Film Reviews for HIST 431

An optional assignment in HIST 431 is to review a film of merit pertaining to the Great Plains. The following films, one way or another, meet the definition of “films of merit” for review in this course. Others—well, ask, and maybe we can work something out. Please use library copies if available. To check out an item from my collection, write an e-mail to the graduate assistant, who will bring or send it to class. (The request has to be made by e-mail, so that we have a coherent record of who has borrowed what.)

Genre	Title	Production	Notes	Where?
Feature	Powwow Highway	Homemade Films, 1989	Promo blurbs call this “the first Native American road movie.” Embedded in it are all sorts of allusions and observations about reservation conditions in the late 20^th century.	ODIN (VHS) / TI (DVD)
	Red River	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1948	John Wayne as the semi-deranged drover bringing a herd up the Chisholm Trail. You have fun critiquing the historical flubs, but this is a classic, and so don’t discount its mythic import.	ODIN (DVD & VHS) / TI (DVD)
	Friday Night Lights	Universal, 2004	High school football in West Texas—is this really the way it is?	ODIN (DVD) / TI (DVD)
	The Alamo	Touchstone, 2004	Billy Bob Thornton as an ambivalent Davy Crockett.	ODIN (DVD & VHS) / TI (DVD)
	The Searchers	Warner Bros., 1956	John Ford + John Wayne, but there’s a lot more to say about this disturbing film. It operates off the literary platform of the captivity narrative, raising issues about race and the frontier that are hard to handle.	ODIN (VHS & DVD) / TI (DVD)
	The Last Picture Show	Columbia, 1971	An amazing cast in Peter Bogdanovich’s rendering of Larry McMurtry’s novel. A cinematic classic, of course, and particularly pertinent to HIST 431 as a treatment of the atrophy of small-town community on the plains.	ODIN (DVD) / TI (DVD)
	Shane	Paramount, 1952	George Stevens’s rendering of Jack Schaefer’s classic novel. Alan Ladd exemplifies the Western myth, riding into a conflict between ranchers and farmers, pitching in on the side of progress, and then riding away again.	ODIN (DVD & VHS) / TI (DVD & VHS)
	Picnic	Columbia, 1959	Stifling small town in Kansas, hot sexuality suppressed (William Holden and Kim Novak). The film will seem hokey, but it was sensational at the time.	TI (DVD)
	North West Mounted Police	1940	(Haven’t been able to find a print)	???
	In Cold Blood	Columbia, 1967	Based on Truman Capote’s “nonfiction novel” treating the Clutter family murders in Holcomb, Kansas. Robert Blake’s best role, as Perry Smith, the murderer.	ODIN (DVD & VHS) / TI (DVD)
	Badlands	1973	Set in South Dakota, 1959, based on the murderous exploits of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.	TI (DVD)
	Hud	1963	Based on Larry McMurtry’s Horseman, Pass By, the film features Paul Newman as the wayward son of a stalwart rancher, but Patricia O’Neal steals the show.	ODIN (DVD)
	Sea of Grass	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1947	Spencer Tracy stars—more description needed.	ODIN (VHS)
	Thunderheart	Tristar, 1992	Quite a cast (Val Kilmer is the lead, an FBI agent) in a modest, but well-made film. Loosely based on the tribal political situation at Pine Ridge in the 1970s.	TI (DVD)
	Bugles in the Afternoon	1952	Custer at the Little Big Horn—more description needed.	ODIN (VHS)
Made for TV	Corner Gas: Season 1	CVV	Television comedy filmed in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, fictionalized as Dog River. Check out the website.	TI (DVD)
	Corner Gas: Season 2	CTV
	Corner Gas: Season 3	CTV
	Rawhide: The Complete First Season			It’s coming
	Gunsmoke: The Complete First Season			It’s coming
Documentary	Northern Lights	1973	The Nonpartisan League in North Dakota.	ODIN (VHS)
	The Plow That Broke the Plains	Farm Security Administration, 1936	An artful propaganda film made for the FSA by Pare Lorentz, presenting a powerful interpretation of the causes of the Dust Bowl—and proposing an answer to the problem.	ODIN (VHS) / TI
	The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie	Prairie Public Television, 1999	The migration of the Germans from Russia and their distinctive culture on the North American plains.	NDSU (VHS) / ODIN (VHS)
	The Mennonites of Manitoba	Prairie Public Broadcasting, 1998.	Description needed.	NDSU (VHS)
	Born Hutterite	National Film Board of Canada, 1996	Description needed.	NDSU (VHS)
	Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas	Mino-Eye American, 1991	Documentary about the making of The Last Picture Show in Archer City, Texas. Plenty of inside information on relationships among those who made the film, also reactions of local citizens.	(DVD)

Guidelines for Reviews

1. Choose a film of merit, such as one of those listed in the tables above. If reviewing television shows, treat content equivalent to a feature-length film. (For instance, three half-hour episodes of a TV series.)

2. Do some background research on the film, checking online reviews and whatever else is convenient, to prepare you to view the film thoughtfully.

3. Jot a few notes as you view. Brief quotes, stunning images, key points.

4. Write the review soon after from your notes and recollections, to a length of 300 words.

5. Summarize the content, but do more than just summarize. You should point out particular features of interest and give an evaluation of the film.

Rubric for Evaluation of Film Reviews
Summary	A good summary captures background and plot of the film.	5
Critical Evaluation	A critical review points out strengths and weaknesses of the film and, most important, its value to us as students of the Great Plains.	3
Appropriate Length	Target length: 250-300 words	1
Matters of Style	Composition, grammar, and punctuation are important to communication.	1
Points Possible for Review		10

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