Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961) – The first time I was exposed to the “it was just a dream” trope that has long since become more cliché than is possible.
A Driver’s Ed. short called The Smith System in which Mr. Smith takes someone else for a ride whilst articulating the various strategies and techniques he uses for driving… simultaneously violating every single one (or so it seemed).
I recall a couple educational shorts ca. late-1960s whose titles I have been unable to find. One was about the dangers of smoking. I think Dr. Art Ulene was the host, but I’m not sure. It definitely featured Lakers basketball star Jerry West introducing photos (or possibly a model) of a cancer-ridden lung. It was gruesome, yet effective. This may have been shown only in LA-area schools.
Another was set in the world of drag racing. A rising star in the field hangs with marijuana users. Real life ex-child star turned drag racer “TV” Tommy Ivo tried to set him straight: drag racing and marijuana do not mix (“I wouldn’t let those people within ten feet of that car.”) Alas, the young star doesn’t listen, crashes and dies. IIRC, the highlight was seeing Mr. Ivo’s 4-engine dragster in action (or maybe it was just parked, I can’t remember). We actually saw this film twice owing to mix-up. No one complained.
Although I never saw it in school, I know others who were forced to sit through A Day in the Death of Donny B. (1969). Bummer.
They showed us Owl Creek Bridge too. It was the same film that the Twilight Zone optioned to use as an episode. Since there was no dialogue as such, the fact that it was made in France was irrelevant.
This movie was shown at the language camp where I was learning Russian back in 1972. It’s a classic of Soviet cinema.
A year earlier, my first-year German class took a field trip to see a movie that must have been filmed in the '60s. I don’t remember the title, but it was about two boys (the film opened with a scene of them at a balloon launching in WWI), one of whom grows up to follow Hitler while the other falls in love with a Danish girl, marries her, and is drafted into the Wehrmacht in WWII. At the end, the Nazi (now a prominent postwar businessman or politician) is outed for his past and dies by accidentally falling down an elevator shaft. Overall, the movie is a fairly light comedy but has some serious overtones.
I haven’t been able to find this film by Googling, and I’ve wondered for years what it was called. Anybody out there know which one I’m talking about?
In jr. high, we were all bused to the local theater to watch some bullshit conspiracy-theory movie on the similarities between Lincoln’s and Kennedy’s assassinations.
Other than that, we didn’t really watch many. We watched Macbeth in English Lit. Some 1960s edutainment about minimum wage in Civics (I remember it mostly because they bleeped the word shit out at one point). And, also in English Lit, a film about the history of the English language that was almost entirely crap (paraphrase: “Only 10% of modern English words are Celtic in origin, but it’s the 10% we use most often.”)
I attended a Jr./Sr. high school with 7-12 in the same building. We saw “Why Man Creates” every year in one class or another. Some years I saw it multiple times. The thing was the movie one could expect whenever the teacher needed some time for doing grades or whatever. I even saw it in Sunday School once. The youth minister didn’t understand why we had it memorized. 16 mm film, BTW. No VCRs in school, '72-'78!
Oh, and we also watched one about hippies. Another paraphrase, but pretty close: “They rebelled against conformity, but they all eventually began to look (and indeed, to smell) alike.”
When I went to Intermediate school in The Bronx (no middle or Junior High for us), for some reason no body was eligible for bus passes, so kids would ride the bus on the outside. I mean literally climb up on the bumper in the back, get some handholds and ride to their stop.
One day the principal called the whole school into the auditorium and showed us a movie about the dangers of riding outside the bus. I remember it to this day because it had graphic pictures of kids with tire marks across their bodies. They were all dead. At least my 12 year old self thought they were dead. Now I wonder if my principal would show children a movie with dead, mangled bodies in it.
Didn’t stop the kids from riding outside the bus and needlessly traumatized the majority of children who would never do such a thing.
The Red Balloon and Donald in Mathmagic Land were annual staples in elementary school. We also got the Disney VD cartoon in 8th grade health, which was mostly animated, but had a few gross shots of syphilis sores.
My older sister got the Red Asphalt type of films, but by the time I got to Driver’s Ed 4 years later in a different high school, those were gone. Oddest film in high school was in Biology. No Miracle of Life type-movie for us (that one first aired my senior year, so 2 years after Biology class) . Our pregnancy/birth film was an old Civil Defense film that described what to do after the big one drops if one of the women in your bomb shelter went into labor. Most memorable scene was a simplistic animation showing gestation up to the point where the water breaks, then a smash cut to a live action close up of water breakage. About half the class yelped at that one.
Guess I’m one of the few old enough to remember “Signal 30.” Really graphic footage of fatal automobile accidents that literally had some of my 9th grade (‘64-‘65) classmates scream, faint, and/or vomit! Signal 30 - Wikipedia ( Don’t know how to link to YouTube here, but there’s a link in the Wiki article.)
Another that’s actually heartwarming was “A Desk for Billie,” a story about a child of migrant farm workers. A Desk for Billie - Wikipedia
in grade school we seen "red light green light " which was actually about meeting strangers … a few on things like manners and such but there was some weird ones …i can barley remeber
There must’ve been movies sometime while I was in school, but I don’t remember any of them. Even instructional clips were infrequent: my school years were 1960-1972, so showing anything in class meant bringing in a projector, threading the film, getting the focus right, and all that. I bet it was barely worth it even for a teacher who really wanted a day off from lecturing.
(“What were things like in the olden days, Gramps?”)
Someone mentioned Cipher in the Snow. I saw that one too. That was probably shown a limited area.
I sort of remember one. I seem to remember it including drug use and suicide. The one scene I remember was a depiction of Russian Roulette. Whenever Russian Roulette is mentioned I think of that scene.
In Sophomore year (1970-71) Health class there was a series of films we watched with the general theme of “what first aid you can do when disaster strikes”. Most took place in some kind of shelter in the basement of some business, not a home. Most memorable was the one about birthing a baby. This one was quite explicit. Think of the OB wearing a camera on his forehead or attached to his glasses.
For this series of films waste baskets with liners were placed around the room, the door was left open, and we were given permission to leave the room if we felt nauseated or faint.
Health class, upper 1990s… Only takes so much time to cover STDs, safe sex, pregnancy, etc… So we spent much more time than was probably appropriate watching When Animals Attack.
I’m a bit surprised no one has mentioned Duck and Cover. Having said that, I don’t remember being shown the movie, but several friends (also Baby Boomers) saw it in school.
