Posted by Scott in Featured Articles, Headline, Movie Geeks | 14 comments
Raising a Movie Geek…
Since I am now a father of 2 I figured it was important to bring them both up and expose them to movies as much as possible. Doing so has brought a lot of questions up in the form of which movies to expose them to, which order do I show them in, and how early is too early?
Let me first say that my mom pulled no punches when I was a kid, I saw absolutely every movie imaginable. I was watching Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and other horror movies from the 80′s when I was 4. My favorite movie obviously was ‘Masters of the Universe’ with Dolph Lundgren, and favorite TV show’s were ‘Incredible Hulk’ and ‘CHiPS’. I seem to have turned out fine, but that could be questionable.
So here are some questions I have to ask myself. Since I named my son Quentin, what age is too early to show him Tarantino films? What order do I show them ‘Star Wars’ in? Are horror movies off limits till they are teenagers?
My daughter is already really into fantasy movies like ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Willy Wonka’, ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ and others like that. However ‘Edward Scissorhands’ really freaks her out, even though she loves the movie.
So here is my questions to all of you dad’s that are raising little movie geeks…
Did you name him Quentin because of Tarantino? I’m a huge Tarantino fan, but I think that kind of movie can’t really be appreciated [especially his first 3 ones] until a later age, maybe 15-16. And personally I don’t believe children of young ages [sub-teen] should really be exposed to that style of movies.
Yes, I named him Quentin because of Tarantino! Thats my big debate, will he appreciate the movies? Will they affect him adversely? Is Kill Bill acceptable?
You can argue for days whether it will adversely affect him, a few of my friends who grew up in households where they could watch what they wanted from a young age turned out fine. I grew up in a household where I wasn’t allowed to watch rated R movies until I was like 16 or so and I turned out fine. So I guess it all depends on the parenting and how you handle the whole thing [don't ask me anymore than that I don't have much experience in that topic since I'm not yet a father myself].
However, I personally believe certain movies just aren’t for children, and in the end it is how you define the word “child” that determines the answer to your question.
And you have a wonderful son btw. Congratulations on the family and all man.
My kids loved GODZILLA movies and Harryhausen (esp 7TH VOYAGE) at a very young age. The Golden Age Universal Horror classics are good for weaning kids to be be movie buffs, but the Wolfman can be a bit scary. All kids are different but I still don’t let mine watch anything stronger than PG (the exception being Peter Jackson’s KONG). They’ll have plenty of time to catch up on the gory stuff later, if they want. Good Luck
Two of my earliest film memories are of ‘An American Werewolf In London’ and ‘Creepshow.’
I made it to adulthood just fine and dandy.
I’ve gotta say, it’s going to be really hard not to want to show my kids everything and everything when I have them, but I am a strong advocate of the case by case basis. One child will handle something very differently then another child and it’s up to you as a parent to know your child and plan accordingly. But I personally grew up exposed to pretty much anything I wanted and I think I turned out fine… I think!
My son is 3 and his favorite movies are scary movies, which he started watching at about 2. Granted, I think the scariest movies he has seen are Temple of the Doom, Ghostbusters,The Monster Squad, King Kong, Jurassic Park,Wizard of OZ, Dracula(’33), a few scenes from Lost Boys and stuff like that. I started watching “adult” rated R movies and somewhat appreciating them by about 7. Before that it was all just a blur of visuals, some stuck, some didn’t. The story is still blurry for the most part on movies I saw before age 7 unless I saw it a million times, like Creepshow, Halloween, American Werewolf, even the first Nightmare on Elm Street at age 6 i was too scared to watch. I remember watching it through my hands at my cousin’s house.
I think when it comes to horror movies, it depends on the movie and the kid. I don’t think a 6 or 7 year old can handle The Exorcist, but I know by age 7 or 8 I was a huge Fright Night,and those type horrors fan.
I think you should scenes of QT as soon as you think he can follow certain stories, and just self-edit to give him the exposure to his namesake. I think by 8 or 9 he is ready for some Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill.
Honestly, don’t take my opinion to face, since I’m not a parent, but I think no matter how much you censor what your children watch they will find a way to watch it on their own, just like we did. We have to remember the era we were raised in (I’m assuming the 80′s for most of us)hot on the heels of the 70′s parenting was still more lenient, not as structured and inhibited as it is today. And since we’re living in a digital age, I find it more plausible for kids to stumble onto inappropriate content all on their own. I have a younger cousin who finds slasher flicks on the net all the time, it sparks his curiosity, and his mother, my cousin, is probably the most over protective and watchful mother on the planet, but yet he still finds ways around her protective barriers. Kids are resourceful and they always will be because of their curiosity, but it’s good to keep a watchful eye over them. I am a strong believer in film content affecting a child’s development. I for one was only exposed to childrens flicks when I was a kid. I still remember the first film I watched in a theater, Batteries not Included, subsequently followed was the strangely inappropriate ‘Garbage Pale Kids’. LOL. I blame a lot of my chronic madness to my mother’s terrible movie taste sometimes… that movie still haunts me today.
Very nicely put Aaron, and great advice man. I put on Punisher(The Original) the other day and he sat through the entire thing without a peep! Obviously he wont remember anything from it or even watching it, but the fact that he was enthralled enough in the sights and sounds of a Dolph Lundgren movie excites the heck out of me.
It might seem strange on the surface, but, if you think about it, people who are really into horror and people who make horror movies are some of the nicest, most soft-spoken people on the planet. Look at Wes Craven. Look at John Carpenter. It’s almost as if these people view their films as cathartic, and they get all of their angst and bottled-up anger out onto the screen.
I’m going somewhere here with children. The point is, if you try to keep your children shielded, they are just going to get a hold on whatever you’re trying to keep from them anyway, and they’ll do it ten-fold just to spite you. I say let your kids watch whatever they wanna watch. Show them all the ‘Texas Chainsaw’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’ films you can. My parents didn’t shield me from a thing, and I think I turned out fine.
In fact, I think kids who see these kinds of movies are way ahead of the game than kids who were only exposed to Disney and Barney for the first 15 years of their life. Obviously, you can’t just sit your kid down in front of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and walk away. They can’t be raised by Freddy Krueger, but they damn sure will benefit from knowing he exists.
Of course, I don’t have kids. I just have a cat, and I’m pretty sure he’s not going to grow up to be a mass murderer, so take that for what it’s worth.
Oh, and you should show Quentin Star Wars in the order God (George Lucas) provided. 4-6 then 1-3. Actually, you can skip 1 and go right to 2 and the Clone Wars series. If he really needs to know what happens in 1, he can read the novelization some day.
I think everyone who has commented on here will (or does) make a great parent and they are the kind of parents that I would want to hang out with someday and let my kids play with their kids!
Speaking as a non-parent, I would also bring up the idea that there are dozens upon dozens of great movies PG-13 and under to expose him/her to first. I would almost go chronologically and start them off with the classics like Citizen Kane, Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris, Casablanca, It’s a Wonderful Life and the dozens of others to see how it sticks to them and then ease into all the different genres.
I would say that when it comes to Tarantino, I would gauge their readiness by showing them some heavy PG-13 and see how they react. But I would probably hold off on Pulp Fiction for a while especially because of the whole gimp scene, but campy Tarantino and Rodriguez like From Dusk Till Dawn could be a good starting point.
I am not a parent, but I can speak from my experience as a kid that my best friend back then and I would spend weekends watching any kind of scary horror and/or sci-fi stuff we could get our hands on. Aside from this, and I really don’t think this will shock anyone, we also had a tendency to choose the slasher flicks with lots of “women” in them… if you know what I mean. We were kids and we were boys and that’s what we did. We had no interest in anything less than an R-rating and we’d stay up all night. Oh yeah, we did this against our parents’ wishes as they didn’t know what we rented. (Sorry, mom. I know you’re reading.) Guess what? We didn’t grow up to be criminals, or killers or any bad thing like that. My parents did the best they knew how and they did a great job. I sometimes feel we, as a society, don’t hold parents responsible enough and simultaneously don’t give kids enough credit. We tend to treat kids like these little robots walking around without a conscious bone in their bodies, waiting to snatch up every little bit of negative programming and not decipher it for themselves. I say, to all the non-parents out there, take some time to really observe the children around you without interfering and I think you’ll realize how amazing they are at taking in the world and processing it in their own unique ways. Sure, they’re young and they need our guidance (that’s our jobs as adults) but they really don’t benefit from being shut out of the world as it is, only processing excessively positive interpretations of the world. The world’s not like that. As adults, we are their interpreters. Wow! I’ve let loose one Hell of a rant. I am finished. I apologize if I’ve been overly long-winded.