Learn English With Movies: TOP 3 American Movies

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Do you want to use movies to learn English?

Let's talk about it.

Do you like watching movies?

Personally, I don't watch too many movies, but I really enjoy a good movie.

Today I'm going to share with you my top three movies plus two bonus movies for learning

more about American culture, and these aren't just my choices.

The National Film Registry has chosen these movies along with several others that they

say are important for learning about American culture.

They are culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant films, so let's get started with

my first recommendation.

My first recommendation features to quite famous actors.

They are Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio and this movie is What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

This movie was filmed in the '90s, so they are young.

In fact, they're almost kids, they're teenagers.

In this movie, Johnny Depp is the older brother and he needs to take care of his younger brother,

Leonardo DiCaprio who has a mental disability and the older brother needs to take care of

his younger brother because their mother is incapable of doing it.

She is 500 pounds or 260 kilograms.

In this movie, we can see an interesting dynamic between the mother and her sons, and also

this is something I think is quite valuable for learning about American culture, their

family, and the small town in Iowa where they live.

This is in the middle of the US.

This is real small town America.

When I watched this movie, I thought this really accurately portrays small town America.

You can see some dialogues between characters that's quite realistic and even though this

movie is not action packed, there's not explosions and crazy things that are happening, it's

realistic and I think that it's a great way to learn more about culture and improve your

listening skills.

My second movie recommendation is a classic.

It features Tom Hanks and it's Forrest Gump.

I hope that you've at least heard of this movie and if you haven't, make sure that you

watch it.

It features a slow witted, which means not so smart man, Forrest Gump, who's played by

Tom Hanks and he lives through some really valuable times in American history.

This takes place between the 1940s and the 1980s, and a lot of things happened during

this time and the lead character plays some important roles in American history.

Even though he's a fictional character, you can see him in different places in American

history that are quite pivotal.

Some of the things that he experiences and even influences are American football matches,

meeting President Kennedy, going to war in Vietnam, playing ping pong in China, investing

in Apple computers.

These are quite important things that happened in the last century, so here you're going

to be able to understand a lot of history, but as well learn more about a movie that

is culturally significant.

It's quoted a lot, it's talked a lot about in daily conversation, so you'll be building

your knowledge so that you can have great conversations.

My third movie recommendation is the reason why I'm wearing this shirt that has little

bicycles on it.

It is the classic movie E.T. or extra terrestrial and you might know that this movie is about

an alien who is found by a 10-year-old boy and this movie is excellent for testing your

listening skills because the main character is a 10-year-old.

The dialogue is pretty simple, not too fast, and you can see it through his perspective.

This is a great way to start watching movies in English without feeling too overwhelmed.

This movie E.T. also plays an important role in American culture because often when someone

points or especially if they point to the sky, we might say ET phone home, which is

the classic line from this movie.

In fact, I found myself doing this yesterday with my baby.

Even though he's not really speaking much yet, he's still quite young, he is starting

to learn about American culture through daily conversation.

He likes to point a lot.

When he was pointing to the sky, I said, "Are you trying to phone home?"

Here he's going to be building his knowledge of the culture through these type of interactions.

You can do this as well, watch the movie and try to learn more about the culture and included

when you speak with other people.

Now I have two bonus movies for you.

These ones are a little bit more intense.

I would say they're probably not good for kids, depending on your kids, but I personally

wouldn't show them to my children.

The first one is Shawshank Redemption.

The reason why I'm including this movie is because it is definitely culturally significant

in the US.

We reference this movie.

There are scenes where we imitate this movie quite often, and this is about the American

prison system.

There is a man named Andy who is convicted of two murders and he sent to prison.

In prison, he meets Red who is Morgan Freeman, a famous American actor, and they formed a

friendship.

This movie is about learning more about American culture.

It's about learning about the prison system, about friendship, and ultimately about hope.

What is hope?

Can we have hope in desperate situations?

This movie is based on a book by Stephen King and Stephen King is pretty famous for suspenseful

intense stories.

As you can imagine, this book in this movie is pretty intense.

I wouldn't recommend it for children, but if you enjoy suspense, intense filled movies,

not horror, not thrillers, but just intense.

I really recommend this one.

My second bonus movie is one of my personal favorites, it's the Rear Window and this movie

is quite old.

It's from the 1950s, but it's filmed by a famous film director Alfred Hitchcock.

In my personal opinion, you haven't lived until you've seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

They're simple and suspenseful and delightful.

I love them.

Well, this one is unusual because it takes place in only one room.

You never leave this one room.

Why?

Well, the main character who is played by Jimmy Stewart and his counterpart, Grace Kelly,

who became the princess of Monaco after filming this.

Anyway, the main character, Jimmy Stewart, he has broken his leg so he's stuck in his

room.

He can't get out and he's a well-known photographer and journalist, so he's always curious.

While he's stuck in his room, he's watching the neighbors.

You can see out his apartment window and you can see what he's seen out his window.

I think this movie is pretty culturally significant because we often think about this old style

movie when we think about classic films and this one is one of the best in my opinion.

When you watched this movie, I hope that you'll appreciate the beauty of the cinematography

and how creative they were with just this one room.

Go ahead and watch it.

It's not a horror movie, it's not a thriller, but it is intense and it is a mystery, so

go ahead and enjoy it.

Now I have a question for you.

In the comments below this video, let me know what is one of your favorite movies.

The next time that you want to just kick back and relax, turn on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon

Prime or wherever you watch your movies, and take one of these recommendations and try

your best to watch it in English, even with English subtitles.

Go ahead, you can do it.

Thanks so much for learning with me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson

here on my YouTube channel, bye.

The next step is to download my free e-book, 5 Steps To Becoming A Confident English Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much, bye.