Movies: Part II

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Movies Part II
By Katie Southers, Kate Thomas, Alison Hassett,
CJ Sheppard, and Hunter
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History in Forrest Gump

• Watergate Scandal
• In the movie Forrest spots lights in a hotel
  across the street and complains to a hotel clerk
  that the lights are bothering him
• It was the Nixon administration breaking into the
  Democratic Party's National Committee Offices on
  June 17, 1972 to gain insight on their upcoming
  campaign
• The next scene shows Nixons resignation speech
  and makes it seem that Forrest was the reason the
  scandal became known
• In reality it was the security guard Frank Willis
  that instigated an investigation

Watergate.info. (2008). Watergate The scandal
that Brought Down Richard Nixon. Retrieved May
22, 2008 from http//www.watergate.info/
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Other History in Forrest Gump

• Elvis - Forrests mother ran a boarding house.
  One of the tenants was a young singer/guitar
  player. Forrest twisted his hips to the music.
  The next scene shows Elvis on TV using Forrests
  moves. This scenario is fictionalized.
• Elvis Presley Enterprises. (1996). Elvis Presley.
  Retrieved May 22, 2008 from http//www.history-of-
  rock.com/elvis_presley.htm.
• Integration of the University of Alabama - In the
  movie, Forrest attends the University of Alabama
  on a football scholarship. During the Integration
  of the University in 1963, Forrest picked up a
  book of one of the African American students
  after they were allowed into the University. In
  the actual event Alabama Governor George Wallace
  blocked the doorway of a building and did not let
  Vivian Malone and James Hood enter the building.
  President John F. Kennedy sent troops to the
  University and the students were admitted.

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Other History

• Vietnam
• Forrest enlists in the army after college and
  soon is shipped to Vietnam after his basic
  training
• Forrest writes to Jenny describing all the
  fighting in Vietnam
• While Forrest is in Vietnam he gets in a battle
  and saves all of his platoon from Napalm and he
  gets shot in the buttock
• In the actual war Napalm actual caused a lot of
  causalities and some died from there own Napalm
  bombs

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The Psyche of Forrest Gump

• Companionate Love- The constant and persistent
  love that Forrest feels for Jenny even though she
  does him wrong at several times
• Mere Exposure Effect- the fact that Forrest was
  exposed to Jenny so much as a child that he
  naturally formed a liking towards her
• Altruism- The unselfish regard for the welfare of
  others as Forrest exudes toward everyone
• Intelligence- the mental quality to learn from
  experiences, solve problems, and use knowledge.
  Forrest is considered a man of low intelligence
  due to his inability to recognize the severity of
  certain situations
• Stanford-Binet IQ Test- the scale used to measure
  Forrests intelligence
• Mental Age- the chronological age that
  corresponds to the intelligence

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Red Dawn
Kate Thomas
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The setting of Red Dawn occurred during the time
of the Cold War and the Red Scare.
The Cold War began after the US used nuclear war
technology without worrying about the possible
outcomes. The US then decided to write up a
treaty that would prohibit the use of nuclear
warfare, but the Soviets were worried about the
intentions of the US and had major trust issues.
One of the most prominent themes of the movie was
the race for technological power. This is
depicted in the movie through the alliance
between the Soviet Union, Nicaragua, and Cuba,
and their involvement in the Cuban Missile
Crisis. Throughout the movie there is always a
sense of a race occurring for overall power and
advancement in nuclear technology.
Kate Thomas
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The Red Scare occurred when people began to
believe that a communist form of government would
begin to form in the US. This is associated with
McCarthyism which was a movement led my John
McCarthy to weed out all communist or sympathy
communists and put them into jail. This was
depicted in the majority of the movie because as
the Soviets and the Cubans invaded the US, they
were trying to slowly lead the US into a
communist nation. This fear of communism is the
main reason the high school teens ran into the
forest in order to protect and build their own
defenses. During the movie, one of their own
turns them in, furthermore intensifying the trust
issues that were present at the time.
Kate Thomas
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The Psyche of Red Dawn

• Conformity- the ability for people to assimilate
  to the other behaviors, attitudes, and values of
  those in a group
• Instincts- The Wolverines struggle to survive in
  the wild, but trusting their preprogrammed
  tendencies, they end up successful
• Aggression- the building of their own guerrilla
  warfare that they release their own frustrations
  and harm to the communists.
• In-Group- the ability for the teenagers to
  identify themselves as Wolverines to form a
  unified pact
• Group polarization- the tendency for the members
  to attack the Soviets when pushed by the stranded
  US Air Force Captain
• Flight or Fight Response- the reason that the
  remaining men chose to fight the Soviets rather
  then run away because they were passionate about
  their cause.
• Gerring, R (2002).Glossary. Retrieved May 22,
  2008, from http//www.psychologymatters.org/glossa
  ry.html

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War Games
Kate Thomas
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War Games Plot A young computer hacker, David
Lightman (Matthew Broderick), accidentally hacks
into a top secret super-computer which has
complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
It challenges him to a game between America and
Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to
World War 3.
Kate Thomas and CJ
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The Psyche Of War Games

• Paranoia- a disturbed thought process that is
  triggered by anxiety or fear. This relates to the
  movie because US forces are paranoid about a
  Soviet attack so they irrationally assume that
  Lightman is associated
• Traits- personal qualities that influence a
  persons behavior such as the computer technology
  that David is so accustomed to using
• Self-actualization- personality psychology that
  refers to the person striving to realize their
  potential abilities and talents
• Motivation- the process of starting, directing,
  and maintaining physical and psychological
  activities, such as Davids persistence to hack
  into the computer system
• Gerring, R (2002).Glossary. Retrieved May 22,
  2008, from http//www.psychologymatters.org/glossa
  ry.html Alison Hassett

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History in War Games