FRS 002 — Sec. 022 — (2 units) — CRN 81468— T 10:00-10:50am / R 10:00-11:50am — 117 Olson

Human Evil: A Presentation Through Film and Readings

Instructor: Rachel Edelson, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine

Description: This seminar has two main goals: analysis of artistic and provocative films all clearly related to the topic of human evil and the use of brief outside readings as a means to better understand these films. The last week will involve a reading and discussion of Tim O'Brien's novel In the Lake of the Woods (in part, about the infamous massacre at My Lai, during the Vietnam War), including critical commentary on the book and interviews with O'Brien. The films are:

"The Machinist" (guilt over a repressed misdeed - Christian Bale)

"The Believer" (the unbearable conflict of a Jewish neo-Nazi - Ryan Gosling)

"Downfall" (Hitler's last days in his Berlin bunker, demonstrating the crazed thinking of True Believers)

"Dogtown" (a young woman enters an American town during the Depression and is scapegoated - Nicole Kidman)

"In the Company of Men" (two men decide to hurt a deaf woman-Aaron Eckhart)

Format: The class will meet for 20 hours: 3 hours a week (two hours on one day and one on another), plus two more hours, at a time to be determined by student vote. We will watch each movie, together, as a class. The homework for the next class involves watching the movie again, (it will be placed on reserve), and writing on ways in which the class readings and a second viewing have influenced your understanding of the movie. For each movie I will also ask students to write on how class discussion altered their views on a movie. Hence, students will hand in a written analysis of what they have watched and read, once or twice a week, but there will be no exam. Grading: Grading will be based on class participation and level of written response.

About the Instructor: Rachel Edelson is a Clinical Faculty Member of the Department of Psychiatry. Her graduate degrees are in Education and English. She also teaches College Composition and Advanced Critical Thinking at Sacramento City College. Rachel Edelson, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine.