# Help a teacher out: movies to end the year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843 "2007-05-20T20:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/21 "2007-05-20T23:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Given that it includes a line to the effect of “Can you pound a six inch nail through a board with your penis?” you might want to find something else. [/QUOTE] Hmm…I’d forgotton about that. I guess there’s also the “I didn’t want you guys to think I was stuffy…you know, all brains, no penis,” and “Kent, stop touching yourself.” Damn. _[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373469/)_ has a great scene about the misapplication of probability:{Harry shoots someone during a Russian roulette interrogation} Perry: What did you just do? Harry: I just put in one bullet, didn’t I? Perry: You put a live round in that gun? Harry: Well yeah, there was like an 8% chance. Perry: Eight? Who taught you math!The fillm also as a couple of grammar lessons about the use of adverbs. (“Who taught you grammar? ‘Badly’ is an adverb, idiot!”) Unfortunately, there’s no a chance the movie will meet your critieria. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/22 "2007-05-20T23:23:22Z")
Unless **Little Man Tate** , **Looking for Bobby Fischer** and **War Games** are racier than I remember, they may fill the bill. Kids may hoot when they watch those creaky old **War Games** computers in action. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/23 "2007-05-20T23:53:53Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] Unless **Little Man Tate** , **Looking for Bobby Fischer** and **War Games** are racier than I remember, they may fill the bill. Kids may hoot when they watch those creaky old **War Games** computers in action. [/QUOTE] And it looks like we have a winner. Not too mathy, but still school-appropriate and family-friendly: **Searching for Bobby Fischer** ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/24 "2007-05-21T00:24:25Z")
**Supersize Me** , though they’ve probably seen it already. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/25 "2007-05-21T01:01:32Z")
How about [Pi](http://imdb.com/title/tt0138704/)? It’s rated R for language and some sexual content, but nothing really bad. It’s not exactly Requiem for a Dream, y’know. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/26 "2007-05-21T02:24:50Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] To that end, **Spider-Man** is a scientist. [/QUOTE] No, he’s a photographer. But Batman’s a scientist! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/27 "2007-05-21T02:37:46Z")
Be creative. I got \*\*Endless Summer \*\* approved one year as “a study in wave forms.” 😃 FWIW, my AP Euro kids are watching all 11 hours of **Shogun** while they are working on their final projects. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/28 "2007-05-21T02:53:12Z")
If the kids don’t mind subtitled Italian films, I would suggest _ **Ciao, Professore!** _ One of my favorite “kids” films. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/29 "2007-05-21T03:11:12Z")
Contact? Though there is a lot of math in the book that didn’t make it to the movie. Apollo 13. Hey, it is applied math 🙂 (and I second October Sky) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/30 "2007-05-21T06:00:13Z")
How about “ **Jurassic ParK**?” They discuss chaos theory, and gene sequencing. Lots of math there. 😃 Or you can go with a classic: “Measure for Measure.” No math, but sounds like it should have some. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/31 "2007-05-21T06:18:50Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] 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). [/QUOTE] \*Contact \*has a scene where two characters wind up in bed together, but it’s an “after-the-fact” situation and there’s no nudity (i.e. you can’t see “anything”). _October Sky_ is a great suggestion. One of the main plot points in the movie involves the lead character teaching himself advanced math concepts so that he can better build and retrieve his rockets. It’s a nice “see how useful math is?” type of moment. ---
**Author:** ![Jaochai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@Jaochai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaochai)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/32 "2007-05-21T08:33:21Z")
Total recommendation for October Sky. I remember when I got shown it by my math teacher in 11th grade . . . Really fantastic piece of work. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/33 "2007-05-21T09:33:08Z")
[QUOTE=Gukumatz] How about [Pi](http://imdb.com/title/tt0138704/)? It’s rated R for language and some sexual content, but nothing really bad. It’s not exactly Requiem for a Dream, y’know. [/QUOTE] You know, there’s really no sex, violence or profanity in ERASERHEAD. Plus, you’ll become a legend. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/34 "2007-05-21T15:59:41Z")
Re: Apollo 13 You could give extra credit for whoever knows what the circular disk is when Tom Hanks ask for confirmation on his numbers. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/35 "2007-05-21T16:13:03Z")
I can’t find the title, but last week ai watched a documentary about the MIT blackjack team that fleeced Las Vegas casinos for hundreds of thousands of dollars. You know, it might just inspire them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/36 "2007-05-21T17:12:32Z")
[Here’s](http://world.std.com/~reinhold/mathmovies.html) a good page all about math in the movies. While I like some of the other suggestions in this thread better, from a timing standpoint it sounds like it would work well to show one episode of **Numb3rs** each day. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843/37 "2007-05-21T17:32:36Z")
I only saw one movie the whole time I was in school and although it might have had a little bix of sexual reference and minor violence, it sure didn’t deter from its overabundance of good points. **Little Big Man**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-teacher-out-movies-to-end-the-year/404843.md?page=1)