FLORENCE: Classic movies introduced to high school students

Charities to benefit for the showings

By Amber Cox
   FLORENCE — The Great Depression brought hard times and heartache, but it also produced some of the best movies ever made. Their magic brought solace to hard pressed Americans who for a couple hours could lose their troubles in the darkened theater while gazing at the silver screen.
   A biology teacher and a social studies teacher at the Florence Township Memorial High School are trying to bring some of those movies back to life through Movies for Charity.
   Mike Flynn and Stephen Ordog early this year began the discussion of showing classic movies in the evening at high school auditorium.
   ”We wanted to show some of the older films, some of the classics,” Mr. Ordog, the social studies teacher, said. “The kids, many of them really have no idea about some of the old 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s films. “Gunga Din” came out in 1939. Some people consider 1939 the greatest year in movies, “Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” were all released that year.”
   Each movie showing is linked to a specific charity and admission is a donation to that cause. The proceeds from the concession stand are also donated to that specific charity.
   ”We tried to pick different causes…The way the economy is, I’m sure a lot of these (charities) are taking hits,” he said.
   ”King Kong” was the first movie shown on March 25 and all of the proceeds went to benefit Relay for Life sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the which the school is holding April 29-30.
   ”We showed the original ‘King Kong’ from 1933,” Mr. Ordog said. “That year was in the middle of the Depression and ‘King Kong’ actually saved RKO studios from going under. The studio was about to go bankrupt. That was one out for people during the Depression to relieve themselves of the drudgery of everyday life. They didn’t have a lot of things available back then but, ‘King Kong,’ in 1933, becomes a major hit.”
   Mr. Ordog said the showing of “King Kong” raised $175 for Relay for Life.
   The second movie will be “The Searchers” on April 14 at 6 p.m. and all proceeds with benefit cystic fibrosis.
   John Wayne is the main character of the classic 1956 western movie depicting the ongoing battle between “Indians and cowboys.”
   ”Some of the kids probably don’t even know who John Wayne is,” Mr. Ordog said. “He was an icon. Possibly one of the biggest stars in American film.”
   ”Gunga Din,” 1939, will be shown on May 13 with proceeds benefiting multiple sclerosis.
   ”Gunga Din is one of my favorites,” Mr. Ordog said.
   ”It deals with the British Empire in India during the 1800s. It’s also the sample of how people viewed the difference between the British lifestyle and people in India. You’re talking about a Third World country and the world’s number one power at that time.”
   Mr. Ordog explained that “Gunga Din” was originally a Rudyard Kipling poem about a waterboy.
   ”He’s (Gunga Din) the original waterboy, not Adam Sandler,” he said. “He was an untouchable. An untouchable was below the caste system in India. They had all of the dirty jobs. They had no place in the social hierarchy.”
   Mr. Ordog said the story centers around dealing with a renegade group in India and the British trying to control it.
   The last movie, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942, will benefit cerebral palsy and will be shown May 27.
   ”I figured we’d do a patriotic theme because it’ll be Memorial Day weekend when it’s shown,” Mr. Ordog said.
   ”This is more of a musical type film. James Cagney (main character), does all of his (own) singing and dancing in the movie.”
   Mr. Ordog said he thinks some of the students are too exposed to “their own films today,” most of which can’t be shown at the school because of language and content matter.
   ”Are those movies considered classics?” Mr. Ordog asked. “It seems like movies are just mass produced today, one after another. What’s really a classic? The violence in them, nothing is left to the imagination. There’s nothing left. In the older movies, you don’t see the blood, you don’t see the guts. There was a different way of presenting things.”
   Three of the four movies being shown at the school are listed on the American Film Institute’s top 100 list of movies.
   Mr. Ordog also said producers and directors take ideas from the classic films and put them into the new ones.
   ”For ‘Jurassic Park,’ look at the original ‘King Kong,’” he said. “You’ve got the wall and you’ve got dinosaurs terrorizing the land and people.
   ”In ‘Indiana Jones,’ besides the adventure part, there’s also humor, and the same with ‘Gunga Din.’”
   Mr. Ordog said he thinks the hardest part is getting the students to connect with the older films.
   ”Hopefully the kids come around and decide to poke their heads in to watch,” he said. “They might not like what they see, I don’t know.”
   The beginning process to show the movies wasn’t as easy as it may seem.
   The school had to get a license for permission to show movies because of the copyright issues.
   The Florence Township Education Association provided the funds for the license.
   Mr. Ordog and Mr. Flynn also needed permission from the Board of Education and the principals of the high school, which all agreed it was a good idea.
   The two do not want the curtain to go down on the project and hope to line up more movies for the fall.