I was talking to some friends of mine who work in casting and they told me about a fun little girl they met on the job. This eight year-old girl spoke of how her favorite movie was The Dark Knight, and when questioned further about this, she said she was very impressed with the cinematography and then apparently went into a long discussion of what she had learned from the Blu-Ray special features about how they shot and edited the film.
My first thought: Wow, an 8 year-old who actually knows and appreciates what cinematography is.
My second thought: An 8 year-old was allowed to see The Dark Knight?!?!?! How was a second-grader allowed to see something that violent?
I was appalled by this.... until I remembered that when Tim Burton's Batman came out, my parents took me to see it in the theaters. I was nine. My brother was seven. And as violent as that film was, I don't recall being scared or scared by it. My parents, on the other hand, probably are still reeling from the scars caused by having to listen to the Prince soundtrack to Batman on every long car trip for the following year or so. (Look, I'm sorry. I'd take that back if I could. Besides, I'm pretty sure your selections of the Les Miz soundtrack were punishment enough for my younger incarnation.)
Also, my parents were smart in that they recognized that the emotional damage a Tim Burton film could do to a nine year-old was nothing compared to the sheer hell that a nine year-old would make of your life if you stand between him and said Batman film.
So how about you guys? What films did your parents let you see at an early age that now make you go "Wow, I don't know if I'd put that in front of a ten year-old?"
Robocop. I was 11, appalled AND fascinated, gazing through this gate into a much darker world.
ReplyDeleteI wasnt really allowed to watch stuff until I was the proper age- except my my brother showed me a film about some sort of wee gremlin that stole children's breath as they were sleeping - eventually killed by an adopted cat (he knocked it into a fan- cue mince meat flying everywhere) I was so traumatised that to this day, I hate watching horror films. Even the crappy ones frighten me! Do love cats now, though...
ReplyDeleteMy Dad used to pretty much let me watch anything as long as he'd seen it first. Robocop, Terminator, Bloodsport, Kickboxer... I never recall a film that he'd seen and WOULDN'T let me watch. I remember he wouldn't let me rent Blade until he'd seen it first (I was 11 in 1998 when that movie can out). I wasn't scarred by any of the movies that I saw as a kid, if anything, I love movies as much as I do BECAUSE of all the movies my Dad let me watch when I was a kid. So I blame him for me becoming a struggling screenwriter.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises me, looking back, were the ratings on certain films. I saw Top Gun at age 9 (I think, maybe even 8) and the content in that - a PG movie - was a lot harsher than what we saw in the PG-13 "Three Fugitives."
ReplyDeleteMother, Jugs and Speed. Yeah, I'm that old.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little older than that... Poseidon Adventure when I was 9.
ReplyDeleteWell, besides making up scary stories with scary endings to tell me just before bed - like the one about the mad scientist who was also a vampire that made children into vampires to collect blood for him - mom also used to make me watch Elvira Mistress Of The Dark with her. It probably explains why I'm so freaking weird.
ReplyDeleteMy father and mother let me watch "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." And now with a 14 month old, 7, and 9, I know there are movies I would not let my kids see, but it is definitely on a case by case basis. We have to watch the movie first, then we let them know "yea or no."
ReplyDeleteI was afraid of every movie as a kid. I was afraid of E. T. I was afraid of Labyrinth. I accidentally saw ONE SCENE of Aliens as a kid and it gave me nightmares for months.
ReplyDeleteSo my parents were a lot more heavy-handed than most.
Conan the Barbarian, for my 8th birthday. And they were subjected to my Valeria impression for the next several years.
ReplyDeleteThey got so sick of it, they took me to Aliens a few years later just to give me another female badass to quote around the house.
Halloween at age 9. Friday the 13th at age 11.
ReplyDeleteEverything! There was nothing my parents stop me from seeing and I thank them for it.
ReplyDeleteMy dad took me to see Glory when I was six. It changed my life.
ReplyDeleteHe also took me to see White Men Can't Jump. When I was ten. Oops.
My parents talk to this day about being appalled they took their 4 and 2 year old to see "Gremlins". The film, along with Indy 2, that helped usher in the PG-13 rating. Also, "Empire Strikes Back" was pretty dark, and yet I don't remember being "scarred" by it. I do remember being scared of The Emperor in Jedi. And I remember the scene in "Blade Runner" where Batty pushes out Doc Tyrell's eyes as being pretty horrifying to my 6 year-old brain. Because it was on cable, I had no idea what the movie was until I saw it many years later and going, "That's the scene!!!"
ReplyDeleteParents limited my viewings, but movies within the ratings were free game, and watched often. My dad insisted on previewing the higher rated films up until highschool. But by 6th grade I had already started watching R movies at friend's houses and not telling the parentals hehe :P.
ReplyDeletein 3rd grade i saw clips of a few scary movies that traumatized me. But later in the future I found the movies to be pretty lighthearted when seen in context.
My brother just turned 2 and I was 4 when we got a free weekend of HBO so my Dad went nuts and recorded everything. This was right when they started playing Terminator 2, so my dad had us watch it.
ReplyDeleteRumble in the Bronx scarred me for years, but T2 was fine.
By age 10 I had seen The Shining, The Color Purple, Jaws, and Forrest Gump. And I would always sneak out of my bed to watch The X-Files from behind the couch. I don't think my parents knew what censorship is, and this probably offers a good explanation as to why I am the way I am.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't scare me, because I had no idea what was going on, but my mum randomly grabbed Mulholland Drive of the store shelf for us to watch when I was 13. At that stage neither of us knew what a David Lynch film entailed. I just remember the uncomfortable silence as we watched our respective first ever lesbian scene with each other.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, that reminds me a lot of the time, when we were about 14, that my friend's mom let us rent Kids. We knew it was racy, but had no idea just how intense it would be. The mom hadn't a clue. I mean, it's called "Kids", how bad could it be?
ReplyDeleteI mainly remember 6-7 of us, mostly high school freshman, mostly girls, watching the scene where Casper rapes Jenny in her sleep, faces ashen and eyes agape. And this only a few years after most of us had been forbidden to watch Dirty Dancing because someone has an abortion in it.
I don't know that I was scarred by Kids, per se. But it's the first time I saw a movie with absolutely NO INKLING how messed up a film could really be.