Module 01: Let's Go to the Movies

I find it very difficult to find a movie that has profound impact on my life. I can name books and songs but not movies. As I thought about it, the movies that stuck with me the most were war movies. I don't like "shoot 'em up" movies. I think it is the sacrifice and often the futility that most impacts me. I ran through a number, like Blackhawk Down, the Last of the Mohicans, and the Deer Hunter, before deciding on Gettysburg.

Gettysburg chronicles a short period leading up to and the three days of the battle at Gettysburg. The concept of predestination is stressed repeatedly in the deep religious beliefs of the Confederate leader and serves to support the battlefield heroics.

My favorite character is Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and believe that Jeff Daniels does a great job of portraying the idealist professor from Maine. Who, by the way, went on to do more great things.

I am embedding a scene from the movie that I used in teaching inspirational leadership theories. In this segment, Chamberlain inspires a group of "mutineers" to achieve higher performance levels by articulating a vision. The inspiration music help a bit too. ;-)

---

At first I did not like this assignment. I could not think of any movies that had truly impacted my life--or so I thought. The movies do impact my life by causing me to learn more, but it ends up being the books on which the movies are based that I remember.

Gettysburg: This movie caused me to read the whole series of books on and leading up to the Civil War by Michael Shaara and Jeff Shaara. The last time I studied American history was in high school. Textbooks in those days were highly sanitized. My delving into American history stimulated me to apply for two National Endowment for the Humanities’ Landmarks Workshops where I learned about the auto industry in Detroit and the steel industry in Cleveland. Both industries played a large role in shaping the management techniques we still use today.

Blackhawk Down: This movie has caused me to question my values and beliefs. My most memorable quote in the movie is given by Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan (played by Treva Etienne): "Do you think if you get General Aidid, we will simply put down our weapons and adopt American democracy? That the killing will stop? We know this. Without victory, there will be no peace. There will always be killing, see? This is how things are in our world." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/quotes The year after this movie came out, I got to spend five weeks in Southern Africa. Although a very different environment, I was more aware of the assumptions I held about about Africa and Africans. Being more open to the experience allowed for richer learning.

My two latest "life changing" movies are 1) North Face and 2) The Way Back. Both are historical drama, which tends to be my favorite genre. I found these movies through books and found more books through these movies. My husband's maternal grandfather died in the Soviet Union in the late 20's while working on the railroad. No one alive now really knows what happened. One of the characters in The Way Back went to Russia to work on the railroad and ended up in a gulag. My interest is even more peaked.