The Magnificent Seven

Each Thursday I show a movie in my English language class. This is for educational as well as entertainment purposes. I have a data projector so I play the film on the wall and run it with subtitles. During the film I write questions which I put on the board for the students to copy down and then attempt to answer. As we go through the answers to the questions together, we discuss the film. Not surprisingly, this is a popular activity.

Over the past five weeks or so I've playing movies from my collection: my favourites. I began doing that after a student rebellion against the Australian television police drama, Blue Heelers. Despite numerous complaints I persisted and encouraged them to get to know the characters and get used to the language: genuine Aussie lingo complete with more idioms and slang than you could poke a stick at.

Alas, it was too much for them, and I was presented with a petition to end the Blue Heelers experiment. I heard the voice of the people, and gave them what they wanted.

Today, we watched The Magnificent Seven, and despite initial grumbling about viewing an old film, the overall reaction was positive. I asked them all to choose their favourite one of the seven, and to explain why they choose him. We had quite a bit a fun with that.

Have you seen The Magnificent Seven? Did you like it? Who is your favourite character?