Let me say this up front: I love film. I love film as art, popular culture, satire or escapism. I am a film nerd. And it is this love of film that I would love to pass on to my two children, both boys.
The desire to start writing came about from two separate events. Indulge me, as I relate these stories.
The first was a discussion with an employee at a video store at a time when the market was being saturated with low quality horror...
Me: I would like to find something that's really scary.
Video Guy: What have you found scary in the past?
Me: Remember the first time you saw Alien? Something like that.
Video Guy: I don't remember, I was too young.
Now, I have a problem with this. Not necessarily that my Video Guy saw a scary movie when he was too young in the eyes of the censors and he might get nightmares. No, I have a problem in that he was too young to understand and appreciate it. In my opinion, if you're that young, you're seeing monsters jumping out of dark shadows and not really getting the context of biological warfare and corporate manipulation which makes the movie that much more frightening.
The second involved Blade Runner. I saw the movie when I was 12. I had the discussion around "Deckard was a replicant" when I was around 18. That delay coloured my perceptions of the film, so much so that I wished I had seen it when I was older.
And so to the point of these discussions. My two boys are 5 and 2 years old. They are both at an age where they can sit down in a theatre and see a 90 minute film without becoming too fidgety. There are many films that I want them to see as they grow up, but...
At what age should they see these films?
I want them to see classics - Hitchcock, Capra, Coppola and Kubrick. I want them to see quirky - Tim Burton, Spike Jonze and Coen brothers. I want them to see funny - from Charlie Chaplin to Adam Sandler (hey, funny is in the brain of the beholder). And I think you, fellow interwebbers can help me.
Some rules:
- When I talk about a film, I will be discussing it with the view that you have already seen it. Therefore I will gleefully cover spoilers without warning. Do not leave a comment asking me to write "Spoiler alert" at the top of the post because you have been warned now.
- I am quite happy to talk about the relative merits of a film, but I do not want to get into discussions about what is appropriate from a Chiristian or family friendly perspective. I am not particularly fussy about depictions of bare skin, guns, drug taking, violence or any of the more controversial aspects of mainstream cinema. If a film is released in my country, eventually my children may end up watching it. The age that they watch the film is important in terms of their maturity level, not so much in terms of what is "right" or "wrong" to watch.
Otherwise, anything goes. I am big enough to handle being called names; if you don't agree with me, feel free to call me an idiot. Just be prepared to back it up. If you want me to review a particular movie, let me know and I will give it a shot.
