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Every good literature teacher approaches literature from several angles. We teach students to look for what an author is expressing, what a character is feeling, and what we as the audience see and feel. We ask students to explore ideas, impressions, emotions and phychological impacts. We ask students to question and think for themselves. Scorsese points out that visual images, movies and pictures, are designed to shape and influence just as literature does. I believe he has a valid point in that students should be taught the same techniques we use in literature to question and analyze film. He points to the power of films like Triumph of the Will during the 1930's. This film is considered one of the most powerful, innovative and influential movies of all time. It moved a nation to war. We as teachers have an obligation to help students see this powerful medium in the same light that we examine literature. We have an obligation to help them question and think for themselves. Take a look at the image above. What do you see? What do you feel? If I tell you that this is a picture of the furnaces at Dachau, a brutal concentration camp would it change your thoughts?
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4 comments:
I agree, we do have an obligation as teachers to use every resource available to us (including film). When the picture was small it just looked like a beautiful archway in a brick building. My thoughts did change to disgust when I viewed it now knowing what it is.
Yes, I have to admit that knowing what the reality of the picture is instead of just viewing it without that knowledge impacts my thoughts and feelings. I agree with you that teachers have a responsibility to teach our studetns to evaluate this medium in the same way that we would examine literature.
Well written, very well written! Film is literature put to imagery. I could not agree with you and Scorsese more. Students should indeed be taught to look at and analyze film as they would a piece a literature. Both are works of art, they just have different mediums.
I agree, Lisa. I also thought of the films that Hitler commissioned in the 1930's to promote Nazism. Martin Scorsese was correct about the importance of teaching visual literacy in our schools. Students need to be taught how to analyze film in an objective way in order to find the truth behind the emotional response. The best way to learn this is to understand the craft of film-making and how film makers create that emotional response in viewers.
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