So here’s the scenario: I’m a math teacher in a high school that has a strange structure to it. Our finals are given over 4 days, which are then followed by two “make up” days. Math finals are given on day 3 of finals, so I will be with my students for 3 more days after our course is complete. I cannot have them all help me pack up my room for 3 days, as that would be finished way too quickly. I do have a laptop and LCD Projector at my disposal, so I could show a movie over the course of three 45 minute class periods, but need help finding something to show.
So here are the qualifications:
PG rating or lower
No sex
No drugs
Maybe some rock and roll
Should have some math-related character or plot element
Needs to be easily obtainable - either cheaply at the store or through Netflix
Needs to be something that will not drive me crazy (I’ll be showing each part 6 times in a day before moving on to the next part)
Stand and Deliver is the classic story of a math teacher in hispanic LA who gets his presumed low-level kids through ap calc (over the course of a couple of years).
I’ve never seen the film , but Flatland the novel is always popular.
A second vote for Stand and Deliver. It’s probably going to be even more interesting to today’s young people now that Edward James Olmos is better known because of Battlestar Galactica.
I had suggested Alice in Wonderland for its fun logic content, and the family friendly Disney moniker, until El Perro Fumando pointed out that, at 75 minutes, it’s too short to make three days of it. But if there are any other short suggestions that could double up with Alice (or for that matter, any list of multiple shorter choices), that’d work too.
Stand and Deliver was my first thought. There is a line in there from Angel, the Lou Diamond Philips character that my daughters quote at each other to confound their friends. “. . .and his body’s decomposing in my locker.” Cracks 'em up every time.
It’s a pity you can’t do rock & roll movies. An oldie called “Don’t Knock the Rock” has both an anti-alcohol message and a roll-the-eyes factor for today’s kids. I saw it on late-night AMC.
I’m guessing that Proof is probably a little to mature for your classes; ditto for Enigma or Pi (the latter was an almost unwatchable film, anyway.) Hmm…there’s not really much in the way of movies about mathematics or mathematicians, though I see that there are a couple of films currently being made about Srinivasa Ramanujan.
How about Real Genius? It’s pretty dated, being from the mid-Eighties, but still good fun (one of Kilmer’s best turns at humor before he decided to become “an ACTOR”) and most of the terminology is suprisingly accurate for Hollywood even if the central plot device is laughably implausible.
Yes, the ones you suggested in your first paragraph are a little too mature for my students. OMD also suggested Real Genius, but I will have to watch it again to be sure I’d be ok to show it. I don’t have tenure, and I don’t want anything I show to come back and bite me.
Thanks to everyone who suggested “Stand and Deliver”, I’ll have to check that one out too.
Cheaters, which despite apparently having been made-for-tv is on DVD. Or perhaps The Perfect Score. Play 'em back to back and see who looks all nervous
Looking at that list, I recommend Sneakers. It’s PG-13 (for “brief sexual references” but I don’t remember anything that bad). 126 minutes, so you can do three 40 minute segments.
I would recommend Proof, but it does have one sex scene. I don’t recall if Contact does, but if not, it’d be a good choice. And I’m certain that Apollo 13 meets all your criteria (there’s not much math shown on screen, but it’s pretty clearly there).
