Kids, Get Your Popcorn!

When you finally get to share your favorite movies with your children

One of the first movies I couldn’t wait to show my kids was the original Star Wars - A New Hope. It wasn’t long before they, like me, were hooked on the entire film series.

Well, most of it. I remember watching one of the prequel movies with my son—I can’t remember which, but it doesn’t matter because they all stink—and as scene after boring scene focused on the Galactic Senate proceedings, my son, who was maybe three at the time, rolled off of the couch, moaned, and said, “I’m soooo bored!”

It was my proudest moment as a father, up until that point.

After introducing them to Star Wars, I was excited to show them The Goonies, which was one of my absolute favorite movies growing up. The problem was, neither I nor my wife remembered the inappropriate language and innuendos sprinkled throughout the film. Oh, well. I watched it when I was their age, and it didn’t mess me up. I think.

Eventually, I introduced them to my other favs, like the Indiana Jones series, Predator, Terminator 2, and Aliens. I really wanted to show my son Goodfellas, which is one of my all-time favorites, but my wife didn’t think a mob movie filled with foul language and murderous violence was appropriate for an eleven-year-old.

Who knew?

Now that they’re older, and that basically every song on the radio is an F-word-riddled, sexually explicit ditty (no pun intended), we figure there’s no need to be so protective over what movies they watch. Plus, I couldn’t wait anymore for them to see the Godfather movies, which they’ve now seen more than a few times each. (Well, at least Godfather I and Godfather II.)

Recently, we’ve been having movie nights, where we try to watch movies—“films” really—that are a little bit heavier, subject-matter-wise, and get them to think more deeply about serious subjects. This has not been accepted enthusiastically by our daughter, though, who does not like anything sad or serious, and would gladly spend the rest of her life watching Disney’s Tangled over and over again.

Our selection for the most recent night wasn’t just one of my all-time favorites, but one that’s considered by many to be one of the best films ever: The Shawshank Redemption.

Surprisingly, things were going pretty well for the first hour and a half or so, despite the dark subject matter at the beginning of the film, and both kids seemed to be invested (i.e., they weren’t playing on their phones). But then, when (Spoiler Alert!) Brooks hanged himself from the rafters in the halfway house, and suddenly, my daughter wanted to run for the hills.

Thankfully, she was able to make it through the rest of the film and gave what is a glowing review for her, as far as non-cartoon movies go: “It was okay.” My son said he really enjoyed it, but that’s just because he has his dad’s good taste in movies.

Next up, I’d love to show them some of the corny yet deeply satisfying movies from the 1980s, like Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Roadhouse, etc. Because you—and by that I mean I—can never get enough Kevin Bacon or Patrick Swayze.

But my daughter mentioned that she wants to watch Titanic, so that’s probably next on the list. I told her it has a sad ending, but she said she already knows that the ship goes down.

Wait til she finds out. ~