HIST 1302
Extra Credit Movie Review: 5 points per review; 2 reviews maximum
800 WORDS WITH NO RESOURCES, ONLY YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE TWO MOVIES.
Write a review of a documentary film from the American Experience website. The review should be 1-2 pages long, double-spaced, with a 12-point font size and 1-inch margins all around.
Your review should offer a brief summary of the film (1-2 paragraphs) and then offer your reaction to the film (1-2 paragraphs). In your summary, include details that show you watched the film. In your reaction, tell me whether you liked or disliked the film, what you learned from it, and (as a result of watching this movie) what topics or questions you might want to learn more about in the future.
You may write and submit two reviews. If your review is well written, and demonstrates that you watched the film and thought about it, you will receive up to 5 points (up to 10 points for 2 reviews). If the paper is done poorly, I reserve the right to award zero extra credit points. If you commit plagiarism on this paper (intentionally or unintentionally), I reserve the right to subtract 5 points (or 10 points for 2 reviews) from one of your exam grades, and I may also contact the Dean of Student’s Office to have the incident of plagiarism noted in your file. (Repeated incidents of plagiarism can result in expulsion from SHSU.) Plagiarism is defined in the syllabus.
For the review, please choose from among the films listed as available for instant watching on the American Experience website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/…
Note that not all films are the same length; if you choose to review a longer film, it will still be worth the same number of points as reviewing a shorter film. If you have questions about this, please contact me. Below is a partial list of some of the movies available, as well as a few currently available only on youtube. If you find that one film is not available, feel free to let me know; however, you will need to choose a different film from the list.
The Poison Squad: 113 min.
McCarthy: 113 min.
The Feud: 53 min.
Sealab: 53 min.
The Eugenics Crusade: 114 min.
Space Men: 52 min.
Annie Oakley: 53 min. (female entertainer and sharpshooter)
Emma Goldman: 53 min. (an immigrant woman who was a radical intellectual and challenged the US government)
Amelia Earhart: 53 min. (the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic)
Freedom Summer (Civil Rights Movement activism in 1964 Mississippi): 1 hr., 52 min.
Stonewall Uprising (1969 riot; deals with gay rights): 92 minutes
Available here: (available as of Aug. 12, 2021; may not be available for long)
Woodstock (covers the first modern rock concert in 1969 and its cultural significance): 82 min.
Available here: (available as of August 12, 2021; may not be available for long)
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (deals with a religious cult that came to a tragic end in 1970s): 90 minutes
Available here: (available as of August 12, 2021; may not be available for long)
Billy Graham (about a 20th-c. white American religious leader): 113 minutes.
Goin’ Back to T-Town (about the Tulsa Massacre): 53 minutes.
The Codebreaker (about a white woman codebreaker who helped catch gangsters and Nazis): 53 minutes.
Mr. Tornado (about a Japanese-American engineer and meteorologist and his life-saving research on tornadoes): 53 minutes.
George W. Bush: 3 hours, 46 minutes.
The Man Who Tried to Feed the World (about an American plant breeder’s agricultural revolution that had unintended consequences): 53 minutes
If you have a membership to Amazon Prime, you may be able to access additional American Experience episodes; if you would like to review one of those, please talk to me first.
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