Teacher's essay on American Graffiti and "films about the 50s"

It's from a Yalie, that means it's classy.

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/1/98.01.01.x.html

It's a teaching proposal about using film to help high school students understand the culture and climate of the 1950s in America, using ?American Graffiti? (1973), ?Dead Poets Society,? (1987) and ?Imitation of Life.?(1959).

Some AG-related talking points I'm pulling out for tantalization purposes:

<i>In California in1962 your identity is the car you drive. As the blond bards of California the Beach Boys suggest: ?She?s a hot-stepping hemi/with a four on the floor.? Or perhaps: ?She?s my little deuce coupe/You don?t know what I?ve got.? On the other side of the street: ?She?s got a competition engine/with a four on the floor.? Without a doubt the car is the essential teen-age metaphor. Look, there?s Steve McQueen screeching through ?Bullitt? in a Mustang 305. Look again, and there are Tod and Buz blasting down ?Route 66? in their hot Corvette. (Although where they put their luggage ñ they always wore cool clothes ñ in a two-seater car with no truck is beyond me)

To define the characters in ?American Graffiti,? therefore, according to the laws of the day, I herewith present a list of the cars they drive (Please note that in keeping with 1962 California car mythology one of the drag racers has to drive a Ford, his rival a Chevy. It is certainly no accident that ?Bullitt? drives a Ford and Tod and Buz a Chevy.</i>

another... though he screws up Milner's name in an amusing fashion. Call me stupid but I never noticed the Casablanca thing.

<i>Should the hot-rodding (but lovable) John Milton in ?American Graffiti? obey the law or flaunt authority. After all, he not only drag races on public highways but stuffs his glove compartment with unpaid tickets. Should our all-American hero stay at home or get on that plane? Is the allusion to the end of ?Casablanca? purely by chance?</i>


Anyway, take a look, particularly if you're also a "Dead Poets" fan.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Why try making a point about the 50's by using a movie that takes place in 1962?

Seems like somebody messed up and is hoping nobody notices.