1. Please read my article on reserve, "Developing an Impression of Culture." While this article is not written specifically for this class, this film class was very influential on my writing that piece. The article will describe how I think we tend to learn about other cultures - we form "impressions." Films influence our perceptions of other cultures. Your first task in this course is to see ELEVEN British films and consider what you have "learned" about British Culture according to the categories developed by Anthropologists in their own study of culture.

2. Thus, after each film notify me where and when you saw that film and include a paragraph that tells me what you think you learned from the movie about a specific aspect of British Culture. Be sure to identify specifically which of the aspects below are being discussed. (Submit only one review at a time and wait until you have received my feedback before you write a subsequent review.)
The possibilities include:

1. Social Organization: Families
   Schools
   Courts
   Cities/Towns
   Social Issues/Problems
   
   
2. Religion: Churches
   
3. Political Structures: Police
   Courts
   City/Borough/Country Government
   Political Parties
   Interest Groups
   
   
4. Economic Organization: Businesses
   Stores
   Banks
   Investment Firms
   
   
5. Material Culture: (high and popular culture) Music
   Modes of Transportation
   Museums
   Art
   Sites
   Amusement Parks
   Movies
   Plays
   Food
   Famous People
   

1. The British are paying the price for their cultural and class divisions.
   
2. Britain is failing in education, science, industry.
   
3. As soon as you get past the famous reserve, the British are a remarkably open and hospitable people.
4. British characteristics include: famous reserve; careful manners; understatement; conscious coolness; dry, deprecating humor; old courtesy; civility; glumness.
5. The real class division--the U (University) and Non-U (non-University).
6. England is in grave decline, and is done for.
7. One hears a lot of casual racial slurs in Britain.
8. British pop and rock also speak of loss...in the anarchic, outraged cry of a jobless under-class that feels cheated.
9. All over Britain this younger generation simmers in endemic revolt, restive, unruly, fed up with a class system that no longer fits the times.
10. Exuberance does not come as naturally to the English as it does to Americans.
11. Accent betrays class.
    (These generalizations were gleaned from Richard Critchfield's book, "An American Looks at Britain.") Also, consider these questions:
12. Do family members seem closer or more distant than those of comparable American families?
13. Does religion seem more or less influential in Britain than the U.S.? What evidence do you find in the films about conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Britain/Ireland?
14. Do the British seem more or less political than Americans?
15. How does their economy seem to differ from the U.S.?
16. Does it seem the British appreciate music? book? food? more or less than Americans?

Approved films from the British Isles:

• The Commitments
• The Snapper
• Rattle and Hum
• The Dead
• Da
• A Fish Called Wanda
• Life is Sweet
• 35 Up
• Secrets and Lies
• Stormy Monday
• In the Name of the Father
• Some Mother's Son
• Laundromat
• My Left Foot
• 4 Weddings and a Funeral
• A Man for All Seasons
• Gregory's Girl
• Chariots of Fire
• Shadlowlands
• A Hard Day's Night
• Help
• Circle of Friends
• Hear My Song
• Local Hero
• Trainspotting
• The Whistle Blower
• Defence of the Realm
• Mona Lisa
• Crying Game.