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Doubt

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Doubt

Date: Mar 04 2009

Themes: Religion, School

Grammar: Simple Present Tense

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Intro

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Strong beliefs are often good. But doubt can be an important tool, too, sometimes. If you don’t study for a test because you’re completely confident that you’ll pass, you might fail. And if you never doubt your judgments of other people, you might miss out on making some cool new friends.

Doubt is a new film that explores serious moral questions about doubt and faith. It’s about a nun who becomes convinced that a priest is taking advantage of one of his students. Beren saw the film recently, and it really made her think. Listen to her tell Ella about it.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Beren

Beren

 Ella

Ella

Beren:  I just went and saw that movie Doubt with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Have you seen it?

Ella:  No, I haven’t. But I heard it’s about Catholic school, so that takes me back to my Catholic school days.

Beren:  That’s hilarious! Yeah, I know a lot of other people that say, like, just the preview reminds them of the stern-looking nuns. And like how judgmental and kind of backward-leaning people in Catholic school…and like authority…

Ella:  Mm-hm. And how strict they are in the schools and the snap judgments they make without really looking into the situation. Isn’t there a priest who takes a vow of chastity in that movie?

Beren:  It’s actually more based on kind of an ambiguous relationship between the priest and one of the students, who happens to be the only black student in the school.

Ella:  Oh, OK.

Beren:  And kind of how their relationship is misconstrued, possibly, by the headmistress, the nun.

Ella:  Oh, that’s Meryl Streep.

Beren:  Meryl Streep, yeah. And just kind of how her snap judgments end up destroying lives. The ending is ambiguous. The whole movie is ambiguous. And it’s basically doubt. It’s doubt. And I think the subtitle is “A Parable.” It’s…It’s pretty incredible. It’s also based on a play. And the whole arc of the movie is like first act, second act, and then the end.

Ella:  So it’s a little different style.

Beren:  Totally.

 

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Discussion

Beren asks Ella if she’s seen the movie Doubt. Ella would like to see it because she thinks it would remind her of being in Catholic school.

One stereotype of Catholic schools is that they’re very strict. The nun in the film, played by Meryl Streep is stern and judgmental. She accuses a priest at the school of having an inappropriate relationship with a young boy. However, she does not have any evidence. She just has her own judgments.

The ending of the film is very ambiguous. You never find out the truth about the priest. It’s also an unusual film because the structure is more like a play. Beren really enjoyed the thought-provoking subject matter and unusual style of the film.

Are snap judgments bad? Do you think it’s more important to have faith or doubt?

 

Comments

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EDITH ^.~

EDITH ^.~

United States

I was bought up in a Catholic school. Their rules are extremely stern. They strictly control the way we dressed and behaved. We were not allowed to play and walk too fast in the hall because they think it's rude, and we were not allowed to hang out with our friends when we are wearing school uniform after school.   

07:50 PM Mar 04 2009 |

EDITH ^.~

EDITH ^.~

United States

Some people are just too stubborn to have a second-thought and look into the situation before making a judgment/decision.

07:42 PM Mar 04 2009 |

SÉRGIO

SÉRGIO

Brazil

Be carefull with a snap judgment!! It's so bad!Cool

04:27 PM Mar 04 2009 |

pedrohr

pedrohr

Brazil

I think we need to have faith in something that we're right about by the judgment of the doubt.

04:25 PM Mar 04 2009 |

lalobrown

lalobrown

Dominican Republic

The Snap Judgements are not good,most of the time people who make snap judgements are not people person.
I think is important to keep a balance between have faith and douth,a healthly dose of both is appropriated.

04:25 PM Mar 04 2009 |

mandark

mandark

Cuba

That´s a excellent film about catholic belief…

03:38 PM Mar 04 2009 |

cacarico

cacarico

Sudan

actually i haven't seen this movie but it sounds parable as i heard from the conversation, the thing is, being too complicated makes u can't even distinguish between what benefits and helps you and what can harm and offend you. 

heading the logical and mental way will guide u to what you need, otherwise u could cut ur eye wid a blade Laughing 

03:32 PM Mar 04 2009 |

Athan

Athan

China

How to say,it depends.I don't which one is bad or something.Snap judgments of couse is bad,from its meaning you have your own view about it,strong opinon with litte thought,so it always leads misunderstanding.Having faith is good,it's important for us to trust people,that's why people will trust you.It's like respect,how you respect others you can gain respect from them.But the society is getting more and more complicated,so after you were cheated by someone,it's hard for you to trust others in the same situation.So I'd like to say that having faith should go first,and then is doubt.

01:02 PM Mar 04 2009 |

Zeerak

Zeerak

Australia

Excellent message for all viewers and readers. We can not never be sure about things, no one know what would turn up after a minute, we can plan ahead but we can not be completely sure that we can defend ourselve from the disaster.

It is called fortell, which can be good just for preparation. For instance we can prepare well for the exam but we can not be 100% sure we would do it well.

 Some friends may not agree with my point of view.

04:53 AM Mar 04 2009 |

Zeerak

Zeerak

Australia

Excellent message for all viewers and readers. We can never be sure about things, no one know what would turn up after a minute, we can plan ahead but we can not be completely sure that we can defend ourselve from the disaster.

It is called fortell, which can be good just for preparation. For instance we can prepare well for the exam but we can not be 100% sure we would do it well.

 Some friends may not agree with my point of view.

04:53 AM Mar 04 2009 |

tiagon85

Brazil

I want to see that movie, it seems to be nice!!

02:26 AM Mar 04 2009 |

dalisay

dalisay

Philippines

    I haven't seen this film yet. I think snap judgments are bad. We really have to get to know a person first before making bad comments because it's really unfair for the person you are judging.

        For me having faith with your beliefs and with your friends can make our world more meaningful while those people who are very judgmental tend to be unhappy with their lives.

01:51 AM Mar 04 2009 |

iman82

iman82

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

i have seen this film and i agree with Beren realy its ambiguous so hard to anyone who can understand what does it mean? Doubt for all around us persons even things!! i don`t know what is the resonsSurprised

 anyway, Doubt is not good film to me, i didn`t enjoyed to watch it  

01:20 PM Mar 02 2009 |

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