Your assignment is not quite so long. Watch this one, then watch the rest of them if you have the time/inclination…

Harken back with me to 1986 when The Highlander came out. It was a glorious movie –loved by all mankind. Now fast forward 4 years when Highlander II: The Quickening came out. It was a loathsome movie –universally despised and hated. Jump forward 4 more years and we get Highlander III: The Final Dimension where the second movie is quietly swept under the rug –completely ignored.

The second movie was so terrible. So illogical (captain). It completely defied understanding. Roger Ebert summed it up this way, “Highlander II: The Quickening is the most hilariously incomprehensible movie I’ve seen in many a long day—a movie almost awesome in its badness. Wherever science fiction fans gather, in decades and generations to come, this film will be remembered in hushed tones as one of the immortal low points of the genre.”

Now jump ahead 3 more years (1997 for those of you keeping score at home). The producer and director absolutely hated Highlander II, so they completely rewrote the story using the original footage.

One final fast forward 13 years (to yesterday). Netflix delivered Highlander II: The Renegade Version (that’s really what they called it). It is still a fabulously bad movie, but it makes sense. It fits in with all the other films. I no longer have to pretend that Highlander II was never filmed and they, for some inexplicable reason called the second movie Highlander III. There’s more information about it at Wikipedia if you’re interested.

Now if someone could just make a sequel to The Matrix.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Brad. Welcome to middle age.

I’m looking for some help to get this list down to about a dozen. Which ones do you think would be best for 6th, 7th & 8th graders? If you have another movie idea, throw it in the ring. If you know a reason that I shouldn’t show one of these, lets hear it. Once we get down to about a dozen movies that I like, We’ll let the kids vote on them.

Update:

This post gets lots of hits, so I decided to make a slightly more useful version. At 50 Best Movies for Middle School you can sort the movies by release date, run time and rating. There are also links to the IMDb entries for each movie as well as the Parent Guide.

Listed below are the movies we came up with after consulting a variety of experts including: current middle school students, former middle school students, middle school teachers from across the country, lots of family movie websites, and random people on twitter and facebook.

Do Your Homework

Don’t Take My Word For It. Always preview any movie before you show it. Just because a movie appears on this (or any other) list doesn’t mean that it works in your situation. For instance, I included Stand by Me in this list and it is rated R. If I were actually going to show it, I would look for an edited for television version. If a movie is rated PG or PG-13, offer some guidance to the students before you watch it. Explain to them what good things they can take away from the movie even though there might be some language that isn’t appropriate at school.

Incorporate it into the curriculum. We’ve shown The Karate Kid when we’re talking about bullying as a school. One teacher shows Newsies in social studies classes when she’s talking about immigration and industrialization. I’ve shown Searching for Bobby Fischer before I teach students how to play chess.

Stay Legal

You may be required to obtain a Public Performance License to show your movie. Movie License USA offers these guidelines for schools to use when determining if they need to purchase a license. Generally, you do not need a license if:

• A teacher or instructor is present
• The showing takes place in a classroom setting with only the enrolled students attending
• The movie is used as an essential part of the core, current curriculum being taught. (The instructor should be able to show how the use of the motion picture contributes to the overall required course study and syllabus.)
• The movie being used is a legitimate copy, not taped from a legitimate copy or taped from TV

Movie License USA also serves a clearing house for many movie studios, so it is a good spot to look to obtain a license if you need one. They offer single license for $75.00 which is good for one showing of a single movie on a specific date.They also offer site licenses that are good for all of the studios that they represent for one year (as many showings as you’d like). Site license prices are based on the number of students in your school.

About the List

The list is sortable. Click on the heading to sort it by run time, rating and so forth. The title link goes to the Internet Movie Database listing for the movie and the rating link goes to the IMDb Parents Guide for the movie. Additions to the list are welcome. There aren’t actually 50 movies listed yet, so feel free to suggest some in the comments below. If you think a movie on the list is especially good or bad choice to show at school, lets hear that as well.

The List

What do you think?

• Suggest another movie? (what did we miss)
• Any poor choices on the list? (you can’t show that in school)
• What are your top 3? (two thumbs up)

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