Tag films

Classic film poster featuring Indiana Jones in his trademark hat, brandishing a whip. Other characters urround the edges of the poster.

Action Packed Adventure: Fun Films

chtasker Leave a comment
Classic film poster featuring Indiana Jones in his trademark hat, brandishing a whip. Other characters urround the edges of the poster.

by Cherise T.

Join 2023’s Summer Reading Adventures with the best of adventure films. On Sunday, 6/25, at 2 pm, the Central Branch presents Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Released in 1981, Raiders is one of the most popular action films of all time. The series’ fifth installment arrives in theaters on 6/30, so now is the perfect time to revisit the original on the big screen. Don’t stop there: the HCLS collection of amazing films includes not only DVDs, but hoopla and Kanopy on-demand streaming videos.

The Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo follows climber Alex Honnold’s quest to scale Yosemite’s 3,000-foot vertical rock formation El Capitan without any safety equipment. Directed by filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and her husband, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, also a climber, Free Solo keeps its audience on the edge of their seats. Viewers will be astonished by the effort needed to accomplish the feat and the risks involved for Alex and the crew.

Some of the best adventure films are great for all ages. E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial introduces a friendly alien who must be protected from adults and government officials harboring ulterior motives. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated multiverse adventure, follows Miles Morales, teenager turned superhero, who must foil an evil madman and learn from fellow Spider-People. In Spy Kids, Carmen and Juni Cortez set out to rescue their international spy parents from a children’s show television host and an evil mastermind.

A sweeping, nearly four-hour epic, Lawrence of Arabia tells the story of archaeologist and military intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence in the Ottoman provinces during WWI. Lawrence’s complex mixed allegiance between British and Arab soldiers leads him to strike out on his own daring attacks. Lawrence’s book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as well as the Great Courses CD, Life Lessons from the Great Books, provide further insight into this fascinating historical figure.

The Princess Bride satirizes fairy tales, damsels in distress, swashbuckling pirates, and miracle workers. Follow the trail of, “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

Today it’s Episode IV, A New Hope, but back in 1977, it was the origin story of, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Star Wars. Buckle up and travel through hyperspace.

As one of the movies’ greatest readers, Belle from Beauty and the Beast (also a live action film), sings, “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere.”

Cherise Tasker is an Adult Instructor and Research Specialist at the Central Branch. When not immersed in literary fiction, Cherise can be found singing along to musical theater soundtracks. 

Be part of HCLS’ Summer Reading Adventures.

The image says "How to use Mango Premiere: film-based language learning," with the Mango logo, an "M" comprised of multicolored squares and triangles in patterns red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white.

Voulez-vous voir un film ce soir?

Holly Leave a comment
The image says "How to use Mango Premiere: film-based language learning," with the Mango logo, an "M" comprised of multicolored squares and triangles in patterns red, blue, yellow, green, black, and white.

By Holly L.

Are you interested in learning French, or another language, but find traditional tutorials tedious?  

Consider Mango Premiere, an online language learning system that offers instruction through film for select languages. While enjoying a movie you can familiarize yourself with your chosen language by studying the dialogue while also focusing on grammar, vocabulary, phrases, and culture.

Customize your learning experience by viewing the film in “Movie mode,” in which you can view the movie with your choice of subtitles (English, the language you are learning, or both at the same time).

The still photograph from the film Around a Small Mountain is labeled "Scene Introduction" and depicts a man and woman standing next to a small convertible on a sunny street. The captions read, in French, "L'homme revient, et Kate l'invite á son spectacle de cirque ce soir-là gratuitement." This is followed by the English translation: "The man returns, and Kate invites him to her circus show that evening for free."s

Choose “Engage mode” for an in-depth scene exploration. In this mode, you begin with a Scene Introduction, an overview of what to expect in the coming scene. Next, you have the option of scrolling through Words You May Encounter and Cultural Notes. After viewing the scene you may click on to a Followup, a detailed breakdown of the scene with grammar and cultural notes. The subtitles are enhanced by phonetic pop-ups and Mango’s semantic color mapping, which demonstrates connections between the learner’s target and native language.

The illustration shows two translations from English to French: "I speak French very well" is translated to "Je, parle très bien français," and "Oh, good morning" is translated to "Tiens, bonjour." Each word is in a different color with a block underneath indicating Mango’s semantic color mapping, which demonstrates connections between the learner’s target and native language.
A visualization of Mango’s semantic color mapping.

While exploring the features of Mango Premiere, I watched Around a Small Mountain (or 36 vues du Pic Saint Loup), a 2009 French drama by director Jacques Rivette (one of the founders of the French New Wave) featuring Jane Birkin and Sergio Castellitto. With a cast of characters whose lives revolve around a travelling circus, the film is very dialogue-driven and I felt that the Engage Mode features helped me achieve a more nuanced understanding of the story.

There are more than 70 languages you can learn on Mango, with movies currently available for the following languages: 

English (for Spanish speakers) 

French 

Spanish (Latin America) 

Italian 

Chinese (Mandarin) 

German 

Hopefully Mango will expand its Premiere services to include films in more languages. I for one may be more motivated to brush up on my Korean language skills if I can do so while watching a fun K-drama. 

Access Mango and Mango Premiere for free with your HCLS library card.

Holly is an Instructor and Research Specialist at the Miller Branch. She enjoys knitting, preferably with a strong cup of tea and Downton Abbey in the queue.