movies

Movie Night

A few times in the semester I will show a video in the evening. They will range from 50-minute documentaries to full-length movies (like Chinatown). These videos are provided as useful, supplementary material and are recommended, but will not be required. If you cannot attend a night time viewing, we can make other viewing arrangements.

Here are a few videos I might show depending on interest:

Week

Movie and Topic/Description

8
Surviving the Dust Bowl. 60 min. Chronicles America's worst ecological disaster. Poignant interviews with witnesses and remarkable archival footage and photos tell the story of the drought, famine and black blizzards.

9
Grapes of Wrath (1940) Directed by John Ford with Henry Fonda. Approximately 100 min. Based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, the story follows an Oklahoma family's escape from the Dustbowl to join the migration to California's fruit harvest. Seven Academy Award Nominations: including Best Picture, Best Actor: Henry Fonda, Best Screenplay.

10
Cadillac Desert, Part 1: Mulholland's Dream. 90 min. The growth of Los Angeles depended on the acquisition of water, even if it came from more than 200 miles away.

11
Chinatown (1974) Directed by Roman Polanski with Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston. Approximately 130 min. Parallels the true story told in Mulholland's Dream. "It's just Chinatown, Jake." The opaque shrug that ends this 1970s classic embodies the film's world-weary depiction of people who are never what they seem and dark motives that dwell deep below the surface. Like the water that drives the plot, secrets in Chinatown have a way of bubbling up in the most unexpected places, as detective Jake Gittes (Nicholson) discovers when he takes on Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) as a client. An outright celebration of the depravity that classic-era private-eye stories as they only hinted at.

12
Water the Drop of Life: Part 5. Control of Rivers: Water, War and Peace. 52 min. A look at the conflicts that arise and the dilemmas faced when people try to control the flow of rivers.

13
Water: The Drop of Life, Part 3. Perils of Pollution. 52 min. An examination of global water-quality problems, including those in London, Bangladesh, the former Soviet Union and Germany.

14
A Civil Action (1998) Directed by Steve Zaillian with John Travolta and Robert Duvall. Approximately 120 min. Several families in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts, have suffered the tragic losses of their children to the rare cancer known as leukemia. After having their claim rejected by most law firms in town, these citizens approach Schlichtmann with the possibility that the deaths of their children may have had to do with Woburn's drinking water supply being contaminated by a couple of local businesses. The rub lies in the fact that these businesses are offshoots of two of the most powerful national corporations in the country! Schlichtmann must push his skill and craftiness as a lawyer to the limit in order to oust his opponents, who are working with a limitless bankroll.

15
Water the Drop of Life: Part 6. Search for a Sustainable Future. 52 min. New and interesting ways people search for water.

Week	Movie and Topic/Description
8	Surviving the Dust Bowl. 60 min. Chronicles America's worst ecological disaster. Poignant interviews with witnesses and remarkable archival footage and photos tell the story of the drought, famine and black blizzards.
9	Grapes of Wrath (1940) Directed by John Ford with Henry Fonda. Approximately 100 min. Based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, the story follows an Oklahoma family's escape from the Dustbowl to join the migration to California's fruit harvest. Seven Academy Award Nominations: including Best Picture, Best Actor: Henry Fonda, Best Screenplay.
10	Cadillac Desert, Part 1: Mulholland's Dream. 90 min. The growth of Los Angeles depended on the acquisition of water, even if it came from more than 200 miles away.
11	Chinatown (1974) Directed by Roman Polanski with Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston. Approximately 130 min. Parallels the true story told in Mulholland's Dream. "It's just Chinatown, Jake." The opaque shrug that ends this 1970s classic embodies the film's world-weary depiction of people who are never what they seem and dark motives that dwell deep below the surface. Like the water that drives the plot, secrets in Chinatown have a way of bubbling up in the most unexpected places, as detective Jake Gittes (Nicholson) discovers when he takes on Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) as a client. An outright celebration of the depravity that classic-era private-eye stories as they only hinted at.
12	Water the Drop of Life: Part 5. Control of Rivers: Water, War and Peace. 52 min. A look at the conflicts that arise and the dilemmas faced when people try to control the flow of rivers.
13	Water: The Drop of Life, Part 3. Perils of Pollution. 52 min. An examination of global water-quality problems, including those in London, Bangladesh, the former Soviet Union and Germany.
14	A Civil Action (1998) Directed by Steve Zaillian with John Travolta and Robert Duvall. Approximately 120 min. Several families in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts, have suffered the tragic losses of their children to the rare cancer known as leukemia. After having their claim rejected by most law firms in town, these citizens approach Schlichtmann with the possibility that the deaths of their children may have had to do with Woburn's drinking water supply being contaminated by a couple of local businesses. The rub lies in the fact that these businesses are offshoots of two of the most powerful national corporations in the country! Schlichtmann must push his skill and craftiness as a lawyer to the limit in order to oust his opponents, who are working with a limitless bankroll.
15	Water the Drop of Life: Part 6. Search for a Sustainable Future. 52 min. New and interesting ways people search for water.