World War II through film

By Conner Keating Staff Writer

“Humanities” is a word that can send shivers down the spines of many college students.

When students complain about taking humanities classes, the two that often pop up are music appreciation and art appreciation. These two classes are often taken to fill the humanities credit that’s required in order to graduate for many majors, but what if there was another option? Amore interesting and exciting class that fills the humanities credit.

Hutchinson Community College history professor Tom Percy has been teaching a unique class since his arrival in 1994 called World War II Film History Aclass where students watch films, learn about the history of the films, and discuss them with the class.

“There was an old class here about film history of World War II, but it was more World War II and they only showed about five films. So when I came here in 1994, I was allowed to teach that class so I completely changed the class around,” Percy said. “I decided to change it to emphasize more the films and the history of the films, than the history of the war.”

The class covers 15 different films, all from different times and from various genres. The films chosen also help show the views ofAmerica at the times they were made.

“The goal of the class is to gain an appreciation of how films reflect American society at the time,” Percy said. “The course itself is divided into three primary areas. So the first third of the course we watch films beforeAmerican involvement in the war and how those films change, then the second third is films that were actually done during the war, and then the third part of the films are about World War II that were made after 1945. I do try to give a wide variety of films. I do try to do not all combat films, so there’s dramatic films, there’s even a comedy, there’s a musical, we do some combat films, and I try to deal with the homefront as well