Name
Tatyana V. Wilds,
Most Pure Heart of Mary School, Topeka, KS
tatyanadigiart@cox.net
Kansas in the Movies, the Cold War Period
Middle School and High School
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
THE STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
ORAL HISTORIES
Interview a person who took part in the Korean War or Vietnam conflict, or who remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis. Talk to parents or other adults about growing up in the 50s or 60s—did they practice Civil Defense Drills, were they afraid of the Soviets using a nuclear weapon, did they have different amounts of fear at different times? Ask an adult who has traveled abroad if he/she knows what is in their CIA file (it is available to anyone through the Freedom of Information Act).
"WHAT IF"Imagine what would have happened if one situation had changed in the Cold War. For example, what if Truman had not fired General Macarthur and he had decided to drop bombs on China in order to win the war in Korea?
LOCAL EFFECTSHow has the Cold War, past and present, affected your local community? What industries, activities, and attitudes prevail because of the influence of the conflict among nations?
LANGUAGE ARTS ENRICHMENTStudy the media, propaganda, and films of the Cold War: James Bond, The Day After, and A Boy and His Dog,
Russian movies: War and Peace, The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (The songs of the Russian poet and actor, V. Visotsky).
SCIENCE ENRICHMENTExamine the Cold War's effects on the environment.
Define the differences between Russian movies made during the Cold War period and American movies made during the same period: apocalyptic truth and realism in American movies and patriotic and historical motives in the movies made in Russia.
Learn about the Socialist Realism art style and its impact on the "Socialist Camp’s" movies.
Learn that a reason why "The Day After" is about Kansas is because of the state’s strategic and geographic environment: Kansas is in the “heart” of America.
MAIN DATES TO REMEMBER| 1917 | Bolshevik Revolution in Russia |
| 1941 | Germany attacks the Soviet Union |
| 1942 | US involvement in WWII in Europe |
| Tehran Summit of the Grand Alliance (US, USSR, GB) |
TRANSITIONAL YEAR
| 1945 | Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt meet at Yalta |
| V-E Day (end of WWII) | |
| UN Charter signed in San Francisco | |
| Stalin, Churchill/Attlee meet in Potsdam | |
| US drops Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki | |
| V-J Day |
| 1946 | ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Interpreter and Computer) dedicated (revealed to the public) |
| Churchill’s "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri | |
| 1949 | Soviets detonate their first Atomic Bomb in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan |
| 1950 | Stalin's death |
| Khrushchev comes to power in USSR | |
| 1956 | US underground nuclear test near Las Vegas |
| 1957 | Soviets launch the first artificial satellite: Sputnik |
| 1962 | Cuban Missile Crisis |
| 1975 | End of the Vietnam War |
COLD WAR PERIOD
CURRICULUM STANDARDS ADDRESSED
Kansas Education Resource Center, Benchmark #6:
6. Making connections between the visual arts
and the other disciplines.
6.1.2 Students demonstrate an understanding of how the meanings of specific
artworks reflect factors of other disciplines.
6.1.3 Students demonstrate the ability to research and analyze the characteristics
of two or more works of art that share similar subject matter and/or cultural
aspects.
6.2 Students understand ways in which the principles and subject
matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual
arts.
6.2.1 Students demonstrate the ability to compare interrelationships between
human behavior, the environment, and its materials.
Kansas, United States, and World History, History Standard:
The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the world, utilizing essential analytical and research skills.
Civics-Government, Benchmark #5:
The student understands various systems of governments and how nations and international organizations interact.
TIME REQUIRED/CLASS PERIODS NEEDEDYou need at list two-class periods to learn about the Cold War and watch the elective parts of the movies. An additional 15-20 minutes taken from the third class period to write a short, one page, quiz.
PRIMARY SOURCE BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.crees.ku.edu/Teachers/teachers.shtml
Who Won the Cold War?
http://www.davar.net/RUSSIAN/SONGS/VISOTSKY/VISOTSKY.HTM
V. Visotsky, White Bath (1968)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103838/
The Inner Circle
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/
The Day After
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063794/
War and Peace (Voyna i Mir)
http://www.foia.cia.gov/foia.asp
Your General Rights Under FOIA
http://www.cia.gov/index.html
CIA Home Page
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/culture/
Cold War Experience: Culture
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=168429
The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/realism.htm
Art Style: Realism
http://worldartistdirectory.com/artstyles.html
Art Style Definitions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/ssstd8.doc
Kansas Curricular Standards for History and Government; Economics and Geography
http://www.kerc-ks.org/
Kansas' Education Resource Center
A
Boy and His Dog (1975), view elective parts or just discuss
Directed by
L.Q. Jones
Writing credits
Harlan Ellison (story)
Country: USA
Dark Comedy/ Sci-Fi
Plot: A post-apocalyptic tale based on a novella by Harlan Ellison
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/
"... the prize-winning novel A Boy and His Dog by the noted science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison. The 1969 story was later made into a movie... After the nuclear devastation of the "Third War" a group of survivors build a city underground ... They elect to call their town Topeka." (Bader, 134)
The
Day After (1983) (TV), view elective parts
Directed by
Nicolas Maier
Drama/ Sci-Fi
Runtime:126 min
Country: USA
Plot: A graphic, disturbing film about the effects of a devastating
nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of central Kansas.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/
The
Inner Circle (1991), view elective parts or just discuss
Also Known As:
Blizhniy Krug (Russia), The Projectionist
Directed by
Andrei Konchalovsky
Drama
Country: Italy / USA / Russia
Language: English
Plot: The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's
private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103838/
War
and Peace (Voyna i Mir) (1968), view elective parts
Directed by
Sergey Bondarchuk
Country: USSR
Drama
Language: Russian/English
Plot: The Russians at Borodino won a moral victory. The direct consequence
of the Battle of Borodino was Napoleon's flight from Moscow, the destruction
of the invading army of 500,000 men, and the destruction of Napoleonic France.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063794/
The
Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (1983), view elective parts
Directed by
Sergey Tarasov
Country: USSR
Romantic Adventure/Costume Adventure
Language: Russian
Plot Outline: This heroic film inspired by the Walter Scott classic
fiction. Ivanhoe, the disowned knight, is fighting together with the brave hearted
and free spirited Robin Hood against the evil Prince John. Robin Hood's army
helped King Richard defeat his enemy, but Robin Hood proudly rejected the King’s
offer to serve under Richard's leadership in the future. The movie is accompanied
by the inspired Visotsky's ballads.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=168429
REQUIRED MATERIALS/SUPPLIES
Need TV, DVD or VHS Player, movies, CDs, posters, pencils and notebooks.
VOCABULARY
Atomic bomb
First nuclear weapon used in wartime, by the United States on Hiroshima,
Japan, on August 6, 1945; an A-bomb.
CIA
The American Central Intelligence Agency responsible for obtaining and analyzing
information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting
such information to the various brunches of the U.S. Government.
Cold War
Term used by Churchill in 1946 to describe the growing East-West divide
in postwar Europe between communist and democratic nations.
Nuclear winter
Theory that, immediately following a major nuclear war, radioactive smoke
and dust would fill the atmosphere, blocking sunlight, lowering temperatures
and destroying agriculture.
Propaganda, (propagate: spread, broadcast)
Misinformation; any organization or movement for the propagation of particular
ideas, doctrines
Red Army
Armed forces of the Soviet Union formed after the Bolshevik revolution from
the rebel Red Guards and the ruins of the Imperial Army.
Realism
Realism - the accurate and apparently objective description of the ordinary,
observable world.
Socialist Realism
Art style that prescribed a generally optimistic picture of socialist reality
and of the development of the Communist revolution. Its purpose was education
in the spirit of socialism.
Sputnik
First artificial Earth satellite, it was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957
and sparked US fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led
to the creation of NASA and the space race.
Questions:
Students will be required to write their answers to the assigned questions. The teacher will then provide a short quiz of about 6 questions selected from the assignment. The evaluation should be based on the usual teacher-grading scheme.
Mr. Hund, Principal of The Most Pure Heart of Mary School (Topeka, KS), watches the movie "The Day After" with students during Tatyana Wilds' class: Kansas in the Movies, the Cold War Period.
Mr. Hund, Principal of Most Pure Heart of Mary School (Topeka, KS), shares his knowledge and memories about the Cold War period with students during Tatyana Wilds' class: Kansas in the Movies, the Cold War Period.
