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Fun Summer 2008 Film Course

ULIB493: Film and Media Literacy
CRN: 50931

An Online and in the Library Course

• This course runs the full summer term, but you may arrange to complete it early

Study Film Genres and Criticism

• Watch DVDs in the Downtown Campus Library
• Learn film vocabulary and criticism
• Learn to use film databases
• Become an informed media consumer
• Film list (you choose four of the seven genres to study, then two of those to watch all five films for - from those two, you select one alternate for your final project)

Study:

• Gangster movies and Italian American stereotypes (including the Godfather movies)
• Blaxploitation from the 1970s including Shaft (1971)
• Westerns and the women in High Noon (1952)
• Slasher movies from Psycho (1960) to Scream (1996)
• The films of Quentin Tarantino from Reservoir Dogs (1992) to Death Proof (2007)
• Graphic Novel Adaptations like 300 (2007) and V for Vendetta (2005)
• Dark Comedy including Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Heathers (1989)

About the Course:

• This is an online eCampus course. The class does not meet in person.
• You will can watch films in the Downtown Campus Library in private multimedia viewing rooms on 42" plasma screens or on multimedia computers with headphones.
• You may also choose to view your own copies, rent them from Blockbuster, Netflix, etc.
• You will watch a total of 15 - 17 films. There will be a 10 question quiz for each film. You will have a study guide for each quiz so you you will know what it covers.
• You will do written assignments that you will post to a group discussion board.
• You will evaluate your classmates' reflections and receive evaluations of your work.
• There are database assignments where you research film information and find the answers to questions online.
• You will be responsible for the readings that accompany the films.
• There will be online "lectures" for each of the main genres we will study.
• There will be a brief online quiz for almost every learning module.
• You will choose four of the seven genres to study. You will then watch five additional films in two those genres and take brief quizzes on each of them.
• Finally, you will choose from a list of selected films from your chosen genres and write one film critique using the skills and vocabulary you have practiced in the course.

Questions?

Email the Instructors:
beth.toren@mail.wvu.edu or charles.burkart@mail.wvu.edu

Film List

Gangster Films

• Godfather II (1974)
• Public Enemy (1931)
• Key Largo (1948)
• White Heat (1949)
• Scarface (1982)
• Goodfellas (1990)

Optional Gangster Films (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• The Departed (2006)
• Godfather (1972)
• Godfather III (1990)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• On the Waterfront (1959)
• Little Caesar (1930)
• Casino (1995)
• Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
• Roaring Twenties (1939)

Westerns

• High Noon (1952)
• Shane (1953)
• The Searchers (1956)
• Ride the High Country (1962)
• High Plains Drifter (1973)
• The Shootist (1976)

Optional Westerns (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• Ox Bow Incident (1943)
• The Big Country (1958)
• True Grit (1969)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• My Darling Clementine (1946)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• Dead Man (1995)
• The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)

Slasher Films

• Psycho (1960)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• Halloween (1978)
• Friday the 13th (1980)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Scream (1996)

Optional Slasher Films (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• April Fool's Day (1986)
• Black Christmas (1974)
• Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
• Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (Part 4) (1984)
• Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (Part 5) (1985)
• Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)
• Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood (1988)
• Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
• Funhouse (1981)
• Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
• Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
• Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
• Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
• Scream 2 (1997)
• Scream 3 (2000)
• Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (1986)
• Leatherface - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning (2006)
  
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Next Generation (1995)
• Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Blaxploitation Films

• Shaft (1971)
• Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (1971)
• Superfly (1972)
• Coffy (1973)
• The Mack (1973)
• Shaft 2000 (2000)

Optional Blaxploitation Films (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Sheba Baby (1975)
• Friday Foster (1975)
• Foxy Brown (1974)
• Shaft's Big Score (1972)
• Shaft in Africa (1973)
• Dolemite (1975)
• Black Caesar (1973)
• Cleopatra Jones (1973)
• Blacula (1972)
• Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)

The Films of Quentin Tarantino

• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• True Romance (1993) (written by)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Kill Bill: Vol. One (2003)
• Death Proof (2007)

Optional Quentin Tarantino Films (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
• Natural Born Killers (1994) (story by)
• Sin City (2005) (special guest director)

Dark Comedy

• Heathers (1989)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• The Loved One (1965)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
• M*A*S*H* (1970)

Optional Dark Comedies (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
• Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
• Harold and Maude (1971)
• Catch 22 (1970)
• The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• Mr. Verdoux (1947)
• The Player (1992)
• Barton Fink (1991)
• Little Murders (1971)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Bamboozled (2000)

Graphic Novel Adaptations

Notes:

• For all of the films in this module, the graphic novels will be on closed reserve at the Access Services Desk of the Downtown Campus Library.
• Certain assigned readings in the novels will be covered on the quizzes for the movies.
• Closed Reserve means that you can only check the book out for in-library use for two hours at a time.
• If no one else is waiting for it after two hours, you may check it out another two hours.
• You need your Mountaineer Card (WVU ID) to use as your library card in order to check the graphic novels out.

• 300 (2006)
• Ghost World (2001)
• Road to Perdition (2002)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• A History of Violence (2006)

Optional Graphic Novel Adaptations (You may choose one for your final project, a film review)

• Tank Girl (1995)
• Barb Wire (1996)
• Swamp Thing (1982)
• X-Men (2000)
• X2: X-Men United (2003)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
• Hellboy (2004)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• Fritz the Cat (1972)
• From Hell (2001)
• Spider-Man (2002)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• Spawn (1997)
• Daredevil (2003)
• Elektra (2005)
• American Splendor (2003)
• Heavy Metal (1981)
• The Rocketeer (1991)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
• Sin City (2005)
• 30 Days of Night (2007)