american history thru film

this weekend i had the second of those three weekends of class

and instead of sitting at home alone, lindsay and jake spent the weekend in knoxville. in the downtime after class and this afternoon, i was able to knock out four movies from the lists: jaws, easy rider, the french connection, and gone with the wind. jaws worked as a great, suspenseful horror style movie - much like alien. (on that note, i'm looking forward to watching halloween for the first time ever in the next couple of weeks). easy rider was ... interesting, but it functions incredibly well as a portrait of the late 1960's in america. the french connection was a decent suspenseful cop drama, but the best of the weekend was easily gone with the wind. i had been somewhat dreading the 2-disc, 4-hour epic, but it did not disappoint. besides giving a great picture of the south from 1861-1873, the story and acting were not trite and cliched as i had expected. i guess it's a top-5 movie for a reason! next up is the bridge on the river kwai.