With my Gr. 12 English class, I’m in the midst of a unit that asks, “What makes a person great?” This lesson builds on our conversations about characteristics of great people, features of a great movie, and the blockbuster phenomenon: in other words, media literacy. Once again, I owe a lot to the good folks at the Media Awareness Network, as I launch this 3-or 4-day lesson with a slightly modified version of their camera shots lesson. After talking about the hero journey, camera shots, and comic heroes, students are ready to discuss the techniques used by movie directors to portray a hero.
I’ve used Batman Begins several times with this lesson, and as much as I like mixing things up from class to class, I keep returning to this movie because it works so well.
What I like
- Batman Begins, suprisingly, has not been seen by the majority of my students. It’s always nice to work with something that is new for most of the class. And the upcoming Dark Knight adds an extra level of intrigue.
- Bruce Wayne/Batman offers an interesting portryal of the hero’s journey.
- The camera techniques used in Batman Begins are a rich discussion source. During class, I play the movie for a few minutes, pause it, and ask what students have noticed about the camera angles (or anything else from music to script to costuming). We talk about the the movie’s director’s decisions, why they were made, and what impact they have on the audience. Students invariably get involved and enthusiastically share their ideas. (A high school English teacher’s dream come true.)
What needs work
- This lesson portrays yet another male hero. I want to find more strong female characters for this unit, and indeed the entire course, both of which are too male-focussed right now. Aeon Flux is an obvious alternative for this lesson with its female hero; however, I tend to use that movie in my Grade 9 class. I could use it again, I suppose, but then it just gets a bit boring for both me and the students.
Final notes
This lesson markedly changes students’ media literacy. One student half-complained, half-joked, “I’ll never watch movies the same way again!” That is exactly what I want to hear. I have a friendly debate with a colleague about our role here: he is of the opinion that we shouldn’t spoil the way students watch movies, while I am convinced that students should be equipped to see movies as constructed re-presentations of reality. For me, then, this is an almost-perfect lesson.
In looking for female heroes, are you focused more on “superheroes”, to provide a parallel with male heroes like the Dark Knight, or do you see this including, more generally, strong female protagonists, like Erin Brockovich?
This is a good question. For the first unit of the course, I think I’m looking for the stereotypical ‘superhero’, just because it works so well to move from looking at comic book portrayals of heroes (with all of the camera angles and colouring) to movie portrayals of the same type of hero.
For the remainder of the course, however, I am looking for strong female protagonists. I really only have room to move in the short stories right now, as I am confined to using the plays and novels that we have class sets for (Duddy Kravitz, Catcher in the Rye, Crucible).
Any ideas?