I’ve restarted this series with a new group of boys and we’ll mainly be following the original course outline since those movies were arranged in a certain order with a purpose in mind. The difference this time is that I have more movies to choose from and less of a time constraint — and I’ve invited the fathers as well.
Our first meeting was Thursday night and we’ll continue every other Thursday until we finish the original series or until the group wants to stop. I’ll continue to feature new movies in this space while the class is going on, but only on weeks when the group doesn’t get together. On those weeks, such as this one, this regular feature will focus on the discussion that followed the movie of the week. This week’s movie was the Gary Cooper classic, High Noon (see my original study guide and discussion questions for this movie here).
The group currently consists of six boys between the ages of 12 and 15, and three fathers plus myself. Another father and son will join us when they get back from vacation and another young man may join us as his schedule permits. The boys all started the evening pretty excited about doing something new and with anticipation for the huge pizza and and box of cheesy bread we’d ordered. So, bouyed by the food and inspired by the slam-bang ending of the movie, the boys were bubbling over with questions and comments about the movie afterwards, right?
I did say these guys are 12 to 15 years old, didn’t I?
First question: What did you think of the movie?
General response: “Borrrrring!”
When I asked why it was boring there were comments about it moving so slowly, with too much talking and not enough shooting and explosions. I continued to ask questions (from the study guide and others than occured to me based on the boys’ reactions), however, about what was being said (and meant) during those long talking parts. I tried to draw them out on the key lessons of the movie regarding personal honor and integrity and the importance of defending the rule of law even at great personal cost.
I was not surprised or disappointed that most of the questions or leading comments I made seemed to be going over their heads. The movie is slow and “talky” at times, especially for young men who don’t have a perspective on the things that were important to Marshall Kane and what he was risking and defending. The important thing to me at this stage was that the boys were talking and responding, even if they were going out of their way to be silly (talking about how the Marshall should have had an AK-47 or made some bombs, for example).
The big thing was they were talking and not sitting quietly waiting for it to be over (well, maybe a couple were). I know that even at this age the guys don’t want to come off as if they’re paying too much attention or care too much about what’s going on and that they will try to establish their own control of the discussion by seeing if they can veer off into other topics. I, with help from the dads, managed to keep pulling them back to question at hand and even got a couple of fairly insightful responses from the boys in spite of themselves. Whenever a lightbulb would go on over one of their heads, however, the lad was quick to try and throw a hat over it.
It’s a beginning, and similar to what happened the first time I did this. As we go on I expect the young guys will stop trying so hard to be funny (or studiously aloof) and will begin to engage with the issues and character qualities implicit in the films I’ve selected. After all, if I had expected that they already had an understanding of the concepts of duty, self-respect and self-sacrifice for the greater good then I wouldn’t have seen the need to offer the class again. As I said, some good answers did start to come out, even if they were offered somewhat uncertainly, and this should become more common as the comfort level increases in the coming weeks (plus I have a couple of sure-fire incentives in mind that I might apply as needed).
One thing that I got out of this viewing of this classic this time came from the scene in the church where Kane tries to rally the good men to his cause. The sentiments expressed by the townspeople on both sides were so much like the words bandied back in forth in Congress today about America’s foreign policy that it will almost make you laugh — if it doesn’t make you cry.
