The Great Depression is such a fun unit, but the typical movie that students watch is Grapes of Wrath. And lets get real- that is not what they want to see. As great as it is, historically speaking and content wise- the students see it as an old movie. Or teachers show a documentary, which again, students see as old and boring. So when I teach the Great Depression, at the end of the unit I show the students Cinderella Man! This movie is so perfect for the Great Depression. What I love about the movie is that is talks about everything that I spoke about during this unit!! SCORE!!- It shows how the main character had all the money and then losing it all in the stock market crash.
- It talks about bread lines and people going hungry
- it shows people struggling for work
- it constantly refers to the New Deal and FDR
- it shows the dangers of the Hoovervilles
And it really shows the struggle that everyone faced. I can talk about the struggle, I play games to show how people have no money and how are they going to pay for their bills, but this movie does such a great job demonstrating it. When my students see the mom deciding to send her kids with someone else because they couldn't afford heat- it just tied everything together. It clicked- they got it. Cinderella Man really is a great movie to show at the end of the Great Depression unit. And as always, I use movie guide questions for students to answer throughout the movie to keep them engaged and have discussions with after the movie.
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