Category: Films

Based on a true story, the Great Debaters the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at Wiley College, a historically black college related to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now The United Methodist Church), to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks. The fictional Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard University.

Goodbye Mr Chips is about Arthur Chipping, an established member of the teaching staff at the Brookfield School. He is a stodgy teacher of Latin, disliked by his pupils, who find him boring and call him “Ditchy,” short for “dull as ditch-water.” Chips meets Katherine Bridges, a music hall soubrette, in the dining room of the Savoy Hotel in London on the eve of his summer holiday. Dissatisfied with her career and depressed by her romantic entanglements, she sets sail on a Mediterranean cruise and is reunited with Chips by chance in Pompeii. Seeing in him a lonely soul similar to herself, she arranges an evening at the theatre after they return to Britain, and the two find themselves drawn to each other. When Chips arrives at Brookfield for the autumn term, it is with his new wife on his arm, much to the shock of the staff and delight of the pupils, who find Mrs Chips’ charm to be irresistible.

Wonder Boys tells the story of Professor Grady Tripp a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell, whose husband, Walter, is the chairman of the English department in which Grady is a professor. Grady’s third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending. The book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana.

Conrack follows the story of a young teacher, Pat Conroy, in 1969 assigned to isolated “Yamacraw Island” (Daufuskie Island) off the coast of South Carolina and populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that the children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the world and speak a dialect called Gullah, with “Conrack” of the novel’s title being the best they can do to pronounce his last name. The school has only two rooms for all grades combined, with the Principal teaching grades one through four and Conroy teaching the remaining grades, five through eight. Conroy discovers that the students aren’t taught much and will have little hope of making a life in the larger world.

October Sky is a 1999 American biographical drama film directed by Joe Johnston and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Chris Owen, and Laura Dern. It is based on the true story of Homer H. In October 1957, news of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1 reaches the town of Coalwood, West Virginia, where most residents work in the coal mines. As the townspeople gather outside to see the satellite orbit across the sky, Homer Hickam is inspired to build his own rockets to escape Coalwood. His family and classmates’ do not respond kindly, especially his father John, the mine superintendent, who wants Homer to join him in the mines.

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant, and starring Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård. Written by Affleck and Damon, the film follows 20-year-old South Boston janitor Will Hunting, an unrecognized genius who, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a police officer, becomes a client of a therapist and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned professor. Through his therapy sessions, Will re-evaluates his relationships with his best friend, his girlfriend, and himself, facing the significant task of confronting his past and thinking about his future.

Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 American drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 1953, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), a 30-year-old graduate student in the department of Art History at UCLA and Oakland State, takes a position teaching “History of Art” at Wellesley College, a women’s private liberal arts college in Massachusetts. At her first class, Katherine discovers that her students have already memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, so she uses the classes to introduce them to modern art and encourages discussion about topics such as what makes good art. Katherine comes to know her students and seeks to inspire them to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men.

The Emperor’s Club is a 2002 American drama film directed by Michael Hoffman and starring Kevin Kline. Based on Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief”, the film follows a prep school teacher and his students at a fictional boys’ prep school, St. Benedict’s Academy, near Washington, D.C.

After reading “Learning an L2 in a troubled world” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Robin Williams. Set in 1959 at the fictional elite conservative Vermont boarding school Welton Academy, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry with a different perspective of authentic knowledge and feelings.

The story takes place in 1959 at Welton Academy, a prestigious boarding school for boys in Vermont. It opens during an elaborate opening ceremony for a new school year, where we meet Todd Anderson, a new student entering his junior year. Transferring from another school, he is nervous to start at Welton as his older brother, Jeffrey, had attended before him and achieved excellent academic results.

Todd has always felt that his parents prefer Jeffrey; he is reminded of the pressure to live up to his legacy by the Dean. He meets his new roommate, Neil Perry, a friendly boy with a difficult relationship with his father, who has set out a detailed path for Neil’s life to go to Harvard and become a doctor.

Neil is not interested in this future but is too scared of his father to confront him. Todd also meets uptight overachiever Richard Cameron, rebellious rule-breaker Charlie Dalton, and romantic Knox Overstreet.

As classes start, the boys are surprised by their new English teacher, John Keating. Unlike the other strict and conformist teachers at the school, Keating is energetic, charismatic, and passionate. In his first lecture, he stands on his desk to teach the boys about different perspectives and talks about “Carpe Diem,” inviting the students to seize the day.

He wants to teach his students to live extraordinary, individual lives instead of simply following the rules. While the other teachers at the school are suspicious of his methods, Keating’s easygoing nature keeps him protected by the headmaster, Nolan.

After reading “Dead Poets Society” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

Finding Forrester is about a sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace plays basketball with his friends in New York City. A recluse, William Forrester, lives on the top floor of the building across from the court. The kids regularly notice him watching them. One of the boys dares Jamal to sneak into the apartment and retrieve an item. Jamal takes a letter opener only to be surprised by Forrester and inadvertently leaves his backpack behind.