Using the film A Bronx Tale to Illustrate the use of the Film Clip Part 1

FROM
TEN FILMS
THAT ENGAGE
STUDENTS
THE FILM CLIP
Many of the teachers I have in my workshops are restricted from using the full-length film
because of R or PG ratings. They are also frustrated by the demand for standardized testing which
leaves little time for anything but the prescribed curriculum (and in many cases, not even that).
There is talk of No Child Left Behind soon being applied to the high school (and is already applied
voluntarily in some educational districts), which will restrict the high school teacher’s time and
curriculum even more.
No matter how busy your classroom, there are ways to utilize the film that can help make
your teaching easier and still allow you to adhere to your teaching standards or prepare for
standardized testing. And if you are careful in your selections, you don’t have to worry about Rratings.
We can utilize the most popular of our popular cultures by using a selected portion of a
film—the film clip. When selected carefully and used properly, the clip of a film can have an impact
on our students as forceful as the full-length feature. When integrated into a well-designed literacy
curriculum, the film clip can facilitate the connection between your students and literature.
With the ten engaging films I have selected, I have provided writing prompts for utilizing
portions of the films as journal starters and lead-ins to literacy concepts that both literature and the
film share. There are even examples of cinema techniques to show the contrasts between literacy
and the film. I have tried to emphasize how to use the film to carry your students on to other aspects
of the language arts curriculum, ever mindful of the important last step in the CIE, the extending
stage, the step that carries students into the realm of becoming life long learners.
USING THE FILM TO TEACH THE METAPHORS OF
LITERATURE
In a very comprehensive book on the cinema, James Monaco observed that people who are
highly experienced in film “…see more and hear more than people who seldom go to the movies.
Those who are more experienced are able to read a film better than (or perhaps differently than)
those who are less experienced.”
Monaco devotes a chapter to examining the theories of the semiologists who laid the
foundation of classifying film as a language, not a language in the sense of a language system like
English, French, or Chinese where grammar can be studied and applied, but something like a
language, something that is a very basic form of communication.
If film is viewed as a form of language, we might learn to read it better by employing some
linguistic principals in much the same way we teach reading. Monaco says: “Film is not a language,
but is like language, and since it is like language, some of the methods that we use to study language
might profitably be applied to a study of film…”(Monaco, 4) We are aware, Monaco observes, that
we must learn to read before we can attempt to enjoy or understand literature, but we tend to believe,
mistakenly, that anyone can read a film…”(Monaco, 4)
Because anyone can see a film, but not read or comprehend it, he suggests that we must teach
viewers how to read the film much like we teach students how to read a book. This approach allows
a film teacher to take the literary devices of language and apply them to the visual complexities of
the film in much the same way that we use these devices to understand and appreciate our literature.
For many of us teaching in public schools, however, our students come to us with a limited
knowledge of literature; therefore applying the literary devices of language to the visual complexities
of the film seems to be placing the cart before the horse, at least for these students. Our purpose in
teaching the complexities of literary devices is for students to better appreciate literature, not learn to
“read” a film better. Our students are not condemned to be unable to comprehend a film because
they have difficulty reading or appreciating the subtleties and complexities of the metaphors and
figures of speech.
Because of their love and experience with film and other visual media, my students appear to
be proficient in understanding and comprehending the subtleties of film much better than they are,
all other factors being equal, in understanding and comprehending the subtleties of written or spoken
language. I believe that many of the concepts that underlie the skills of literacy proficiency are the
same as those underlying visual proficiency. I am speaking of the “the interrelatedness” of most of
the skills involved in making meaning out of any form of communication, those skills of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing—skills that are interrelated and dependant upon good critical
thinking. Therefore, it makes sense to me to utilize the concepts of film (for which students in my
classes seem to have a head start) to understand the concepts of written and spoken literature.
Looking at film as a language offers a dynamic and unique approach for the film teacher, but it can
also have a significant impact on how we utilize film in the language arts classroom in order to
increase literacy skills.
In order to increase our students’ literacy skills, we should reverse the direction of Monaco’s
approach. Instead of looking at film as a language in order to apply some of the methods that we use
to study language for a better understanding and appreciation of film (which will be done, by the
way, in the natural application of the film in our classroom), we should do the opposite. If we agree
that film is like language (which permits us to use the metaphors of language to describe it), we
should be able to utilize the exciting and dynamic singularity of film to teach the metaphors of
written and spoken language. In other words, we use the overlapping concepts found in both media
in order to strengthen our students’ understanding of how those concepts are utilized in literature.
Understanding the complexities of the literary devices of language is just another way to use film to
connect our students to literature.
We know how popular film is with our students. We know that our students understand the
visual arts in ways that those of us raised on reading can’t comprehend. We are aware that given the
choice, our students would rather watch a film than read a book. Why not use the power that film
seems to have over our students by connecting to the common literary concepts that both media
share? In utilizing film as a language to teach language arts, we can emphasize the shared
metaphorical styles of language and film and thus establish a common ground for leading students
from the visual to the literary.
I have discovered that employing film in such a manner brings about an improvement in my
students’ literacy skills when combined with a classroom emphasis on reading and writing. Not only
can I use scenes from films as prompts for writing and discussion in journals and logs or as lead-ins
to composing essays, but I can also more effectively exhibit various metaphorical and figures of
speech techniques of language that authors use to enrich and increase communication in their work.
It is in both the similarities and dissimilarities of the metaphorical styles and figures of speech found
both in language and film that the effectiveness of this methodology is best illustrated.
The Bronx Tale
US: 1993, Drama
122 minutes, Rated R, Color
Director: Robert De Niro
Cast Includes:
Robert De Niro
Chazz Palminteri
Lillo Brancato
Francis Capra
Taral Hicks
Katherine Narducci
Clem Caserta
Alfred Sauchelli
Frank Pictrangolare
Joe Pesci
Classification: Spring,
The Coming of Age
Notes
Although this is an R-rated film, it is mildly so, having
only a few offensive four-letter words and some violence that
does not come close to comparing to the violence found in most
modern R-rated films. The film falls into the seasonal category
of Spring, the Coming of Age genre where man (woman) wants
woman (man) or some combination.
The film is based upon a play written by Chazz Palminteri
who also played Sonny, the local gangster in the film and the
person to whom Calogero grows up admiring and respecting.
The boy’s coming of age is a struggle between accepting the
values of his working class father or the values of the flashy and
exciting gangster, Sonny. There is a girl that C pursues, and in
that pursuit, he is forced to come to grips with accepting or
rejecting his father’s or Sonny’s values. Since the girl is not of
the same race as Calogero, a level of irony plays out in the film
as the expected values of the father and Sonny clash and
commingle with unexpected results.
The Bronx Tale
US: 1993, Drama
122 minutes, Rated R, Color
Director: Robert De Niro
Cast Includes:
Robert De Niro
Chazz Palminteri
Lillo Brancato
Francis Capra
Taral Hicks
Katherine Narducci
Clem Caserta
Alfred Sauchelli
Frank Pictrangolare
Joe Pesci
Classification: Spring,
The Coming of Age
Notes
What is it about this film that makes it so engaging to
students, even though it has so many features going against it,
including a setting that takes place in the sixties?
First of all, the inciting incident (that event that must
take place for there to be a conflict and resulting story)
involves a struggle that all students go through on a daily
basis: whether to tell the truth and “rat” out someone to the
teacher or other authorities. It might be observing someone
who cheats on a test in the classroom; it might be when
students observe a fight on campus but keep quiet. My
students’ responses were in most cases the same as Callorego
in the film: remain silent and be loyal to the unwritten code
that one does not bear witness against another to authorities,
either for the sake of the code of silence or for the sake of
one’s own safety.
Immediately at the point of the inciting incident, my
students are strongly engaged as they wonder whether
Callorego will “do the right thing.” (The right thing in this
case is not to rat out Sonny). When Callorego adheres to the
unwritten code of his and my student’s value system, the film
has taken the first important step to tapping into my student’s
schemata and hooking my students into the story.
A Bronx Tale: The inciting incident...
Using the film as
ournal Starters
Journal
and Lead-ins to
Literature
Will He or Won’t He?
0:15: 10—0:21:36, Chapter three
Writing Prompt: Make a Prediction
Based Upon
THE BRONX
TALE
This is the inciting incident of the film, where Sonny kills a man in
front of C who is sitting on his stoop. Show the film to the point
where the police ask C to identify the one who fired the gun. Then
ask the students to complete the following writing prompt.
Go to the next page to stop the video.
Make your prediction as to what you think the boy will do. Will he or will he not identify the man
with the gun? Next, discuss whether you think the boy should do the right thing and identify the man
with the gun. Give your reasons to justify your answer: should he turn in the killer or not? Why?
Why not?
JOURNAL STARTERS/LEAD-INS TO LITERATURE
Another Writing Prompt from the Inciting Incident:
The father says, “You did a good thing for a bad man.” (0:22:10)
Explain what he means by this comment. Do you agree or disagree
with the father?
THE BRONX
TALE
Change the page to stop the
video.