Giveaway: The Descendants (DVD)

You might remember a few weeks ago I reviewed Kaui Hart Hemmings's The Descendants, both the audiobook and the movie. The short version is that I loved them both. This is one of the rare instances in which the movie follows the book very closely and both are worth your time.

Today, thanks to the nice people at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, I am able to offer one of my readers a copy of the DVD of The Descendants. In addition to the movie, the disc contains a variety of extra features including one titled "Everybody Loves George."

As I said in my review, the book and movie provide plenty of material for discussion. To get you started, feel free to grab this poster from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, which is "The Descendants Book to Film Study Guide." Click the image to enlarge it and/or to save it to your own computer.

Banished to Boarding School

During the film The Descendants, we find out that Alex, the oldest King daughter, has been sent away to boarding school for acting out—but she sure isn't the first difficult child that has been banished to boarding school on film! Here are two other films where boarding school plays a role in the plot.

Dead Poet’s Society is a 1989 film set in a conservative prep school in Vermont in 1959. John Keating (Robin Williams) is the radical new English teacher at the uptight Welton Academy Prep School. Through his unorthodox teaching methods, like standing on desks and tearing pages out of books, Keating is able to help his students discover and explore their true passions in life, like writing and acting, instead of succumbing to the lives their parents have prescribed for them.

Flirting is a 1991 Australian film set in two different boarding schools in 1965. The film stars Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton and Nicole Kidman as students attending boarding schools across the lake from each one another. Danny (Taylor) meets and falls in love with Thandiwe (Newton), a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl. The couple is faced with racism and political turmoil, and must meet secretly in order to develop their relationship. Eventually, the couple is forced to separate, with letter writing as their only remaining connection.

Giveaway Details: I have one DVD to give away to one of my readers. Because this giveaway is sponsored by the studio, you must have a U.S. or Canada mailing address (and no PO boxes!). To enter for a chance to win, fill out the form. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner on March 15. Good luck!