Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

This film is based on the space race. The space race was a competition between the US and USSR to be the first nation to successfully reach space and break the sound barrier. The USSR were more advanced at the time and were the first ones to reach space. When the US realized this they gathered a team of the nations greatest minds to catch up. They sent monkeys into space because they wouldn't risk a human being when there is a high chance of failure. The US eventually broke the sound barrier, which is 761 MPH. The scene when the airplane broke the sound barrier and no one had ever seen/heard one before and they thought that the plane blew up. This is memorable because it shows that they were the first nation to break the sound barrier because no one had ever seen/heard a sonic boom.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is composed of many nations from numerous walks of life. Its purpose is to enforce peace treaties in the North Atlantic and to use military force against violators of those treaties or of human rights. in layman's terms, if a NATO country is under attack or is too incompetent to get something done all the other NATO nations will assist. NATO was also created to stop the spread of communism.

The Warsaw Pact is a treaty, signed in 1955,between the eastern nations and the USSR to protect against NATO interference, it was based in East Germany. It was an alliance of the "red" countries, except for former Yugoslavia, and later Albania would exclude itself. They basically would defend each other if one was attacked, same idea as NATO.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

Schindler's List was another film about the Holocaust similar to Night & Fog. It was directed by Steven Spielberg. This film focuses on how the Jews were hunted down and their struggle rather than how they were executed. The film Night & Fog on the other hand focused more on the concentration camps. Oskar Schindler was a business man who hired jews to work in his factory. In return his employees were put on a list known as Schindler's list. Anyone's name who is on that list must be not be killed/freed. Although the movie was somewhat graphic, it's no where near as graphic as Night & Fog. I could handle most of the scenes but I thought it was disgusting how in one scenes a member of the Nazi, shot a young child just for kicks. But nothing beats the severed heads from Night and Fog.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

"Night and Fog" is a documentary film about the holocaust. It showed how the concentration camp system started from fascism. The film mostly contained footage from the concentration/death camps. Some people died while on the long train rides. The film was very shocking and was very explicit. I wouldn't have imagined what I saw in the movie from just reading the sugar coated textbooks. In the movie you see murder, heaps of malnourished bodies and other unpleasant scenes. Night and Fog is a more explicit version of Schindler's list. You get the actually see real footage of the holocaust and how it went down. Schindler's list had some scenes that focused on how the Jews were hunted down and what they had to do such as eat their valuables and hide in unpleasant settings.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WWI)

This treaty effected Germany in a very negative way. It basically gave all other countries the right to blame Germany for WWI. Sure they had their fair share of damage but they had to take 100% of the blame. Germany had no choice but to agree or else their nation would collapse even more. This is when Germany needed a powerful leader to get to ball rolling. This is when Hitler came into play. He did help Germany get back on track, he almost won WWII but he failed. If he played his cards right and finished up England from the beginning he would have given Rommel the troops he requested in North Africa, attacked Russia and conquered the Middle east.

Mustafu Kemal and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal modernized Turkey by adopting the European ideas and is known as "The Father of Turkey". He was the president of Turkey for 15 years. In his younger years he was a military leader and was very successful. He thought that everyone should act like Europeans. He helped turkey grow as a nation. Mustafa Kemal wanted to modernize turkey. He didn't want his nation to be left behind so he wanted his people to dress just like the europeans. Very similar to to Meji Restoration.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

Gandhi was a very intelligent Indian lawyer. During that time the Indian people were very weak because it was being controlled by the British. Gandhi moved to south Africa at one point he had moved to South Africa so he could continue his studies. He soon started to fight for India's independence.
Gandhi weaved his own cloth and encouraged other people to do so.

He was the one of decided to help stop the salt acts since Indians were only allowed to buy salt from the British. He led the Indians to the coast where they made their own salt which wasn't very healthy but it was a start. His goal was for Muslims and Hindus to live together. He was a very peaceful man. But there's always a critic. He was assassinated but is well known for his achievements. With the help of WWII Indian was able to become an independent country. This was because the British lost many resources and had no choice but to drop India.