Sheeeit. My older kid watched the core three when she was almost seven, in preparation for The Force Awakens, starting with A New Hope’s un-updated release,w atched on a TV with the sound turned down real low because our host found loud TVs to be physically painful (we watched the other two at my house, on learning this). My younger watched Return of the Jedi on small screen when she was almost three, leaving the room when it was too scary or when she got bored. I have no plans to show either kid the prequels, because the prequels bore me, not because I’m worried about their taint.
Who gives a fuck? These are fine movies, but they’re not some sacred experience.
You could say the same about literally all (or, just to cover myself, 90%+) of what’s discussed in the Cafe Society board. I’m very into cinema, but I’ve never claimed that it’s more important than famine or war or child abuse.
That level of contempt for Jedi is rare enough that it’d be unlikely for your kids to share it.
And if you’re worried about comprehensibility, ending on Sith is a weird choice, as it’s the 3rd part of a trilogy and a lot of it won’t make sense in isolation. And talk about ending on a downer! The bad guys win, and lots of people die.
We talked upthread about whether my opinion was 100% set, or if I was at all persuadable. It occurs to me that I could probably be convinced to leave it at just the movie Star Wars, full stop. That was all anyone had for approximately three years in the late 1970s, and it is pretty perfectly a closed loop, storywise, with no real need of sequels or prequels (kind of like the original Matrix, which is definitely what I’d want my kids or anyone else to stick with).
There’s just a slight temptation to work in some more modern takes, that’s all.
My mistake, I confused your rankings with your viewing order.
I’d argue that there’s value in showing TFA after Star Wars. It’s the same story, for the most part, but the differences are downright educational. The one made in the '70s by a guy born in 1944 pretends like non-white people don’t exist, but has that great New Hollywood storytelling, complete with a slower pace than we see now.
The one made in 2015 by a guy born in 1966 is far more diverse, and less black-and-white in its characterization, but exists under the burden of modern corporate-blockbuster cinematic-universe filmmaking.
If you ask me there’s far too much violence/ guns/ shooting/ punching in any of them to be suitable for any kid under 8.
Granted the films are entertaining and it’s a thread for another day, but, perhaps if kids weren’t fed a diet of glamorised shoot 'em ups from pre-school age, we wouldn’t have so many violent thugs around IRL. My son’s four and he’s just fine with much more innocent entertainment. I’m not in any hurry to introduce him to the idea of wars even if they take place in a galaxy far, far away.
I watched the original trilogy many years ago, and watched The Phantom Menace soon after it was out and didn’t bother with the rest. Last year, so 14 years after Attack of the Clones was released, I watched the first six in chronological order. Not in one sitting, over a few days when traveling between holiday destinations.
I must say I really got a kick out of the first three, as they gave a lot of background (and a different viewpoint) to the original trilogy, but I’d seen the original three before so there is that.
What I’m trying to say is I think if I was to introduce someone to the films, I’d do it in chronological order. It’s up to them whether they like them or not, but at least they’d experience the whole story arc correctly if they didn’t.
You throw in that “correctly” bit as though it’s fact and not an unsupported opinion. If we take your word for that, it means Lucasfilm made the movies in the “incorrect” order and denied a generation the opportunity to see them in the “correct” order. Heck, how many fans of the original film must have *died *between 1977 and November 2016? It also means watching The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (two of the greatest works of cinema) as they were originally released is “incorrect” in terms of the story arc. Same applies to any of countless stories (written, filmed, or televised) that begin in media res, or that contain any kind of flashback.
As you may be able to tell, I *strenuously *disagree with your definition of “experiencing the whole story arc correctly”. But then that should have been clear even from the fact that right from my OP, even the three movies I still advocate to remain in my “family canon”, I don’t want to show them in chronological order.
I’m not saying no one should be able to watch in chronological order if that’s what they’re into. But it’s a *huge *reach to just define that order as “correct”. It’s your preference, not any kind of empirically provable fact.
On the other hand, if you’d watched them in chronological order from the very beginning, without having seen the original trilogy first, you wouldn’t have gotten that “kick” out of seeing events previously described or hinted at fully fleshed out.
I used to be a big fan of Steven Brust’s Jhereg novels - one of the conceits there was that the series was written out of chronological order, but also written to assume that the reader was familiar with events in books that hadn’t been written yet. There’s an argument for reading them by their internal chronology… but then you lose that sense of revelation when you finally read about an event that had been hinted at for years.
Anyway, to the OP: your oldest is four? I’m not a parent - that’s still too young for school? Because I can’t imagine that the question of “When do I show my kids Star Wars?” is going to be relevant when he’s surrounded by dozens of other little kids, all of whom have been targeted by a multi-billion dollar marketing empire* devoted to making them love and crave all things Star Wars.
Show him the first movie now. Like, tonight. If he likes it, awesome. If he hates it, that’s cool, too. Let him find the rest of the stuff on his own.
My oldest two kids (from my first marriage) are 16 and 13, but they have seen all the movies (at least my 16yo son has; my 13yo daughter isn’t too into sci-fi). It’s my younger two, 6 and 4, who have never gotten so much as a glimpse of any Star Wars movie or show, even though they have seen The Avengers, a couple Harry Potter movies, and lots of Studio Ghibli stuff.