The King and I-This is the only version I've seen. It makes a great TOG comparison to the studies of Westerners in Asia. It can also be used later as a great fine arts study in the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Third Man on the Mountain...This is a fictionalized story based on the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn of Switzerland in 1856. This action packed thriller, by Disney, will keep you on the edge of your seat with breathtaking views of the gorgeous alps which I have always dreamed of visiting! You can compare fact to fiction with the previous link! Later in our Unit 4 TOG studies, we read that Theodore Roosevelt climbed the Matterhorn! The kids can appreciate this after watching the movie.
Unlocking the Mysteries of Life...This is a documentary on Darwin's 1859 explosive "On the Origin of Species" which interviews contemporary scientists who discuss intelligent design.
Gods and Generals...Prequel to Gettysburg, it showcases the Battles of Manassas, Frericksburg, and Chancellorsville, some of which we've visited. The link will take you to a web site with a flash presentation preview and details on the movie. Because of our visits to the Fredericksburg, Chatham House, and the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness, the kids and I caught some mistakes. The Lacy family lived in a mansion on the Rappahanock overlooking the town of Fredericksburg. It had been taken over by the North to be used as headquarters and as a hospital. The men were never shown fighting behind the man made trenches, which run for miles through the battlefields and can be seen today. When Stonewall Jackson was shot, the men quickly realized it was their own men doing the shooting and yelled for them to stop. I keep thinking there were others but now I forget. One might think that the scene where soldiers from opposing sides meet in the middle of the river to swap treats is fictionalized, but stuff like that really did happen.
Gettysburg...Sequel to Gods and Generals. The link takes you to the director's site for the movie. Recently purchased on sale at the used book store, we have not yet seen this. Stay tuned.
The Love Letter...This is a wonderful time travel movie to the Civil War era, set in the years 1998 and 1863! I love time travel movies and this is one of my favorites because it is well done. A man in Boston in 1998 purchases an antique desk. Inside a secret compartment, he finds an old forgotten letter from a lady near Boston in 1863. Put up by his mother to reply to the letter with her carefully researched and gathered supplies historically accurate (I love this part) ink, stamp and paper, she even researches and discovers the only local Civil War era post office where he should mail it...at night...because it seems appropriate. One sleepless night , he replies and mails his letter, as per his mother's instructions. The next day this letter is delivered to the lady in 1863! Shocked, the lady realizes this man from the future read her secret letter that she had put in the secret compartment of her desk. Anxiously she looks for it but it is gone. Confused, she writes another letter, addressed to this mysterious man in the future, and puts that in her secret compartment...which the man from 1998 finds in his desk's secret compartment! This movie has it all...science fiction (time travel), romance, and history (the story climaxes at the Battle of Gettysburg). It even has a surprise ending! This movie is a family favorite! BTW, the actor is Campbell Scott, son of George C Scott (who plays Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol") and Colleen Dewhurst (who plays Murilla Cuthbert in "Anne of Green Gables").
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates...Written in 1865, the book not only has a great plot line, but weaves the history of Holland through a skating trip that the boys take. We learned a lot about how easy it is to skate (that is if you can skate, but then everyone in Holland can) from one city to another via the prodigious amount of canals. (We even read the word prodigious about a million times!) We learned the importance of the color orange. When we watched the last winter Olympics, we understood why the entire stadium was full of orange fans when the ice skating team from the Netherlands stepped onto the ice. Ice skating is their sport and orange is their national color, due to William of Orange! The vox humana even stood out from the boy's tour and now we want to see and hear that. The movie is only an hour and a half, so a lot had to be taken out. The plot line, scenery, culture and major characters are still there but it was reworked to fit in the plot line. The book is definitely better, but the movie helps the book to come alive with the culture.
Victoria and Albert...This was a great movie, although it took a different point of view from our books. In the books it sounded as though they were in love with each other, but the other shows a more one sided relationship. I don't know which is more historically accurate.
Little Women |
