bearing blog

World War Two movies.

I've been thinking about using one or more of these films when we study WWII in upcoming weeks.

 - The Great Escape

-  Twelve o'Clock High

-  Sands of Iwo Jima

Commenter Tabitha suggested To Hell and Back but I don't have access to a copy without buying it.  

Comments?  Anything obvious I'm missing?

Yesterday's U.S. history lesson: World War I, movie version.

I had my own boys watch "Sergeant York" yesterday as part of our World War I unit.  Even though I'm co-schooling U. S. history with Hannah's kids, we do some extras separately -- there just isn't time for us to have the kids watch movies together.  I need that time for instruction.  

I really only had one week to cover WWI from an American-history point of view -- we will also get it in world history this year, and we'll go more into the causes and such when we cover it there.  

I had never seen "Sergeant York" before.  It was released in 1941, so obviously we've got a patriotic, sign-up-to-fight kind of tone.  Good movie, though.  The climax of the movie (Tennessee corporal nearly-single-handedly kills 20 Germans and captures 132 prisoners, significantly aiding the Allies near the very end of the war) would be rather unbelievably unrealistic except that it really happened.   My 10-year-old and almost-seven-year-old were both very excited by the basic training and war scenes and wanted to see them again and again, and they didn't much mind the other stuff (maybe 2/3 of the movie) that sets up the characters, explains Alvin York's conversion from hellraiser to church-goin' man, considers religious objections to fighting, and in the end gets him home from the ticker tape parades to his Tennessee hills.

I really need to use more classic old cinema as kid-movies.  We have a nice collection of Marx Brothers DVDs which our children really enjoy, but I haven't gotten much into the war-movie genre.  It's very appealing to my little boys at least, even in black-and-white -- and it's gotta be better than Pokémon movies.

Good resource for movie/book/TV reviews.

I just stumbled across a website that was new to me that seemed worthy of sharing:  http://www.commonsensemedia.org .  It consolidates thousands of reviews of movies, books, TV shows, games, websites, and music, with notes about age-appropriateness and descriptions that ought to enable parents to make some judgments about whether the material is appropriate for their own children.  

Even better, there are many lists of recommended titles.  For example, here are the lists of recommended movies, (without regard to age-appropriateness), including such lists as "Best Offbeat Animated Movies" (Chicken Run, James and the Giant Peach) , "Best Anime Movies for Kids and Preteens" (Miyazaki holds the top five spots), and "Don't Mess With These Movie Moms" (The Incredibles, Spy Kids).  There are book lists too, which will help me as I am out of touch with any children's book published after about 1989.

 As usual, you can't let the judgment of the editors of any website substitute for your own judgment.  But it seems to me this site will be helpful in sifting through the huge volume of media aimed at kids.

Oh my. I must see this documentary when it comes out in April.

Check it out.

Link to the documentary website.

And h/t to MrsD.