Summer Outdoor Movies

Summer Outdoor Movies are presented FREE on the Norris University Center East Lawn, 1999 Campus Drive, just north of the Block Museum. Films begin at dusk. Please bring your own blankets and chairs. Rain site is McCormick Auditorium in the Norris Center.

Three of this summer's films honor Evanston-born and Northwestern-educated actor Charlton Heston. Two films are shown in conjunction with the Block Museum’s exhibition Design in the Age of Darwin: From William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright and Northwestern University's One Book, One Northwestern program, which focuses on Charles Darwin.

Wednesday, June 25, Dusk (around 9 pm) FREE
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(David Yates, 2007, 138 minutes, DVD)
The Harry Potter series isn’t about the plot but about the rich tapestry of characters and atmosphere. After a lonely summer, Harry starts his fifth year at Hogwarts Academy. Perhaps his toughest yet, in part, because the gateway to adulthood is a solitary place that often requires a little rebellion to get through.

Wednesday, July 9, Dusk (around 9 pm) FREE
Planet of the Apes
(Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968, 112 minutes, DVD)
Imagine a world where the apes are the ruling species and the humans are the beasts. Astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) falls from the sky into this uncanny world, where the ruling class refuse to believe that something as low as humans could ever be related to apes. A brilliantly open-ended metaphor that comments on race, class, fundamentalism, and our general inability to see beyond ourselves. Smart, charming, and uncanny.

Wednesday, July 16, Dusk (around 9 pm) FREE
Ratatouille
(Brad Bird, 2007, 111 minutes, DVD)
Our hero is a provincial rat named Remy, with a voracious passion for cooking. His habit of preparing meals for himself rather than eating garbage has made him the black sheep of the family. It also gets him sent down the sewer by one angry human homeowner. Remy pops back out of the sewer in Paris where he discovers the restaurant of his idol, the great chef Auguste Gusteau. Can Remy the rat prove Gusteau’s famous motto, “Anyone can cook!” correct?

Wednesday, July 23, Dusk (around 9 pm) FREE
Soylent Green
(Richard Fleischer, 1973, 97 minutes, DVD)
In the year 2022, the earth is over-populated and fatigued. Most natural foods have become nearly extinct. People survive on water rations and a food substitute called Soylent. When the president of the Soylent company is murdered, detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) leads the doomed investigation into his death.

Wednesday, July 30, Dusk (around 8:30 pm) FREE
The Simpsons Movie
(David Silverman, 2007, 87 minutes, DVD)
The Simpsons Movie continues the great American comic tradition of villainizing the Environmental Protection Agency. This time the EPA wants to destroy a polluted Springfield, and only Homer can save the day. With more pop culture references than you could shake a beer belly at.

Wednesday, August 6, Dusk (around 8:30 pm) FREE
Touch of Evil
(Orson Welles, 1958, 112 minutes, DVD)
Touch of Evil is probably most well known for the opening tracking shot of a corrupt and combustible border town. Equally astounding are Charlton Heston and Orson Welles’ performances. They are funhouse-mirror opposites of one another: Heston, the young, button-down, Mexican detective; Welles, the obese, bigotted American cop. With Janet Leigh as Heston’s American wife and Marlene Dietrich as Tanya.

Wednesday, August 13, Dusk (around 8:30 pm) FREE
Inherit the Wind
(Stanley Kramer, 1960, 128 minutes, DVD)
Inherit the Wind is a dramatized version of the famous 1925 trial where a high school teacher, John Scopes, was tried for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The great Spencer Tracy plays Henry Drummond, the fictional stand-in for the trial lawyer Clarence Darrow. One of the great courtroom dramas.

Summer Outdoor Movies are presented by Block Cinema, Norris Center for Student Involvement, and the Northwestern University Summer Session.