1. You have to talk about the relevance of the movie in the context of our class.
a. Relevance of the movie to our Course’s subject in general
b. Relevance of the movie to specific area(s) or topic(s) of the Course.
2. Historical time frame and setting of the movie
a. When does the movie take place?
b. What era is this and how does the movie deal with the period in general terms?
c. What are the main historical characters and/or important characters (sometimes and important character might be a real person but not yet recognized widely or at times this character might have been added into the movie for a specific purpose)
in the movie?
3. A general assessment/evaluation of the movie and the story
a. How was the story presented? (i.e. flashbacks, sequential, from a particular
character’s point of view, etc.)
b. What was the intention of the film and/or filmmaker as far as you can tell?
c. Was this intention fulfilled or met?
d. Were there specific scenes or occurrences that stood out as being essential to the development of the story and/or to your understanding of it?
e. What were the major substantive points of the movie? Why?
f. Are there any ‘unintentional’ results of the movie in your view?
4. A specific/historical assessment of the movie (Fact vs. Fiction and Emotion)
a. Are all the historically important figures and events presented “accurately”
(meaning with the correct date and time; it is difficult to assess conversations on
this level).
b. Were there any issues that were dealt with in a stronger – more obvious – way
than others? Which ones?
c. Were there any issues that seem to have been overstated? If so, why?
d. Were there any issues that you know of that have been left out? If so, why?
e. What was the general orientation of the movie? (i.e. critical of the event, pointing towards social issues, etc.)
5. Conclusion
a. What is the over impact of this movie on the viewer? Why? (Here you want to
include your own reaction as well as that of others who may have watched this
movie with you, and you can feel free to also speculate about other groups or
people that might react to this movie)
b. What did you learn and/or how did this movie enhance your understanding of the subject?
c. What is your recommendation about the movie?
d. Would you consider this a movie that can enhance the understanding of this
historical event addressed? If so, why? If not, why not? What could stand in the
way?
e. What would you suggest people keep in mind while viewing it?