Unforgiven
12 Angry Men
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Iceman Cometh
A Few Good Men
Rashomon
Chinatown
Brazil
My Cousin Vinny
All high-quality classics. Watched 12 Angry Men again just a few weeks ago and it’s still as good as it ever was.
Included My Cousin Vinny because it’s both extremely entertaining and a surprisingly accurate portrayal of courtroom proceedings, or so I’ve been told. I just like it, okay!
There’s plenty of classic, wholesome children’s fare left untapped. Such as The Adventures of Mark Twain!
Still as goodas when they ran it on the Disney Channel!
After The Great Escape you might watch Chicken Run which parodies a few scenes but has a much happier ending.
Dark Crystal for the ethics and Labyrinth for the logic puzzles might be fun.
And an upvote for Real Genius mentioned above.
A lot of Terry Gilliam’s films are great but they should definately see the “Trilogy of Imagination” films. The battle between fantasy and what we perceive as reality through the eyes of a child “Time Bandits”, the eyes of a middle aged man “Brazil”, and they eyes of an old man “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”.
I thought that The Book Thief did a good job handling themes of racism and human empathy, for a “kids movie”.
If we want to compete for bad parenting awards, I showed my daughters Tucker and Dale versus Evil when they were fairly young and they learned to love it. If you have never seen it, the movie is a great spoof on 1980’s style horror movies that also reverses the typical “villain versus victim” relationship and it is also a sweet love story by the end. However, it is also incredibly gory and violent (no sex or nudity though).
The reason I showed it to them was they kept getting freaked out by by standard scary shows. I wanted to teach them how Hollywood special effects work and why the stories are just made-up scripts with ridiculous premises. It worked for the most part. We have watched Tucker and Dale several times now and they see the absurdity, comedy and genuine sweetness in it. That helped them learn not to squeal like their friends at every other scary movie or events like haunted houses.
I also got them to watch Mean Girls and Heathers to prepare them for their teenage years but I am not sure that worked as well. My 10 year old daughter took those as inspirational stories and seems like she wants to shoot for the lead Heather role in a few years.
Wow! A bunch of great suggestions.
Thanks to all.
They have seen and loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Into the Woods (they really appreciated the flipping of the fairy-tales), Napoleon Dynamite and Groundhog Day. The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth went down OK, but not as well as I’d hoped.
They liked Fantastic Mr Fox, so maybe some more Wes Anderson films would be good. The only other one I’ve seen is Moonrise Kingdom, but I agree that would be a good film to show them.
I personally love The Unforgiven, but that will have to go on the waiting list along with films like Schindler’s List and Shawshank Redemption because of the savagery of some scenes.
I think they’re probably ready for Blade Runner.
I’ll look for Attack the Block, which I’ve been meaning to see myself. If it’s not too scary. For comparison, Aliens, one of my favorite films, will have to wait a little longer. Meanwhile, my boy has watched Blair Witch without me! I rented it in unfulfilled hopes of sharing time with his horror-movie-enthusiast older brother, but the young’un sneaked a view whilst he was off school recovering from a cold.
About the only time I have to watch films is with the kids, so this was doubly disappointing.
In regard to alien invasion movies, they really liked Mars Attacks.
Also, since my boy really likes Simon Pegg, I’ve even shown them the highly inappropriate yet quite enjoyable Paul.
A number of folks have recommended Brazil, which I’d like to see. But considering that my son found the cynicism and bleakness of a film like Bird Man a little disturbing, would it perhaps be too dark?
Same concern for Eternal Sunshine, which I also haven’t yet seen, but have been deliberating on whether to watch with the kids.
I liked 12 Monkeys, but it goes in the maybe box.
I don’t want to show them bleak stuff unless there’s a valuable lesson to be gained or some other compelling merit.
I would like to show them Citizen Kane, but I wonder if it will hold their interest.
Same with 12 Angry Men, another personal favorite.
I think the boy, in particular, might appreciate the Great Escape.
Phoebe in Wonderland! Just a real treat of a movie with Felicity Huffman, Elle Fanning, and Patricia Clarkson. “Confounded by her clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a troubled young girl seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher.”
Heh. I was going to come into this thread to downvote Brazil - it’s a fabulous movie and I adore it, but, people! the main character is* tortured into insanity* at the end of it! :eek:
My suggestions:
Juno
The Sapphires
Bend it like Beckham
Bring it on
…all a little chick-flicky, but intelligent non-sappy chick-flicky
Ruthless People
The Fugitive
Possibly maybe Room? Or maybe not for a couple of years. It’s a wonderful movie, it has a (fairly) happy ending, I don’t think it deserves its R rating (which apparently it got for bad language) - but definitely deals with confronting themes.
This list is very old, from when I was homeschooling . . . my daughter is grown now. Geared for a highly intelligent, anxiously sensitive girl, so nothing scary, and nothing very sexy either. But you might find something anyway.
The Addams Family
The African Queen
Beetlejuice
The Best Years of Our Lives
Billy Elliot
Breaking Away
Casablanca
A Christmas Story
Cold Comfort Farm
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cyrano de Bergerac
The Dish
Driving Miss Daisy
The Efficiency Expert
Enchanted April
Ever After
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
The Five Thousand Fingers of Dr. T
Fly Away Home
Hairspray
Hamlet
Il Postino
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
The Iron Giant
It’s A Wonderful Life
Kikki’s Delivery Service
The King of Masks
Local Hero
Lawrence of Arabia
The Lord of the Rings
Madeline
The Maltese Falcon
A Man For All Seasons
Men In Black
Microcosmos
Moonstruck
My Father’s Glory
Mystery Men
Nanook of the North
Not One Less
October Sky
Pride and Predjudice
The Princess Bride
Quiz Show
The Secret of Roan Inish
The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao
Seven Samurai
Shall We Dance?
Shrek
Smoke Signals
Some Like It Hot
The Sound of Music
Star Wars
Straight Story
Strictly Ballroom
Tender Mercies
To Kill A Mockingbird
Twelve Angry Men
Waking Ned Devine
Wallace and Gromit
The Winslow Boy
The Wizard of Oz
You Can’t Take It With You
I don’t think these were mentioned:
[ul]
[li]Hoosiers[/li][li]Tootsie[/li][li]October Sky[/li][li]Jaws[/li][li]Rear Window[/li][li]Silkwood[/li][/ul]
mmm
Finding Forrester
The Hunt for Red October
Scent of a Woman
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Forgot two.
Explorers
Field of Dreams
The Phantom Tollbooth.
Hugo’s a good one nobody’s mentioned. If nothing else, you’re getting them started on Martin Scorsese.
I know they have a bad reputation but I really like Jumanji and Zathura.
The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers (the Richard Lester ones)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (skip the remake)
Yellow Submarine
Jumanji, yes, Zathura… not so much.
Yes, fantastic!
Nice pick.
Maybe.
Hugo was gorgeous! Brazil is, I think, great for kids in high school (when I saw it and fell in love with it), but I wouldn’t show it to younger kids. It’s super-bleak.
The “love conquers all” edit isnt so bleak.
Chinatown, boring fore the age group. Brazil, boring for any group. Glengarry Glen Ross, a cautionary tale about where you end up if you plan your life only for the next 35 years. Many of them, only okay if one wants to ready his kids for eventual suicide.
Let them be kids for a while longer. And make them become prescient enough to know what skills will still be viable long after you assume they will retire. Good luck with that.