I work with fools

[Susan]

I had to vent. Nobody at my work that i directly work with anyways, is 'cinematically cultured'. So ok, i accept they probably haven't seen some of the obscure movies i have. But for the love of god and everything holy!!!! I was having a chat today with this guy who's only like a few years younger than me (making him like 27ish) and he's never seen...nor HEARD OF:

Barbarella
Clash of the freaking titans!
Flash gordon

I was making joking references from these movies in a personal email and he was oblivious to the joke until i questioned him and found out the truth - he's never seen them. Wasn't clash of the titans one of those movies that they showed in almost every 8th grade class to introduce kids to greek mythology?

Absolutely unforgivable

[BeyondTheGrave]

Don't worry about it Susan. I know people that know no movies before the year 1999 or don't bother to watch any movies before the 90s and claim to be movie buffs. Night of the living dead? what the hell is that.


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You can’t give it, you can't buy it, and you just don't get it!-Aeon Flux

[Eirik]

"Wasn't clash of the titans one of those movies that they showed in almost every 8th grade class to introduce kids to greek mythology?"

27?  So he was in the 8th grade around 1992?  Yeah, they stopped teaching Greek Mythology in schools and replaced it with Recycling Awareness, Victimization Studies, and Underwater Fire Prevention around 1990.

[2xSlick]

Wow, they used to show  Clash of the Titans during school? The best we could look forward to was "The last of the mohicans" in American History. I never even had a class that taught Greek Mythology or dinosaurs. Man, just realized what a crappy school I attended.
Little off topic, but i'm only 19. Most of the movies on this site are older than me. I got interested in B-movies during the impressional age of 3-5. I would stay at home all day with my dad and watch old cheesie flicks and on TCM like Night of the Triffolds (sp?). I distinctly remember the voice over guy  calling the movie "Attack of the Killer Brochlii" and had to learn it's real title many years later.
So, in putting this topic back on track, yes Susan, you do work with fools.

[ulthar]

2xSlick wrote:

> Wow, they used to show  Clash of the Titans during school? The
> best we could look forward to was "The last of the mohicans" in
> American History. I never even had a class that taught Greek
> Mythology or dinosaurs. Man, just realized what a crappy school
> I attended.
>

??

I thought Eirik was being at least a little bit cynical, but you have NEVER had a class on Greek Mythology or dinosaurs?  Wow.

Yes, Clash of the Titans was shown/taught during school.  I saw it several times, in several different classes, actually.  We also watched Roots, Jeremiah Johnson, Where the Red Fern Grows, and, well, too many others to name.

School has changed a LOT in twenty years.

[Brother Ragnarok]

Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans?  Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward.

[AndyC]

Yeah, I'm in Canada, and we got Clash of the Titans in school here too. It was high school English class for me. Over the years, we saw lots of classics, usually those with literary or historical ties - Clash of the Titans, The Ox-Bow Incident, In the Heat of the Night, Lord of the Flies (B&W version, as it hadn't been remade yet), and a few others. I even saw Stand and Deliver in math class, although I wouldn't call it a classic. It was actually fairly new at the time.



Post Edited (05-04-05 09:06)

[ulthar]

Brother Ragnarok wrote:

> Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans?
> Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about
> 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward.
>

Well, actually, they way I remember it the teacher that really used it specifically focused on the things that were wrong.  That is, it was up to us, while watching the movie, to find the errors.  It was not used as a primary reference to "teach" mythology.

There were some underlying things in the movie that were right, and we talked about those, too.  Like how the Gods were always messing with people, sometimes for their own good/enjoyment.

[Diablo44.]

I'd call 'Stand & Deliver' a classic! That's one of those movies that I can watch any time it's on cable. "Odelay, feenger man! What's 5 times 9? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. . 45." I still use that finger trick when multiplying by 9. I'm not a bright man. . .

But, to get back on topic, I'm even more disturbed that Susan's co-worker didn't know about 'Flash Gordon'! It was on TNT, WPIX  (in NY), and cable at least once every day from 1980 to 1999. Usually 'Clash of the Titans' followed it.

Rob
The KO Picture Show

[AndyC]

In our case, the movie was usually a treat after we'd finish studying a book. I don't recall having to do much more than watch it. We got Clash of the Titans after spending about a month on mythology. Stand and Deliver, on the other hand, was just something to fill the last two math classes of the year, when it wasn't worth doing any work.

[odinn7]

I can't understand how anyone that isn't living under a rock wouldn't know anything about those movies so I'd have to agree Susan, you do work with fools. That's ok because I work with morons.
As far as teaching the stuff...up until 6th grade, I was in a private school and this is where I learned Norse and Greek mythology (I loved the Norse stuff, can you tell?). But... once I was delivered to public school, all of that went out the window. They didn't teach it and they certainly didn't show Clash of the Titans. I am unsure why this was but I think it had something to do with it not being "real". As a side, this was the school system that would also not teach anything about the Vietnam War. In history class we just skipped Vietnam completely and I asked my teacher about it because we got to a point in history that I was actually interested in learning (I hated school really). He told me that they were not allowed to teach anything about Vietnam and he was not allowed to even touch on the subject or he could be released from his position. On top of this...In English class (in 11th grade) we were given an assignment of picking a fictional book that was based in a true war. I picked a book about a platoon in Vietnam, read it, wrote the report and then was told that I couldn't do that because it was Vietnam. I was given time to do another report due to the mix-up but I told them to give me an F on it because I did my end of it and wasn't about to do it again. Anyway, this school was in NJ and I don't know if this was just related to that particular school system or if it was all of NJ. Forgive me for throwing this off topic. I wanted to point out that some schools are just plain screwed up.
And again Susan, you work with fools but I need to know...what is "Clash of the freaking titans!" because I haven't heard of this one. It sounds good though.

[Diablo44.]

Odin - I went to public school in Jersey as well, and the only mentions we got of Vietnam were in my Sociology class, and that was because the teacher was a Vet. In history class we basically stuck with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the cotton gin time period. We probably got as far as the Depression, but the 1930's is where history stopped, apparently. Come to think of it, any war-related history was skipped for the most part, outside of the civil war.

Wow, this post just got WAY OT. Sorry Susan. Just to reiterate, your co-workers are, in fact, idiots.

Rob
The KO Pictue Show

[ulthar]

Diablo44. wrote:

> We probably got as far as the
> Depression, but the 1930's is where history stopped,
> apparently.

Interesting.  I read a couple of years ago that the official, canonized "American History" textbook begins American History with Susan B. Anthony.  G. Washington, T. Jefferson, The Federalist Papers, Abraham Lincoln, etc. are not even index entries.

Susan, what movies do your coworkers really know about?  Gigli?



Post Edited (05-04-05 13:46)

[Wence]

Maybe this is a bit off topic.

Do you learn about the Middle Ages in school, too? I heard that the Ancient Greeks and the Roman Empire is being learned. So what about the Middle Ages?
(esp. the Crusades, Witchhunts, Renaissance, Martin Luther etc.)

[Master Blaster]

"Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans? Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward."

When I was in school they didnt bother. I think watching it was more of an excuse for the teacher to kick back and do nothing than it was to teach. We even watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in my World History class my freshman year of highschool. What was the freakin point of that? I wasnt complaining though.