A Cinema Supplement to Gioia's Humanities Course (Part Two)

Or - 13 more movies you must see before you die.

Today we continue our cinema supplement to TheHonest Broker’s wonderful “12 Month Immersive Humanities Course.” If you’d like the explanation as to what we are doing here - read my original post here: “A Cinema Supplement to Gioia’s Humanities Program.”

In brief:

• Ted Gioia provided 52 weeks of suggested readings, listenings, and viewings (paint, sculpture, etc.) to guide people through the great works in the history of the world. You can access those here. The goal: To provide a guided approach to become literate with the master works of literary, music, and visual history.

• He recently mentioned in an interview that if he modified the program, he’d add a cinema supplement to it that would showcase great films. One film each week.

• I have, at absolutely no one’s request (but with deep appreciation for what Ted is looking to do with the course he has built), provided my suggested cinema supplement to his great program.

• You could also just use this list as 52 movies to watch before you die.

Ted broke his program down in 52 weeks. What follows below are weeks 14-26 of my supplement to his work. The first installment of films, weeks 1-13, is available here.

After I posted last week’s first 13 films, I got a handful of great comments on the post pointing to films I had left out that should be considered. I wanted to spotlight a few of those here:

• Malu Picanço - Suggested the silent film Metropolis (1927). A great suggestion and a film that had been in contention for the first film on this list in an earlier version.

• Ken Howden - was disappointed I went with Chaplin over Buster Keaton and I am very sympathetic to his feedback. To be introduced to Keaton at his best, he suggested The General (1926), which I rewatched after he mentioned it. It’s fantastic.

• Greg Gioia - Suggested a list like this might be stronger if you cut it off in 1977 with Star Wars. This would allow you to feature more silent films and more representation from the first half of the 20th century. I opted to take a different approach with this list, as you will see in today’s installment, but I hope Greg will build out a list in keeping with that criteria and share it with us.

I look forward to discovering what I missed with today’s list of films 14-26. Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Enjoy.

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Week 14: High and Low (Dir. by Akira Kurosawa, 1963)

Some directors are going to show up more than once on this list. Kurosawa is in that club and once you watch this film you will know why. It’s a well paced thriller, a detailed look at Japanese life after the war, and a moving meditation on honor in the face of wickedness.

This film is paired with some of the finest Roman literature. You get the peak of Japanese film alongside the mountaintops of Roman prose; aren’t you the lucky one?

Speaking of mountaintops…

Week 15: The Sound of Music (Dir. by Robert Wise, 1965)

In Gioia’s reading for this week, Boethius is staring down death, but virtue calls out to him. The same is true for a not so little family in Austria. In The Sound of Music, you might show up for the songs, but what keeps you coming back is the celebration of ordinary good in the face of extraordinary evil.

Based on a true story, this musical turned movie is singular in it’s ability to capture innocence, beauty, and encroaching darkness. Boethius would have loved it.

My new kids books is available wherever books are sold. No A.I. slop was used.

Week 16: Once Upon a Time in the West (Dir. by Sergio Leone, 1968)

Another western on the list, but this time with an Italian twist. This film is a “spaghetti western,” a genre title that I love for the fact that is simultaneously a caricature and a complement. They called them “spaghetti westerns” because they were western films made by Italian directors. Sergio Leone was the master of this sub-genre and when he teamed up with Ennio Morricone (to provide the score), his work is hard to beat.

Once Upon is certainly Leone’s most famous film and very likely his best. Some of the films on this list may feel like homework, but this one will be pure fun.

The fact that it is paired (when consulting Gioia’s “immersive humanities course”) with reading The Art of War and the Tao is almost perfect.

Week 17: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Dir. by Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Just look at that photo. This is a shot from Kubrick’s masterpiece in 1968. Look at the perfection of this photo. Now imagine a whole movie that is perfect frame after perfect frame. Watching this movie in these times of A.I. utopianism is chilling. If Apuleius’ The Golden Ass is mocking the decadence that would lead to Rome’s downfall, 2001 is warning us of the inevitable cost of “progress.”

If you watch this movie with your phone in front of your face, you’ve already lost.

Week 18: The Godfather (Dir. by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

Your reading for this week is out of The Arabian Nights. Stories full of promised riches sought, betrayal, and murder. And guess what? So, is your film. The Godfather is essential cinema. It also happens to be a very fun watch. If you haven’t seen this film, you are in for a treat.

Week 19: Andrei Rublev (Dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1973)

You are supposed to stretch before you exercise. Well, weeks 1-18 were the warm up for this film. I am not going to lie to you, Andrei Rublev is dense. This is not a film for the faint of heart, but within its over three hour run time and Russian “frame,” is one of the most powerful explorations of faith, sorrow, and and resilience. Tarkovsy, the film’s director, is the master of Russian cinema and he is one of the great directors of all time.

Fittingly, it is paired with readings from St. Benedict and the opening chapters of Augustine’s Confessions. I am going to level with you: If you watch this movie purposively and think about the readings reflectively, you will not be the same person at the end of this week. If you’ve never seen this movie or read Augustine’s Confessions, I am jealous of the “first time” experience you will have of both this week.¹

Interested in what it means to be “in Christ Jesus?”

Week 20: Jaws (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 1975)

Welp, hard right turn from last week. We are at a cinematic hinge point this week (that will likely be way more fun than last week for you) as we watch the first “summer blockbuster.” Jaws created a shift in the movie industry that reverberated for a long time. It effectively invented the modern summer blockbuster film and changed the way films were distributed. It represents a massive leap forward in special effects and it introduced Spielberg to the world as a “must see” director.

Is it fun? Absolutely. Is it significant? Yes.

Week 21: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Dir. by Terry Gillam and Terry Jones, 1975)

Every high school band nerd is applauding as Monty Python makes an appearance. For some, I have been vindicated by including this film. For others, I am now irreparably damned. Why have I included Monty Python and the Holy Grail in a list of 52 essential films?

A handful of reasons:

• This film is high IQ comedy masked by low brow humor. It’s the best kind of satire.

• It had an indelible influence on all comedy that came after it.

• The British comedic sensibility is highly literate - and this film showcases that.

• It was such a perfect pairing with the recommended reading from Gioia for this week (Canterbury Tales and Le Morte D’Arthur) that I could not miss the chance.

If you think I am a dummy for including this, I won’t fault you. Please let me know what comedies you would rate as “essential” viewing in the comments.

Week 22: Taxi Driver (Dir. by Martin Scorsese, 1976)

This is a film about the effects of isolation on the modern man in a wicked world. Spoiler: It’s bad news. Unfortunately, this movie is aging like fine wine. Alarmingly, it’s increasingly relevant.

What we need is a man of virtue that is deeply rooted in an imaginative universe that connects him to a people and a place. That’s what you get in Gioia’s reading for this week with the Mwindo Epic. Taxi Driver is a brutal counter point.

Week 23: The Jerk (Dir. by Carl Reiner, 1979)

I had to put Steve Martin on here. Why? I believe he’s the ultimate expression of American comedy. Carl Reiner’s film is heartbreaking and hilarious. Martin is perfect in it. With a passion (and some experience) for vaudeville, Martin is able to showcase his unique brand of humor in this story.

There is a little love story going on the film. It won’t reach the heights of the love letters you will be reading alongside of it, but you will laugh more.

Week 24: Alien (Dir. by Ridley Scott, 1979)

Alien is the blueprint for the modern sci-fi movie. It cemented Ridley Scott as one of the must see movie directors and launched a very long (and mostly bad) movie franchise. But, this first entry is exceptional. Blending gothic horror with science fiction and some not so subtle critiques of greed and exploitation, the movie still feels fresh.

If they re-made this movie now (which is almost a certainty with Hollywood’s level of creative vision these days), it would be CGI’d into oblivion. Alien shows what is possible when you make a movie about aliens that still feels unavoidably human.

Ripley, the main character in Alien, has gone up into the “heavens,” but Gioia’s reading has us down in hell with Dante. Truly the master works of history cover both the stars above and sheol below.

Week 25: The Shining (Dir. by Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Kubrick makes his second appearance on this list - which is fitting. If Alien set the template for modern sci-fi, The Shining does the same for modern horror/thriller. The Dante reading from Gioia’s list puts us in paradise, but we are in a unique kind of hell at the Overlook Hotel.

This film has the benefit of being a classic work from one of the great directors and an enthralling watch.

Week 26: The Empire Strikes Back (Dir. by George Lucas, 1980)

The Empire Strikes Back is one of those rare instances where the middle work in a trilogy outshines the beginning and the end.² It is possibly, the greatest sci-fi film ever made. I am not some kind of Star Wars fanboy. I like the franchise and some of its entries, but I am not a lore master of all things galactic. Still, this movie is an essential work of late 20th century filmmaking.

And, how fitting that it is paired with Shakespeare’s three core tragedies: Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear. I don’t want to spoil the film, but let’s just say that its core story owes much to Shakespeare.

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That brings us to the conclusion of this week’s cinema supplement. What movies did I miss from this stretch of time? Feel free to make your recommendations in the comments below.

Are you interested in Bruce Springsteen, the “River of Life,” romantic landscapes, and the masculine journey? Well, check your inbox on Thursday.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe below to make sure you get next week’s film list (weeks 27-39) right when it releases. I am confident that many of you are going to have things to say about next week’s list as we enter into the 80s and 90s.

1. I came so close to cheating here and inserting a “Week 19.5” so I could include Rocky. I didn’t do that. But you should definitely watch Rocky.

2. Please, I beg the Star Wars fans out there, be merciful to me. I mean no offense. I know that some of you have very strong feelings about the best film in the original trilogy - please feel free to tell me why I am wrong in the comments.