Politics and American Film

You won't really learn much in this class, but if forces you to watch some of the best American movies ever made, which is enriching in itself. As far as a structured syllabus or any sort of pattern to the material, you won't find that here. Spiegel is fun to listen to though, and is easily approachable with help on the papers.

This class is listed as a 4000 level class, so it should be pretty advaced with mostly seniors and grad students. It isn't. Unless you want to hear a room full of 19 year olds holding forth on what they liked or didn't like about some movie, avoid this class at all costs. It is ALL class discussion, and Spiegel makes little or no effort to shut people up when they are wasting time. Typical student comment. "Um. I thought is was really interesting how when the guy... um what was his name? Anyway, the guy, he went into the thing, and um, yeah, I thought that was really neat." Multiply this by 100, and you have a typical day in this class. To top it all of, the papers were graded by TAs who sounded like they hadn't even bothered to read what we had written. Avoid this class at all costs.

God, this class was awful. Forget just seeing the films. Why bother when all you need to see is 2 of them to write the 2 papers. And class is a complete waste of time. The course says it's a lecture, but it's not. Professor Spiegel stands at the front of the room and says, "what did you guys think?" and then nods at the resposnses while muttering a distracted, "that's interesting." Honestly, it probably would have been just as informative (or maybe even moreso) if she hadn't been there at all. I know it was a lot better when I wasn't there. To top it all off, she rushed into class 5 minutes late every day, didn't hand out paper topics until days after she promised them and just generally gave the impression that she put NO effort into the class whatsoever. If you are looking to blow off your senior year, Politics and American Film is a good way to do it. If you actually want to learn something about film, then look elsewhere.

I may have no taste, but Speigel did not impress me at all. I've heard the class is something of hobby horse for her, which makes sense, as its a film class in the English department. If you're looking for a laughably simple class where watching the majority of the films on the syllabus, reading four articles and attending zero classes should get you an A- or better, you've found it. But if you're looking to learn, be intellectually stimulated, not fidget endlessly in every lecture you mistakenly attend, then you will be disappointed. There is a steady exodus of students from every lecture, people who can't take it anymore. I have nothing against an easy class, but somehow an easy class where you learn almost nothing seems like a waste of however many thousands of dollars one spends here. She's a nice woman, but her class could be a lot better.