This was 20 years ago, but I recall looking forward to watching this for a second time with my film class in college. They couldn't stop laughing at it, and as I recall, the biggest laugh went to the little boy hiding in the outhouse to avoid getting caught by the Nazi soldier. They were saying how stupid it was and they would rather get caught by Nazis then hide in a huge hole of shit.
shareYour film class in college? They sound like kids in elementary school.
shareI know. There was maybe one other guy there who loved this film and took it seriously. He was a massive Kurosawa fan. Most students didn't even know who Kurosawa was. I think the class wanted to study film because they were inspired by blockbuster films.
shareSpeilberg directed that scene like it was from "The Goonies". I think we were expected to laugh. Maybe he did it as a trap for the goyim. I gave a little chuckle when I saw that scene and this rich Jewish couple in front of me looked at me like I was the reincarnation of Heinrich Himmler.
shareI don't think it was meant to be funny at all.
shareDid the professor stop the reel and say that it actually happened, that some poor bastard had been a child in the death camps, and had survived because he hid in hip-deep ice-cold shit because the alternative was a quick and horrible death?
That's what should have happened.
👍👍
The sad thing was that this was a film class. If they can't tell when something was supposed to be serious, maybe directing isn't for them.
shareWTF?? Did they know they were watching a Spielberg film?
This would be like laughing at a Mozart symphony in a music class. It would be so bizarre.
They probably would have cried if they were watching it alone at home. They were probably laughing because they didn't want to cry in front of people.
shareThose morons probably would have laughed at a Mozart symphony.
shareNo words
shareI took a film class in college because I love movies and their history. I observed that none of the other students had a clue about any films made before they were born, and almost all of them were there simply because they thought it would be an easy class. When the professor would screen a movie, all would immediately get up and leave except one middle-aged woman and me.
shareI knew one guy in college who was a massive Kurosawa fan. But other than him, I was shocked that other film students didn't know anything about film history. I recall a time where a teacher was telling us about about a director whose name slipped his mind. He asked the class, "who was the guy who did Out of Africa?" The class was silent until I eventually said Sydney Pollack. Everyone looked so confused and people were asking me who he was and what Out of Africa was.
Another incident was when I mentioned the movie Quiz Show and my friend never heard of it. I told him Ralph Fiennes was in it and Robert Redford directed it. He replied, "I don't know who they are".
One guy in my class knew who Spielberg was but couldn't name a movie he did. But the most pathetic was one huge David Lynch fan. When he told me he was a fan, I asked what he thought of The Straight Story because although it was a Lynch film, it was something like he has never done before. Anyway, he told me he never heard of the movie. I mean, how? It only came out 2 or 3 years earlier.
It's rather disheartening to enroll in an academy, anticipating engaging and insightful conversations with fellow students, only to discover that those around you are quite ignorant in the very field they've chosen to study. I hope you found 1-2 students you can talk about films with.