# Movies you saw in Jr. High/High School **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 24, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713 "2020-06-24T12:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/81 "2022-11-09T17:46:19Z")
I remember seeing a movie in the late Seventies, when I was in middle school, about how to pick a rewarding career. It starred William Shatner, who was surprisingly good in the role - no sense of ego or chewing the scenery. I haven’t seen or heard of it anywhere since then. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/82 "2022-11-09T18:31:30Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In High School, it was mostly films of books and plays we were reading in English class. We had a general assembly to view Zeffirelli’s _Romeo and Juliet_ preceded by a warning that giggling at Romeo’s bare ass would not be tolerated. We saw that too. I don’t remember seeing Leonard Whiting’s ass but I definitely remember seeing a flash of Olivia Hussey’s nipple. 😍 [Donald duck in Mathemagic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BqnN72OlqA) land was a perennial offering whenever we had a sub in science class. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/83 "2022-11-09T20:54:17Z")
Imagine: It’s central Indiana in the 70s. It’s basketball season. The teacher is the head basketball coach and your school is rated #1 by UPI and #2 by the AP. Yep- we saw every movie in the school’s library and some from the public library until the state semi-finals! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/84 "2022-11-10T16:55:57Z")
Was my school the only one that routinely showed **The Wave**? A cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in an AP History class in Midwestern US in the late 80’s. We never watched it more that once a year, but all in I have seen this anti-fascism film perhaps 6 or 7 times. Which is a lot of Antifa prep for a jr high kid, I thought at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/85 "2022-11-10T19:04:15Z")
_Our Friend The Atom_ (1957) - especially memorable for its demonstration of a chain reaction. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pkwadgJORFM/hqdefault.jpg "Disneyland - Our Friend the Atom (1957)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkwadgJORFM) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/86 "2022-11-10T19:08:53Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Was my school the only one that routinely showed **The Wave**? A cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in an AP History class in Midwestern US in the late 80’s. We never watched it more that once a year, but all in I have seen this anti-fascism film perhaps 6 or 7 times. Which is a lot of Antifa prep for a jr high kid, I thought at the time. I remember seeing a little of it as an after-school special, but never in class. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/87 "2022-11-10T19:22:09Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Our teacher was as dumb as a stump and was rumored to be having an affair with a young, pretty girls gym teacher. The one who wasn’t a lesbian. Jocks flock together! 🥰 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/88 "2022-11-10T19:50:29Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > There was one in particular that really struck me that we saw in 9th grade, putting that 1973-1974. > > It was a film demonstrating how terrible prejudice is. It was in black and white and among the scenes were some kid who thinks “jew” is a bad word, kids picking on another kid of Polish heritage, and an excerpt from an Amos’n’Andy episode. There was one in which a 12- or 13-year-old kid (maybe the guy who played the oldest brother in _ **The Brady Bunch** _) was a mild-mannered lad everybody picked on because he wanted “to be a doctor.” The PE instructors wanted to get him involved in sports (specifically boxing), but he refused because “that would be violence!” As I recall, he was eventually sent to see a pshrink/psocial worker, and the film ended with him thinking “I’ll bet **they** (Ghandi, King, and Jesus) were scared too!” I don’t remember what year this was, or what class it was for. Maybe it was the optional after-school “religious instruction” my mother signed me up for. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/89 "2022-11-10T19:54:17Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Was my school the only one that routinely showed **The Wave**? A cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in an AP History class in Midwestern US in the late 80’s. We never watched it more that once a year, but all in I have seen this anti-fascism film perhaps 6 or 7 times. Which is a lot of Antifa prep for a jr high kid, I thought at the time. Was it anything like this classic? > **[Black Legion (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legion_(film))** > > Black Legion is a 1937 American crime drama film, directed by Archie Mayo, with a script by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines based on an original story by producer Robert Lord. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore and Ann Sheridan. It is a fictionalized treatment of the historic Black Legion of the 1930s in Michigan, a white vigilante group. A third of its members lived in Detroit, which had also been a center of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. > The plot is based on... ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/90 "2022-11-10T20:24:48Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > > [@Sitnam](#): > > > > Was my school the only one that routinely showed **The Wave**? A cautionary tale about the rise of fascism in an AP History class in Midwestern US in the late 80’s. We never watched it more that once a year, but all in I have seen this anti-fascism film perhaps 6 or 7 times. Which is a lot of Antifa prep for a jr high kid, I thought at the time. > > Was it anything like this classic? > > [Black Legion (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legion_(film)) [THIS IS IT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8&t=26s) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/91 "2022-11-10T20:41:49Z")
Reminds me of a class taught by my favorite high school teacher mentioned above. (I was in another class taught by a real bunghole, and I spent most of my time leaning back against the partition and listening to what was happening next door.) The unit was on the Second World War, and Warren was explaining the rise of the Nazis. All he had to do was start reading the Nazi Party Program: _“Okay, who would vote for this? ‘Only people of German blood can be German citizens.’”_ One hand went up. _“Okay, we’ve got one Nazi. How about ‘The government should be run by the Army and the rich’?”_ Another hand went up. _“Okay, we’ve got two Nazis. Now…”_ And so on and so on. By the time he finished, the whole class had gone Nazi! ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/92 "2022-12-24T13:02:15Z")
L.S.D. Trip to Nowhere Heroin: Pit of Dispair ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/93 "2022-12-24T13:29:55Z")
When we were about 11 (about sixth grade I guess?), the boys in the class were sent out and we girls were shown Disney’s [_The Story Of Menstruation_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9o9m0LsbI). Even though the film tried to be a little explicit about what to expect, it really wasn’t. It was made in the 1940s, after all. I still had to ask my mom what it was all about and I think she was annoyed about that. And the film mentioned above, _Phoebe_, I must have seen because that sounds extremely familiar. That must have been high school, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/94 "2022-12-24T14:19:57Z")
Occasionally I’ll seek out one of these 50/60’s films that I remember seeing in school in the 70’s. Always enjoyed them. > **[The Bell System Science Series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_System_Science_Series)** > > The Bell System Science Series consists of nine television specials made for the AT&T Corporation that were originally broadcast in color between 1956 and 1964. Marcel LaFollette has described them as "specials that combined clever story lines, sophisticated animation, veteran character actors, films of natural phenomena, interviews with scientists, and precise explanation of scientific and technical concepts — all in the pursuit of better public understanding of science." Geoff Alexander and AT... ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/95 "2022-12-24T15:34:09Z")
> [@chela](#): > > _Occasionally I’ll seek out one of these 50/60’s films that I remember seeing in school in the 70’s. Always enjoyed them._ My wife and I both fondly remember those Bell Science movies with Dr. Frank Baxter. They were both educational and entertaining, which is difficult to pull off. I remember seeing one of them in Junior High School science class in which Dr. Baxter used a phrase that got quite a reaction, and not the reaction Dr. Baxter intended. He said something like “In this case, Mother Nature made a mistake. Pulled a boner, you might say.” How do you think the boys in class reacted to **that?** ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/96 "2022-12-24T15:57:31Z")
Remember _Powers of Ten?_ [It has a Wikipedia article.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Ten_(film)) A big favorite of my physics teacher. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/97 "2022-12-24T21:14:59Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > “In this case, Mother Nature made a mistake. Pulled a boner, you might say.” > > How do you think the boys in class reacted to **that?** I suspect it was similar to the one elicited by an instruction in the movie about baseball we were shown in PhyEd: “Put your foot on the rubber.” (For the uninitiated, the “rubber” is a little strip of said material on the pitcher’s mound that helps him assume the required stance.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/98 "2022-12-25T04:26:34Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > Remember _Powers of Ten?_ [It has a Wikipedia article.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Ten_(film)) A big favorite of my physics teacher. I saw it at the Toronto Science Center in the mid-Seventies and was enthralled. Really, really good stuff, and it made a deep impression on me. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/99 "2022-12-25T14:27:51Z")
For no particular reason I recall we were shown Cat Balou (sp?) featuring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin. Perhaps we had a last minute substitute teacher. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713/100 "2022-12-25T14:37:00Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In High School, it was mostly films of books and plays we were reading in English class. We had a general assembly to view Zeffirelli’s _Romeo and Juliet_ preceded by a warning that giggling at Romeo’s bare ass would not be tolerated. For English class, we also saw the Zeffirelli Romeo & Juliet as well as the Mel Gibson Hamlet. I remember also seeing a video of the Dustin Hoffman Death of a Salesman that was taped off of commercial TV years earlier, so we got to see snippets of commercials for businesses that had been long closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-saw-in-jr-high-high-school/912713.md?page=6)