Movie suggestions for high school English?

Question

Hi! I'm a 10th and 11th grade English teacher. I want to incorporate movies into my classroom to help motivate students about the different literature themes throughout the year. I want to use movies that relate and portray themes... not books made into movies. For example, at the beginning of our "American Dream" unit, I like to show "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith. I'm trying to find a website with other "hollywood" movies that relate to the literature curriculum (World Lit and American Lit) topics such as: American Dream, heroes, tragedy, belief systems, individual vs society, etc.

If anyone has any suggestions of modern movies (I want to get their attention and keep them interested!!!) that could be incorporated into the classroom... or a website that offers suggestions it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

PS. I am not a lazy teacher who shows movies rather than teaching. I work extremely hard to prepare lessons that engage my students! Just wanted to put that out there... :)

Answer 1

Information is below.

Answer 2

Oh..I was thinking A Midsummer Night's Dream, the 1999 version because Christian Bale is in it. I'm sure after The Dark Knight, your students would want to see him.  

Answer 3

How about THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST with Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon?  I watched it with my 12th grade and 8th grade kids (my own children) and it was a blast.  We all really had to reacclimate our listening to keep up with the dialogue.  And my younger one had to replay some things.  But it was a great experience.

We have it in our local library.

Also... the movies BECOMING JANE and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Keira Knightly version) motivated me to pick up and read some Jane Austen, which I had never done.  Although you might lose the guys with these.

For heros, tragedy, belief systems, and individual v. society I kind of like Braveheart.  It's definitely a fictional account of William Wallace's life, but they worked very hard to develop ALL of those themes.  Think it might be rated R tho, don't know if that's a problem.

Don't know if American Dream/personal development/self awareness might factor into your literature at all, but if it does, GROUNDHOG DAY might be a good light addition that can spark discussion.  And lightens people up in early February.  Also AS GOOD AS IT GETS, which adds in disability and socioeconomic factors.