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Philosophy in Film -- Fall, 2000

Instructor: Paul Hodapp
Office: Weber House (1015 20th St.)
Office Hours: TTh 9:30-10:30 & 12:30-1:30, and by appointment
Office Phone: 351-2574
E-mail: paul.hodapp@unco.edu

Course Objectives

This class is experimental in that I cannot claim to be an expert in philosophy and film. I try to use films in my other courses, especially ethics courses, and a film course will help me select such films. I also wonder if merely watching humanistic films would help students develop the moral sensibility necessary to do moral philosophy. I thus concluded that the appropriate style for this course will be silence, that is, I do not intend to lecture or lead discussions about the films you will see. I hope it proves better to see lots of great films discussing them in your next film class. As Nietzsche said, the trouble with modern philosophy is that third and lower rank thinkers are destroying the great thinkers by watering down their work.

Each student will see seven (7) hours of movies per week for the fourteen weeks of the semester and write three one page analyses per week using the concepts of one of the chapters of one of the Giannetti books; either Understanding Movies which is analytical or Flashback which is historical. The papers must be specific with respect to the film(s) discussed and the material in the text. Specific references to philosophical texts should also be used. Each paper is to cover one film or 2-3 hours of film selections. A sample of good film writing is available in the reviews of Pauline Kael, which have been anthologized. Don't repeat a chapter more than once. In choosing your weekly movies, please follow the chronological schedule below. Hand in your papers on a weekly basis on Tuesday of the week following that decade's films. No papers will be accepted more than one week after they were due. No opinion; no summary. Papers will be graded credit or no-credit; 90-100 = A, etc. The books are available at the Book Stop.

Each film or selection must have been released prior to 1980 (until the last two weeks of class) and you must include the source that rates the film as great for films viewed outside class. The American Film Institute and Ms. Kael are good sources for titles of great films. Use the class as an opportunity to see foreign films and black and white films.

Plato's Republic is a background text for those with no background in philosophy. Plato is the greatest Western philosopher whose views on human psychology and ethics can be useful for film, especially his idea that there are three basic human motives: reason, emotion and appetite. One aim for the course is to move us from the appetite stage where we value films as entertainment to at least the emotional stage where we value films for their emotional power to help us experience the emotions: love, hate, anxiety, joy, etc., that we share with other persons and appreciate the unique means film uses to do this.

Class Schedule (tentative - your suggestions are encouraged.)

Weeks I & II -- Introduction and Silent Films

Visions of Light; Mother and Son; The Other Hollywood; Martin Scorsese's Century of Cinema; Battleship Potemkin.
Additions(?): Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Napoleon, Nosferatu

Weeks III & IV -- 1930-1940

Comedy: Duck Soup and Lady Eve. Greed: Treasure of the Sierra Madre. War: All Quiet on the Western Front and Grand Illusion.
Additions (?): My Man Godfrey, Grapes of Wrath, His Girl Friday

Weeks V & VI -- 1940-1950

Some directors did very good work during this decade and beyond. We might look at Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Some Like It Hot (1959) and Kurosawa's Ikiru, The Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, the Shakespeare adaptations like Throne of Blood and Ran, and High and Low, and maybe compare Rashomon with Belle de Jour (Brunel). Another possibility is to develop the Western genre from Stagecoach in 1939 through Shane, Ride the High Country, and The Wild Bunch to Heaven's Gate and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. And Midnight Cowboy?

Weeks VII & VIII -- 1950-1960

We might continue to explore the films of one director, e.g., Hitchcock: from Notorious (1946), Vertigo, and Strangers on a Train to Psycho (1977). Acting: Olivier in Richard III and/or Hamlet, Betty Davis in All about Eve, any film with Barbara Stanwick or Glenda Jackson, the mother/son telephone scene in Paris, Texas. Mechanization and the emotions: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the 50s and/or 70s versions). Ghosts: Ugetsu and The Seventh Seal. Political: Salt of the Earth.

Weeks IX & X -- 1960-1970

Musicals: Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Singing in the Rain and 32 short films about Glenn Gould. Comedy: MASH, Tom Jones, Annie Hall, Dr. Strangelove, with Holy Grail, Lavender Hill Mob, Jules et Jim, She's Gotta Have It and/or a Mel Brooks film like Young Frankenstein and/or Blazing Saddles, Hair, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Metropolitan.

Weeks XI & XII -- 1970-1980

Political/Gangsters: Body Heat, The Godfather, with Blood Simple. Photography: Days of Heaven and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. War: Apocalypse Now and Das Boot.

Weeks XIII, XIV, & XV -- 1980-2001

Moral Nihilism: Henry with Naked. Mind and Body: Raging Bull, and When Harry Met Sally. Women's Films?: Entre Nous and The Piano. Poverty: The Year of Living Dangerously and any film by Ken Loach. Russian Films: Tarkovsky (Director).

Any cheating may cause you to fail the course. The syllabus is subject to revision. If you are disabled and need an accommodation, please see me and the Disability Access Center (1-2289).

The fact that we don't discuss films in class does not mean that I don't like to discuss films or that I don't encourage you to discuss films with me and other students. We can discuss films outside of class, through email, on the phone, etc. If you have suggestions for films you will bring to be shown in class, let me know ahead of time how much time you will need. Also don't hesitate to ask questions about the class, papers, etc.