For the one or two of you who  
> may not live in Canada, text & Real Audio files available at the  
> Dead Dog Cafe website:  http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/deaddog/
> Jeff Deby, Georgetown University
>
> Encino Man
>
> Funny scenes of the caveman guy learning English after having been  
> dug up (I'm told; I haven't actually seen this one).  Hal  
> Schiffman, University of Pennsylvania.
>
> The Funeral
>
> In this Japanese film by director Itami Juzo a couple views a video  
> on "How to Have a Funeral" to learn the proper  things to say.  
> Laura Miller.
>
> I Cento Passi
> A recent Italian film I Cento Passi,(directed by Marco Tullio  
> Giordana) has quite a bit of dialect-standard Italian codeswitching  
> as well as some English codeswitching.  Petek Kurtboke.
>
> Phenomenon
>
> John Travolta learns Portuguese in about 10 minutes, after being  
> struck by lightning.  Hal Schiffman, University of Pennsylvania.
>
> Tampopo
>
> In this Japanese film by director Itami Juzo you find a noodle  
> masterusing high-register tea-ceremony-like language and gestures  
> to instruct a truck driver in the art of eating ramen.  Laura Miller
>
> Tas Notika Riga
>
> Codeswitching of Latvian and Russian is characteristic to Latvian  
> TV film Tas notika
> Riga('It has happened in Riga').  Rita Urneziute, Vilnius, Lithuania
>
> Taxing Woman
>
> This Japanese film by director Itami Juzo has samples of Yakuza  
> speechas well as a woman using so-called masculinespeech. Laura  
> Miller.
>
> The 13th Warrior
>
> If you haven't seen The 13th Warrior, it's worth seeing the movie  
> just to see Antonio Banderas learn a second language by just  
> sitting around a campfire, no assistance from the native speakers,  
> and immediately produces complex forms! I first saw this movie  
> because a fellow linguist called and said, hey, you've got to come  
> see this...  Shana Walton
>
> The 25th Hour
> Many years ago I saw The 25th Hour,a movie about Europe in the  
> turmoil and aftermath of WWII.  The main character, a simple man  
> who is uprooted by the war and thrown about by circumstances  
> totally beyond his control, gave me the impression of being almost  
> an idiot.  I was quite young when i saw this film and later  
> realized that this impression was given because there should have  
> been 5 or 6 languages spoken in this film, and of course the hero,  
> played by Anthony Quinn, could not understand them, but since the  
> same language (with varied accents, but all understandable) was  
> spoken by all the characters in the film, it did not make sense  
> that he, unlike the audience, could not understand what was being  
> said.  An object lesson in how to gloss over language  
> difficulties.  Marie-Lucie Tarpent, Mount Saint Vincent University.
>
> Wayne's World
>
> And then there's the scene from Wayne's Worldwhere Wayne is having  
> a conversation about relationships with pop-star love-interest  
> Cassandra. She is a native Cantonese speaker and Wayne has  
> (rapidly) mastered Cantonese. In the scene, their deeply serious  
> and reflective conversation is about the psychology of  
> relationships and dependence, but the very lengthy English  
> subtitles are co-ordinated with maybe only one or two words in  
> Cantonese. It's a great take on linguistic relativity. Dr. Claire  
> Cowie, University of Sheffield
>
> The Wild Child
>
> In Truffaut's The Wild Child / L'Enfant Sauvage  the issue is the  
> acquisition of  speech, period.  Students love it [though it is a  
> bit slow, in parts] and there are humorous / heart rending moments.  
> Maria-Luisa Achino-Loeb, N.Y.U./Gallatin.
>
>
> Mark Allen Peterson and James Stanlaw
>
> Linguistic Moments in the Movies
>
> We are again approaching the end of the school year, when the  
> strain of final projects, term papers and grading brings on  
> exhaustion for professors and students alike.  Its time to break  
> out the montage of movie clips you have cobbled together based on  
> last years May SLA column, presenting films and television programs  
> that feature sublime and ridiculous representations of human speech.
>
> Whats that?  Youve already shown those clips?  Not to worry.  The  
> following film and television suggestions should meet your needs  
> for some time to come.
>
> Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
>
>
> Dr. Evil, who has traveled back in time 30 years, uses 1990s slang  
> of African American origin (talk to the hand,you ain't all  
> that,gansta rap) while extorting money from the president of the  
> United States in 1969.
>
>
> Enterprise Two Days and Two Nights(May 15, 2002)
>
>
> On leave, Hoshi Sato, the communications officer (who speaks 40  
> languages) meets a stranger who shares her passion for language.  
> After 24 hours with Hoshi, the stranger
> speaks impeccable English.  Hoshi fails to learn his native  
> language, though -- she asks him to speak a little more slowly and  
> he says that if he spoke more slowly that would change the  
> meaning.  They end up having a one-night stand, thus communicating  
> on a nonverbal level.
> The Limey (1999)
>
>
> Terrance Stamp is a British criminal who travels to California to  
> avenge his daughters death.  His Cockney is unintelligible to most  
> Americans.  At one point, he tries to convince a California police  
> chief that they are after the same thing but from different  
> directions, employing some Cockney rhyming slang like "china" for  
> mate (china plate = mate). After his speech the chief confesses he  
> couldn't understand a word he said.
> Never Been Kissed (1999)
>
>
> David Arquette, the cutest boy in school, coins a new slang word  
> and tries to get his friends to use it. These scenes offer a good  
> way to illustrate the difference between slang and dialect, which  
> many students have difficulty teasing apart.
> Sesame Street
>
>
> Theres a scene that makes a great discussion starter on language  
> acquisition in which Ernie tries to teach a baby to say his name,  
> and it does not work.  I cant locate the episode number, but the  
> clip is used in Acquiring the Human Language: Playing the Language  
> Game,the second volume of PBS program The Human Language, now  
> available as a video series.
>
>
> Star Trek: "Metamorphosis" (Nov. 10, 1967)
>
>
> This episode introduced the concept of the universal translator.   
> This handy device renders linguists unnecessary, as it  
> automatically translates every nuance of language on the basis of a  
> set of "universal" concepts (one of which is the distinction  
> between male and female, which even sapient energy clouds  
> apparently share).
>
>
> Star Trek: The Next Generation: Darmok(Sept. 30, 1991)
>
>
> The universal translators dont work on the Tamarians in this  
> episode, which is built entirely around an effort to communicate.   
> It turns out the Tamarians communicate entirely by metaphors that  
> refer to their own myth cycles (how does one construct a myth cycle  
> without a language?  Its a Tamarian secret).  The Tamarian captain  
> Darmok teaches Enterprise Captain Picard this language of metaphor  
> through the interesting pedagogical technique of kidnapping him and  
> forcing him to ritually act out one of the myths (unfortunately, it  
> is one in which two heroes become friends by defeating a monstrous  
> beast with just their knives).  Once Picard gets the hang of it, he  
> teaches the alien the myth of Enkidu and Gilgamesh.
>
>
> What Planet Are You From? (2000)
>
> This film about an alien from an all-male planet come to earth to  
> attempt to impregnate an earth woman may not be top-notch comedy  
> but it includes a number of great scenes about male-female language  
> differences.  There is a scene of alien men being trained how to  
> pretend to be listening to earth women.  Later in the film is a  
> scene in which a revised course (based on fieldwork) is presented.   
> The film also includes several scenes of the alien on earth  
> applying compliments in inappropriate contexts.
>
> Thanks to William O. Beeman (Brown University), Carol Hayman  
> (Austin Community College), April Leininger (UCLA), and Leslie C.  
> Moore (UCLA) for suggestions.
>
>
>
> At 02:19 PM 8/15/2006 +0800, 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
>>
>> -- 
>> ____________________________________
>> P. Kerim Friedman
>> Department of Indigenous Cultures
>> College of Indigenous Studies
>> National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
>> http://kerim.oxus.net/
>> ______________________________

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