Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

WHAT ARE THE MOVIES DOING TO US . . . ? ♦ ♦ ♦ Mrs* Roosevelt, as a nationally important figure, has been interviewed many, many times* But, heretofore, she has never written an article for a fan magazine. She writes one now— on the movies' real value to us MUCH has been said and written on the harm which movies have done in glorifying the crook and the gangster and giving oftentimes a glamor to a certain type of degenerate existence which does exist in some places, but which is hardly typical of the normal life of the greater part of our country. There is, of course, justification for these criticisms, and one which is even more valid is that the movie in picturing every day life in so-called high society, falsely teaches bad taste, bad manners, not to say bad morals ! There are many signs, today, pointing to the fact that in the movie industry itself there is a realization of possibilities for education along many lines for service to the community in this com m paratively new art. With that growing power goes, of course, a great responsibility. When we talk about the educational value of the movies, we do not mean alone the use of films in the classroom. In many big schools, films are now being used and an article which I came across lately tells of an investigation made in Great Britain as to the value of the films used in this purely scholastic way. Some people have feared that it would make our children lazy to receive instruction through the eye, but it has been proved, according to this investigation, that, "the use of the film forces children to find their own words to describe scenes and express ideas. Thus the film, instead of helping to form a mass mind, another general criticism against it, encourages originality." THE talking movie, of course, was attacked even more violently when it was first used in schools, for the same reasons given above; but this same report says: "Films encourage reading more widely, increase the pupils' 26 Speaking of criticism of the movies, Mrs. Roosevelt says: "There is, of course, justification for these criticisms, and one which is even more valid is that the movie in picturing every day life in so-called high society, falsely teaches bad taste, bad manners, not to say bad morals!" Mrs. Roosevelt also says: "The educational value of the movies seems to me quite limitless if the men at the head of the industry have sufficient imagination to see what possibilities lie before them ..." "Many of the films showing wild life in different parts of the world have brought a knowledge of vegetation and habits ... of animals and savage peoples. ..." ability to discuss topics and to write about them. They enlarge the vocabulary, enlarge personal expression, correlate the work of the classroom with the life of the world outside the school, and increase the ability to concentrate mental activities." They say that it increases the concentration of children by forcing them to look and listen at the same time. There is no doubt in my mind that it brings, much more vividly to children, certain things which they would never understand through books and oral instruction alone. For instance, certain scientific films are of great value in scientific courses, particularly where certain things are difficult to show in a science laboratory. History and geography to my mind is inestimably more vivid where moving pictures are actually shown picturing historic scenes. Particularly is life made more realistic for young children if'they, in studying about foreign countries, can see children of their own age in their native costumes playing or engaging in some of the sports of their country. It brings a child into closer relationship to the other children and their country. If they are studying some historical episode and can see that episode acted out in a film, the characters come to life for them. Disraeli is a real person and the occurrences are fixed in their minds in the way reading a history book or even a story would never do it. These films, however, are frankly educational films and the great majority of films are not screened entirely for that purpose. The question is whether the ordinary film is giving the audiences which throng the movie houses anything beside a sensation and a false idea of different phases of life. To me, it seems more and more that we are getting things in the movies which are of real value to many