<p>Just watched this recently and would like to see some more movies in a college setting, preferably “vintage” – pre mid-80s. Already have Love Story on the list.
Would prefer to avoid comedies for now, so no Animal House no Legally Blonde.</p>
<p>Anything else come to mind? Movie doesn’t have to be good, emphasis on portraying college days in a bygone era.
Thanks!</p>
<p>I actually saw Mona Lisa Smile on cable yesterday. I had seen it many years ago, but I really loved it this go around. Now that I have a college age son, I really appreciated it from that point of view. I loved the Paper Chase series, but don’t think I ever saw the movie. Will have to look for that one. Grandpa has asked me to tape old movies for him, since Blockbuster only gives one night rentals, so I’ve been watching more old movies than block busters.</p>
<p>Grey’s Anatomy was another good movie, focusing on medical school. It featured Matthew Modine and Daphne Zuniga. </p>
<p>Oh, gosh, I’m a big movie buff. I will enjoy researching this.</p>
<p>With Honors–Harvard student encounters homeless man; student learns life lessons. It’s a little hokey, but entertaining. Joe Pesci is the homeless man. It came out about 10-12 years ago.</p>
<p>I somehow thought this was based on Smith College, but it turns out to be Mt. Holyoke.
[IMDb</a> - Uncommon Women… and Others (TV 1979)](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080059/]IMDb”>"Great Performances" Uncommon Women... and Others (TV Episode 1979) - IMDb)</p>
<p>None of these are really about the “classroom,” per se, but they’re all college-age dramas.</p>
<p>Circle of Friends–college girls in Ireland.
Breaking Away–would-be college students in Indiana.
The Last Convertible–it’s a TV miniseries, but AWESOME story of Harvard undergrads circa WWII.
The Graduate–just after college.</p>
<p>I’ll keep working on it…</p>
<p>Baby it’s you, with Rosanna Arquette.</p>
<p>The Big Chill (college friends reunite)</p>
<p>1951 “Take Care of my Little Girl” with Jeanne Crane
by one of my favorite directors Jean Negulesco
------campy yet dramatic movie about the sorority system
I love this movie, it plays on TCM once and a while, but good luck
finding it!</p>
<p>1990 “The Freshman” with Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick
dir: Andrew Bergman
Film student mixes with the mob (Brando does a hilarious riff on “The Godfather”)</p>
<p>1942 “The Male Animal” with Henry Fonda
dir: Elliot Nugent
Communists on campus! but a comedy</p>
<p>1956 “Tea and Sympathy”
dir: Vincent Minnelli
student suspected of being gay sleeps with Deborah Kerr </p>
<p>1948 “Apartment for Peggy”
dir: George Seaton
Actor Edmund Gwen plays a professor contemplating suicide until he meets an ex GI and his wife stuggeling to get thru school in post war America.</p>
<p>you wanted vintage!</p>
<p>^yes, vintage is good! Thank you.</p>
<p>Good Will Hunting</p>
<p>Re Mona Lisa Smile, from a letter to alumnae from the president:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The entire text of her letter can be found here:</p>
<p>[Message</a> from the President to Wellesley College alumnae concerning the film, Mona Lisa Smile](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/President/DCW/Announcements/monalisasmile.html]Message”>Message from the President to Wellesley College alumnae concerning the film, Mona Lisa Smile)</p>
<p>Please, if you do watch it, realize that it is NOT reflective of the reality at Wellesley at ANY time. (For one thing, Wellesley’s art history department is particularly reknowned, and offered a course on “modern” art back in the 1920s, when it was quite revolutionary. They didn’t need a fictional grad student from California to enlighten them. :rolleyes: )</p>
<p>BTW, Legally Blonde came out in 2001. Hardly vintage. </p>
<p>There are some good movies in posts upthread. I’ve always like the Henry Fonda movie in particular.</p>
<p>October Sky from 1999 is very good.</p>
<p>Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr.</p>
<p>Not vintage but a great movie.</p>
<p>A Beautiful Mind… based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The movie won four Academy Awards, including best picture.
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(film[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(film)</a></p>
<p>Also not vintage, however, both are very inspiring.
Homeless to Harvard - The Liz Murray Story. .[Homeless</a> to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_to_Harvard:_The_Liz_Murray_Story]Homeless”>Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The Brooke Ellison Story. [Brooke</a> Ellison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Ellison]Brooke”>Brooke Ellison - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Here’s a list of old movies, but I haven’t seen any of them: [Not</a> of General Interest: College, Hollywood-style (pre-1950s)](<a href=“http://notofgeneralinterest.blogspot.com/2007/09/college-hollywood-style-pre-1950s.html]Not”>Not of General Interest: College, Hollywood-style (pre-1950s))</p>
<p>If you can cross over the water - I really liked Educating Rita with Michael Caine. I haven’t seen Lucky Jim (1957 movie more recent Masterpiece Theater), but the book is great. Oh and there’s a TV version of Gaudy Night set in a fictional Oxford College: [“A</a> Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery” Gaudy Night: Episode One (TV episode 1987) - IMDb](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216476/]"A”>"A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery" Gaudy Night: Episode One (TV Episode 1987) - IMDb)</p>
<p>mathmom, I loved that list “not of general interest” 
I like the broader aspect of the college cliches it addresses, as well as some of the points the commenters made.</p>
<p>I can think of lots of pre-1980’s stories about college-age characters, but none that take place in the classroom. Lots of sports, romance, etc.
“where the boys are”–spring break circa 1962
“Goodbye Columbus”–Radcliffe girl on summer vacation
“The Way we Were”–student radical adores campus hunk
“Horse Feathers”–the Marx brothers go to college
“The last picture show”–more about ending high school </p>
<p>In movies in the 1950s and early 1960s, college was the ivy-covered montage between high school and grown up, big city life, with apartment and job…</p>
<p>Duh, the first part of the BBC miniseries, Brideshead Revisited is practically standalone and a great college movie.</p>
<p>Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days is recent but not terribly well known. It’s a tough, chilling movie about Romanian college students in the late 80s.</p>
<p>The Harrad Experiment, from the early '70s, is NOT like The Paper Chase. But it certainly is a period piece.</p>
<p>The Sterile Cuckoo was really Liza Minelli’s first starring role, in 1969. She was a space-cadet college student. </p>
<p>There are a number of West Point movies – The Long Gray Line and Dress Gray come to mind. (Dress Gray is a really great college novel. I don’t think the made-for-TV movie was anywhere near as good.)</p>
<p>Who could forget Where The Boys Are?</p>
<p>And, personally, I adore these college-oriented Bollywood movies: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai; Mohabbatein; Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (among many, many others).</p>
<p>Just remembered: The first half of Carnal Knowledge takes place at Amherst and Smith. A terrific, dark movie directed by Mike Nichols, with a young Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, and Ann-Margaret.</p>
<p>I second Educating Rita!
Great idea for a list!</p>
<p>Doesn’t match the vintage requirement but I’m suggesting “Rudy.”</p>