parent-teen.com
an
online magazine for families with teens
ARTICLES,
ARCHIVES, &
RESOURCES
Ages
& Stages
Alcohol/Drugs
Arts
& Media
College
Planning
Coping
Driving
Fun
Issues
News
Parent
Pages
Puberty
School
Sex
& Dating
Sports
Volunteering
Working
Your
Body
COLUMNS
College
Prep
Dear
Mike
Freshman
Journal
From
the Backpack
FEEDBACK
What our readers
say
FORUMS
Discussion boards for parents & teens,
plus professional college planning advice. COMING SOON.
CONTRIBUTE
Editorial guidelines
SHOP
Coming soon.
Recommended
books for parents and teens from amazon.com. Your purchases will
help support this site.
Parent-Teen is a publication of:
Parents'
Press
1454 Sixth St.
Berkeley, CA 94710
Phone:
(510) 524-1602
Fax:
(510) 524-0912
e-mail:
ParentsPrs@aol.com
Site contents © copyright 1997-2000 by Parents' Press
You are welcome to make a single (1) copy of any article for your personal, non-commercial use as long as all rights & copyright information remains intact. Please contact us if you are interested in reprinting any material from this site.
Beyond Disney
Movies with a Message
for Parents & Preteens to Share
By Sandra L. Hughes
© 2000 by Parents' Press
SKJOLD PHOTOGRAPHY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Last year, I decided to try a new approach to teaching my daughter Claire about my values and my perspective on life and the world something I am finding to be a particular challenge since Claire, like most teenagers (and at 12, Claire is definitely more of a teenager than a child) almost invariably resists a direct attempt to discuss serious subjects.
My idea was to use movies as a vehicle for both entertainment and lessons about life. The challenge I put to myself was to find ten movies made for adult audiences, but none rated R, which would appeal to teenagers while also delivering an important message.
All the movies were tested on Claire, who was 11 when we began and 12 when we finished. Some excellent movies didn't pass the test, but the ones that did all held Claire's interest and in most cases actually stimulated comments or discussion.
Almost all the movies which made the following list are based on true stories, which increases their credibility and helps forestall a typically teenage cynical reaction to the messages they contain.
Although they are all made for adults, most of the movies have children or teenagers as central characters, which also helps to keep teenagers involved. All are available at large video stores.
In alphabetical order, the movies are:
The
Chosen, PG, 108 min. (1982).
A coming of age story set in 1940s Brooklyn, "The Chosen" deals with the unlikely friendship between two Jewish boys, Reuven Malter, a Reform Jew who has been raised in an assimilated family, and Danny Saunders, the son of an Hasidic rabbi.
Despite the tension created by their very different concepts of the Jewish religion and the role it should play in their lives, the two not only learn to tolerate their differences, but actually end up being influenced by each other Reuven decides to become a rabbi, but a modern rabbi, and Danny decides to become a psychiatrist.
In addition to illustrating the value and importance of religious tolerance, the movie portrays the conflicts both boys have with their fathers as they grow into manhood, a theme with obvious appeal to teenagers.
The
Crucible, PG-13, 123 min. (1996).
Arthur Miller himself wrote the screenplay for this first-rate movie adaptation of his 1953 play which dramatizes the 17th century Salem witch trials.
The trials were triggered by a group of impressionable young girls led by Abigail Williams (played by Winona Ryder), who made charges of witchcraft as a cover for her adulterous relationship with her former employer.
Arthur Miller used the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for the communist "witch hunt" conducted by Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, but the themes of the movie the dangers of lies and mass hysteria and the courage that is sometimes needed to defend the truth are universal.
While teenagers may miss the subtleties of these themes, they won't miss the lesson about the dangers of peer pressure.
Gandhi,
PG 188 min. (1982).
This truly epic movie (as with other long movies, we watched it in two installments) depicts the dramatic life of Mahatma Gandhi, culminating in his successful use of the strategy of passive resistance to win India's independence from Britain.
Ben Kingsley's Academy Award-winning performance as Gandhi is only one of the many outstanding performances which earned the film eight Oscars, including best picture.
Although at first blush this was not a movie which would seem to appeal to teenagers, Claire was riveted by the drama of India's fight for freedom.
Her comment that Gandhi is "just like Martin Luther King" showed that she had grasped the movie's lesson about the enormous power of group resistance she just had her history backwards, King having modeled his strategy of civil disobedience on Gandhi's tactics.
Note: despite the G rating, there are some quite violent and disturbing scenes in this movie.
Hoop
Dreams, PG-13, 165 min. (1994).
This award-winning documentary follows the lives of two inner city African-American teenagers, William Gates and Arthur Agee, from eighth grade through the first year of college as they pursue the goal of winning a basketball scholarship and ultimately playing in the NBA.
Although both boys have no lack of athletic talent and ambition, numerous obstacles stand in their way financial problems, academic difficulties, athletic injuries, and troubles in their families all threaten at various times to bring an end to their dreams.
But William and Arthur persist, and the dignity and determination with which they and their families confront their difficult circumstances deliver an inspiring and humbling message to teenagers and families in more fortunate circumstances.
Kramer
v. Kramer, PG, 104 min. (1979).
"Kramer v. Kramer" earned Dustin Hoffman a well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of Ted Kramer, a workaholic, distant father who suddenly has to learn how to take care of his 7-year-old son Billy after his frustrated wife leaves him to seek fulfillment elsewhere.
At first Ted resents his new responsibilities, but as he gradually learns what is required to be both father and mother to his son, he discovers the emotional rewards of parenting and develops a deeply loving and intimate relationship with his son.
When Joanna Kramer returns a year later and seeks custody of Billy, Ted realizes that his son has become more important to him than his work, and a bitter custody battle ensues.
Although "Kramer v. Kramer "now seems slightly dated, its themes of the difficulty of balancing parental responsibilities with work and the importance of shared parenting have even more relevance to modern families.
Mask,
PG-13, 120 min. (1985).
"Mask" tells the true story of Rocky Dennis, a teenager who suffered from a rare disease, cranio-diaphyseal dysplasia, which was severely disfiguring and ultimately fatal.
The movie portrays Rocky's determination to live like a normal teenager and his mother Rusty's battle to get society and the school system to accept her son.
Rusty is anything but a saint she has no visible means of support, her best friends are motorcycle bikers, and she uses drugs to dull her pain.
But as fellow outsiders, the bikers are able to give Rocky and Rusty the support and acceptance that is so hard for them to find elsewhere, and by the movie's end, Rusty has stopped using drugs at Rocky's insistence.
With an unusual combination of grittiness and sentimentality that somehow works, Rocky effectively makes the point that disabilities are often "masks" which prevent us from seeing the full humanity of persons with disabilities.
Norma
Rae, PG, 114 min., (1979).
Another movie based on real events, "Norma Rae" dramatizes the effort to unionize southern textile workers in the 1970s.
Sally Field won an Oscar for her performance as Norma Rae, an uneducated single mother who is able to support her family in a minimum wage factory job only by living with her parents.
When the movie begins, Norma Rae has little hope for the future and sees the union only as a potential threat to her livelihood. But as she is slowly drawn into supporting the union, Norma Rae discovers her own strength and dignity and becomes the union's most committed supporter.
Although like "Gandhi" "Norma Rae" illustrates the power of group action, it is most notable for its portrayal of an unusual woman and her personal growth.
Once
Upon a Time... When We Were Colored, PG, 111 min. (1996).
This movie about a African-American boy growing up in the segregated south of the 1950s brings to mind Dickens' famous line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
The movie, which is based on a memoir by Clifton Taulbert, dwells nostalgically but realistically on the strength of an African-American community centered around family and church, while also starkly portraying the realities of racism and segregation.
Claire was both angry and scared as she watched a chilling scene in which the then 5-year-old Cliff witnesses a Ku Klux Klan march.
No post-movie discussion was necessary to reinforce the movie's important lessons about the history of segregation and oppression which continues to profoundly affect race relations today.
Searching
for Bobby Fischer, PG, 107 min. 1993.
This movie tells the true story of Josh Waitzkin, a 7-year-old chess prodigy.
Highlighted by superb performances by Joan Allen as Josh's mother and Ben Kingsley as his chess coach, "Searching for Bobby Fischer" focuses on the conflict between his parents over how to nurture Josh's talent without either destroying his love of the game or depriving him of a normal childhood.
Although Josh's talent is truly exceptional, all teenagers can relate to the difficulty of dealing with parental pressure and balancing the competing pressures and demands in their lives.
Stand
and Deliver, PG, 105 min. (1988).
Another true story, this time of Jaime Escalante, a maverick math teacher at an East Los Angeles high school who is convinced he can teach calculus to a group of Chicano students who come from poor immigrant families.
Edward James Olmos' outstanding performance as Escalante, a teacher whose devotion to his students sometimes leads him to make seemingly excessive demands, won him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.
Escalante's success in teaching his students, all of whom pass the advanced placement exam in math before they finish high school, makes a powerful point about the virtues and rewards of hard work, but the individual struggles of his students also compellingly illustrate the obstacles faced by inner city teenagers who hope to escape poverty by getting a good education.
Home | About Us | Ages & Stages | Alcohol/Drugs | Arts & Media | College Planning | College Prep column | Coping | Dear Mike | Driving | Feedback | Freshman Journal | From the Backpack | Fun | Issues | News | Parent Pages | Puberty | School |Sex & Dating | Sports | Volunteering | Working | Your Body | Advertise | Contribute | E-mail Us