The following movies may be viewed to enrich the topics covered in the chapter(s).

 

NOTICE: All suggested movies should be previewed or approved by a parent or guardian prior to students viewing.

 

Chapter 3 Citizenship

 

• Avalon, a 1990 film which follows an immigrant and his family as they seek their dream in America

 

• West Side Story, the classic tale of “Romeo and Juliet” transplanted to New York City with two rival gangs squaring off against each other.

 

Chapter 4 American Colonies and their Government

 

• The Last of the Mohicans, a 1992 historical epic film set in 1757 America during the French and Indian War

 

• 1776, a musical film that tells the story of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence during the first Continental Congress

 

Chapter 5 The Constitution

 

• The American Constitution: The Ghosts of ‘87, a look at the lives of ten of the most influential of the Founding Fathers

 

Chapter 6 The Bill of Rights

 

• Gideon’s Trumpet, the true story behind the landmark Supreme Court decision that defendants have the right to an attorney even if they cannot afford one

 

• Iron Jawed Angels, a 2004 movie based on the true story of a rebel band of young women who risk their lives to fight for American women’s right to vote

 

Chapter 7 The Legislative Branch

 

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a 1939 Academy Award-winning film about one man’s effect on American politics

 

Chapter 8 The Executive Branch

 

• John Adams, a 2008 television miniseries about President John Adams’s political life

 

• Thirteen Days, a 2000 docudrama about the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis from the perspective of U.S. political leaders

 

Chapter 9 The Judicial Branch

 

• Sacco and Vanzetti, the story of two Italian immigrant radicals who were tried for murder and executed in 1927 in Boston after an infamously prejudiced trial

 

• A Civil Action, based on a true story about a lawsuit against two major conglomerates accused of polluting the drinking water of a Massachusetts town

 

Chapter 10 Political Parties

 

• The Last Hurrah, a 1958 film about an old Irish-American political boss running for re-election as mayor of an American city for the last time

 

• The Best Man, the story of smear politics by potential presidential nominees during an election year

 

Chapter 11 Voting and Elections

 

• Recount, a made-for-television movie about the 2000 presidential election which pitted Texas Governor George W. Bush against Vice President Al Gore

 

• The War Room, a documentary about the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and those who ran it

 

Chapter 12 Public Opinion

 

• Good Night and Good Luck, a 2005 film directed by George Clooney that portrays the conflict between television journalist Edward R. Murrow and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthy’s communist “witch-hunts”.

 

• Meet John Doe, a political movement begins when a struggling newspaper columnist creates a fictional “John Doe” who threatens suicide in protest of society’s ills.

 

Chapter 13 State Government

 

• All the King’s Men, the story of the rise and fall of a corrupt politician in Louisiana

 

Chapter 14 Local Government

 

• The Last Hurrah, a 1958 film about an old Irish-American political boss running for re-election as mayor of an American city for the last time

 

Chapter 15 Citizens and the Law

 

• 12 Angry Men, deliberations in a murder trial turn as one juror slowly convinces the others that the case is not as open and shut as they think

 

Chapter 16 Civil and Criminal Law

 

• The Ox-Bow Incident, a 1943 western film about citizens who dispense frontier “justice” on three drifters who are falsely accused

 

• To Kill a Mockingbird, a small-town Alabama lawyer in the 1930s defends an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman

 

• Inherit the Wind, a fictional account of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial in which a science teacher is accused of the “crime” of teaching evolution