STUDENT CLASSIC FILM PROGRAM

Discover, Discuss, and Learn Through the Magic of Classic Film

February 16th
Mrs. Miniver

Release date: 1942
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 2 hour 14 minutes
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Henry Travers
Synopsis: Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.
 
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March 2nd
Casablanca

Release date: 1943
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet
Synopsis: In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
 
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March 16th
They Were Expendable

Release date: 1945
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 2 hour 15 minutes
Director: John Ford
Starring: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond, Marshall Thompson
Synopsis: After a demonstration of new PT boats, navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. “Rusty” Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.
 
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March 30th
Mrs. Miniver

Release date: 1944
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull
Synopsis: During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.
 
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April 13th
Twelve O'clock High

Release date: 1949
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 2 hour 12 minutes
Director: Henry King
Starring: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, Dean Jagger, Robert Arthur
Synopsis: In the early days of daylight bombing raids over Germany, General Frank Savage must take command of a ‘hard luck’ bomber group. Much of the story deals with his struggle to whip his group into a disciplined fighting unit in spite of heavy losses, and withering attacks by German fighters over their targets.
 
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April 27th
The Great Escape

Release date: 1963
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 2 hour 53 minutes
Director: John Sturges
Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence
Synopsis: The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security ‘escape-proof’ camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
 
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May 11th
The Search

Release date: 1948
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Aline MacMahon, Wendell Corey, Jarmila Novotná, Mary Patton
Synopsis: In postwar Germany, a displaced Czech boy, separated from his family during wartime, is befriended by an American GI while the boy’s mother desperately searches for him.
 
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May 25th
The Best Years of Our Lives

Release date: 1946
Location & Time: Winn Room at Coronado Public Library 1:00pm 
Runtime: 2 hour 51 minutes
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy, Cathy O’Donnell
Synopsis: It’s the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.
 
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Open to any upper middle and high school students attending public schools, charter or parochial schools, and homeschoolers. We welcome all students to attend and join post-screening moderated discussion.  This launch of the program was made possible with seed funding from the City of Coronado Community grant. 

Two purposes will guide the program:

1) To develop in young people the discernment necessary to understand dramatic film narratives. Because movies employ so many senses, classic films are among the most powerful genres of visual storytelling.  The program will introduce young people classic movies, made by recognized masters of the film medium. 

2) to challenge young people to analyze dramatic film narratives and hone critical thinking skills. Every dramatic narrative is, in its essence, a story of redemption. Great stories incorporate an introduction, a protagonist, an antagonist, and some form of conflict. Great stories conclude when these conflicts are resolved. This general narrative model is followed, in various forms, in nearly every classic film made during Hollywood’s Golden Age.  

EDUCATIONAL GUIDES/EXPANDED STUDY

A special program will be made available for Homeschoolers or independent study to document program completion as a drama and/or film appreciation elective. 

The discussion guides are drawn from Dr. Onalee McGraw, founder of the Educational Guidance Institute (EGI) and a former educator. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies, and her Classic Film study guides have been used successfully with audiences of young people around the nation from widely diverse demographic backgrounds and cultural experiences.  If you would like more information on bringing a group or class and utilize the guided curriculum please contact Jon Mosier for more information:  Classicstudy@coronadofilm.com .

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