Lesson: The cider house rules, 1999        

Plot Summary: 

Homer is an orphan in remote St. Cloud, Maine. Never adopted, he becomes the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch, who imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. When Wally and pregnant Candy visit the orphanage Dr. Larch provides medically safe, albeit illegal, abortions Homer leaves with them to work on Wally's family apple farm. Wally goes off to war, leaving Homer and Candy alone together. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

Students will analyze the movie Cider House Rules, which takes a look at America previous to the legalization of abortion. Although the film does not make a statement on the Pro-Life movement or the Pro-Choice movement currently raging in America, it does take an objective point of view in its depiction of this period. Students are left with the question, "Are we better off today or not?" Film terminology will be presented as they are demonstrated in the exhibition of the motion picture.