Matthew S. Monahan
3.1 Outline: Texts and Methods
I have long flirted with the idea of incorporating the work(s) of the “godfather of independent American filmmaking,” Guilford, Connecticut resident John Sayles into my curriculum. Sayles, not unlike the pioneering filmmaker John Cassavetes before him, uses income generated from steady work in the motion picture industry (Cassavetes as an actor; Sayles as a screenwriter) to self-finance small scale productions. Not only does Sayles’ work allow him to create film art on his own terms, as an auteur if you will, but it is also at the core of many of his films, especially that which will be a centrepiece here, his 1987 feature
Matewan
.
Yeah. The preface to Studs Terkel’s book
Working
says, “You don’t make love for eight hours a day, you don’t eat for eight hours a day- the only thing that you do for eight hours a day is sleep and work.” That’s a huge part of your life, and how people, in this society anyway, identify themselves, and are identified by other people. That’s why so many of Hitchcock’s guys are architects. In the ecology of certain movies, you need the person to be able to missing for a long period of time and off having an adventure- and nobody knows what the fuck an architect does. They have little plans rolled up, and they go and visit a building site every once in a awhile, but they kick off for a week and a half and have an adventure-nobody misses them. And it’s kind of a classy thing; they obviously went to college, and da-da-da. Otherwise you’ve got to go and work (Sayles and Smith 76).
In addition to Sayles’ fascination with and desire to show his characters at work on screen, he recently commented at a screening of his most recent feature
Go for Sisters
at the Whitney Center, as a part of this year’s Arts and Ideas Festival, that he feels a deep connection to
Matewan
and cites it as a personal favorite because of the way his crew connected with the community on location in the mountains of West Virginia. Sayles is both interested in his crew as a community and the way communities are represented in his films.
Matewan
is my anchor text for representing the American labor movement of the early twentieth century. It clearly demonstrates the tensions between the
indigenous
[is this a
sic
or not?] West Virginia coal miners, the ‘scabs’ i.e. newly immigrated Italians and somewhat recently freed blacks, and the coal company i.e. big business and its gun thugs, specifically here Baldwin-Felts agents.
Sayles wrote and directed
Matewan
at the same time that big business with the aid of actor-cum-President “Let’s win one for the Gipper” Ronald Reagan was busting the air traffic controller’s unions. In addition to starring Chris Cooper, fellow Williams College graduate David Strathairn (Sayles is a Williams alum), and Will Oldham AKA Bonnie “Prince” Billie and star of director Kelly Reichardt’s
Old Joy
,
Matewan
features James Earl Jones as “Few Clothes”Jackson the de facto leader/representative of the black miners (this was not long after Jones played Troy Maxson the protagonist in August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning drama
Fences
).
Five years after directing
Matewan
Sayles worked as a day player on Spike Lee’s epic biopic
Malcolm X
, which is one of the two Spike Lee joints included in this unit representing the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Sayles plays the FBI agent who while monitoring the wiretap of X’s hotel room makes a derogatory comment about Dr. King’s indiscretions, something to the effect that by comparison X “is a monk.”
Prior to viewing the opening credit sequence of Lee’s film in seminar, I have oft times vacillated on how much pre-teaching is required for students to grasp Lee’s critique of America’s brand of democracy circa the 1990s. I often survey students to find out if they have any prior knowledge of Rodney King and or the LA riots.
Gavin Smith suggests that Lee’s
Do the Right Thing
and Sayles’
City of Hope
are excellent companion pieces that explore urban communities of the time; however, most of my students study
Do the Right Thing
in their junior English classes alongside the speeches of both X and MLK. Additionally, I have recently discovered that although
City of Hope
is available via streaming and on VHS, it has never been released on DVD (this is according to the experts at Best Video in Hamden, Connecticut).
3.2 Details: Sample Lesson Plans
3.2.1 Collectivism in Sayles’ Matewan
Opener:
FEW: It true you a Red?
JOE: Yeah, I spose it is.
FEW: Then how come you don’t carry a gun?
JOE: (smiles) We carry little round bombs. Don’t you read the papers.
In the teaching of John V. Last’s opinion piece “TV for Tot’s: Not What You Remember,” in which he briefly deconstructs
Thomas the Tank Engine
as a paean to free-market capitalism, going as far as to say that it would have “Karl Marx turning in his grave,” it came to my attention that my senior students are unaware as to who Marx was.
In small groups students (two to four) research the following key terms and historical figures and report out their findings: Karl Marx, IWW (International Workers of the World)/Wobblies, CE Lively, Sid Hatfield, scab, scrip.
Big Questions:
What are the major conflicts in Sayles’
Matewan
? Who are the parties involved? What is the film’s POV? What elements contribute to its establishment and how do they impact tone and mood?
Mini Lesson/Instruction:
Point of View (POV)
is the perspective from which the story/narrative is being told. Traditionally narratives are told from either first person, third person-limited, or third person omniscient point of view. As you critically view director John Sayles’
Matewan
consider from whose point of view the story is being told, what film elements communicate the POV, and what affect the POV has on you, the viewer.
Tone
is the artist’s, or in this case filmmaker’s, attitude towards his subject or audience.
Mood
is the emotional impact the work has on its audience.
Imagery
when discussed in purely literary terms refers to descriptive language that appeals to any of the five senses. A related film term is
mise en scene
which is sometimes used to refer to everything within the camera frame: lighting, composition, actors, costumes, props, and sets.
Workshop:
Prior to critically viewing the film students will analyze Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” placing special emphasis on POV, tone, mood, and imagery. Students discuss the tone and how imagery contributes to their understanding of the narrative.
Next, students critically view
Matewan
. While viewing students begin to establish three-column critical viewing logs. Students are to record information in at very least the first column while viewing; the remaining columns may be backfilled after discussion. In the first column students record formal elements, whether they be part of the mise en scene or the soundtrack, that contribute to their understanding of terms covered in today’s Mini Lesson/Direct Instruction. For example, the film begins and ends with non-diegetic voice over narration (its first appearance is on the fourth page of the screenplay, approximately in the first five minutes) which indicates that the POV is at least in part first person.
Summary/Review
Homework/Extended Learning Activities:
-
Write a shooting script for an adaptation of “My Papa’s Waltz” or other short narrative that details mise en scene in support of a specific tone.
-
Create a storyboard, a series of drawing that layout the coverage and types of shots you will need in a given scene. Remember the artistic quality of one’s storyboard is secondary to the information being conveyed. The completed storyboard should include a variety of different shots i.e. long, medium, close up etc. that contribute to the tone of the overall piece.
-
Students use their three columned critical viewing logs to write blog posts 250 to 500 words in length in which you analyze
Matewan
in whole or in part paying particular attention to one or more of the following: tone, mood, POV. Be sure to include one or more images that directly relate to the point(s) you are attempting to make.
Materials:
Class copies of Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz.”
Excerpts of the shooting script for
Matewan
from
Thinking in Pictures
.
Sayles, John.
Matewan.
Perf. Chris Cooper, Will Oldham, and James Earl Jones. 1987. DVD.
3.2.2 Separatism and the Struggle for Human Rights in Lee’s biopic
Malcolm X
Opener:
In small groups students (two to four) research the following key terms and historical figures: Rodney King, conk, Marcus Garvey, Joe Louis, NOI (Nation of Islam), COINTELPRO, Louis Farrakhan.
Mini Lesson/Direct Instruction:
Bildungsroman
in literary criticism refers to a subgenre of coming-of-age stories that is marked by a gradual yet substantial transformation in its protagonist especially in terms of his or her moral growth.
Biopic
is a film that dramatizing the life of an historical figure.
Dolly shot
or tracking shot is when the camera is mounted on a wheeled base that runs along a track. Lee’s trademark dolly shots place the camera and an actor, most often his film’s protagonist, on the same dolly, thus the character appears to remain static while the set or location appears to recede.
Montage
is a series of quick edits that is often accompanied by a non-diegetic soundtrack and represents the passage of time.
Signature style/auteurism
certain filmmakers such as Spike Lee have a strong creative vision that incorporates recurring ‘vocabulary’ and motifs. Lee’s style often incorporates bright color palettes, racial tensions, and a visual effect, the dolly shot.
Workshop:
Students critically view director Spike Lee’s landmark biopic
Malcolm X
. While viewing students establish three-column critical viewing logs. Students are to record information in at very least the first column while viewing; the remaining columns may be backfilled after discussion. In the first column students record formal elements, whether they be part of the mise en scene or the soundtrack, that contribute to their understanding of terms covered in today’s Mini Lesson/Direct Instruction. For example, the film begins with a montage that includes non-diegetic voice over of Denzel performing “I Have a Nightmare (I Charge the White Man)” against a series of cuts between a burning flag and actual footage of the Rodney King beating.
Summary/Review
Homework/Extended Learning Activities:
Students use their three columned critical viewing logs to write blog posts 250 to 500 words in length in which you analyze
Malcolm X
in whole or in part paying particular attention to one or more of the following: Bildungsroman, montage, and auteurism. Be sure to include one or more images that directly relate to the point(s) you are attempting to make.
Materials:
Excerpts from
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
.
Lee, Spike.
Malcolm X
. Perf. Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett. 1992. New York: Forty Acres and a Mule, 2000. DVD.
3.2.3 A Study of Sound, Fury, Power, and Revolution: The Ninety Minute Monologue
A Huey P. Newton Story
Opener:
In small groups students (two to four) research the following key terms and historical figures:
Mini Lesson/Direct Instruction:
Allusion
is a reference made to an earlier well-known work esp. the Bible or mythology, or an historical figure or event that the author/artist/filmmaker assumes her audience has prior knowledge of.
Documentary
refers to genre of filmmaking that is generally considered to be nonfiction;
documentaries
often rely on archival footage and “talking head” interviews to tell their stories.
Homage
is from the French for RESPECT; three excellent examples of homage are as follows: director Spike Lee’s referencing of Charles Laughton’s
The Night of the Hunter
in
Do the Right Thing
with Radio Raheem’s take on Harry Powell’s “Story of Love and Hate: The Story of Left-hand Right-hand;” director Jim Jarmush’s homage to Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki’s
Branded to Kill
in
Ghost Dog: the Way of Samurai
with their assassinations via bullets through waste pipes; director Brian DePalma’s homage to Sergei Eisenstein’s
Battleship Potemkin
, specifically of his borrowing of the pram in distress from “The Odessa Steps” to his train station shootout in
The Untouchables.
Improvisation
Monologue
Workshop:
Students critically view director Spike Lee’s film of Guenveur Smith’s one man show
A Huey P. Newton Story
. While viewing students establish three-column critical viewing logs. Students are to record information in at very least the first column while viewing; the remaining columns may be backfilled after discussion. In the first column students record formal elements, whether they be part of the mise en scene or the soundtrack, that contribute to their understanding of terms covered in today’s Mini Lesson/Direct Instruction.
Summary/Review
Homework/Extended Learning Activities:
Students use their three columned critical viewing logs to write blog posts 250 to 500 words in length in which you analyze
A Huey P. Newton Story
in whole or in part paying particular attention to one or more of the terms covered by Direct Instruction. Be sure to include one or more images that directly relate to the point(s) you are attempting to make.
Materials:
http://www.amazon.com/Firing-William-Buckley-Black-Movement/dp/B007POAJKU
Guenveur Smith, Roger.
A Huey P. Newton Story
. Directed by Spike Lee. New York: Forty Acres and Mule, 2001. DVD.