A list is nothing more than a debate using numerals as arguments.
One family’s list of favorite movies is just the starting point for an argument with the rest of the world.
“Why would anyone watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ anymore? It’s in black and white, for crying out loud! It’s ancient!”
” ‘My Dog Skip’ should be a lot higher on that list. I loved that movie. I watch it every year.”
“Isn’t ‘The Princess Bride’ on the list? It’s the greatest!”
So what exactly does put a family movie on the “greatest” list? Is it the saddest one? The funniest one? The one that works for 4-year-olds and 8-year-olds at the same time? Can a movie that’s rated R still be a family film? Will the current generation of children sit still for a black-and-white movie, or one with subtitles?
My own list has answers to all those questions — but then, I get to expand and revise my list every week in our family movie column.
Maybe “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” felt a little raw for your Thanksgiving gathering, especially when Steve Martin drops a payload of f-bombs on the lady at the car rental counter. No problem — next time I’ll recommend “A Christmas Story” instead, one of the most universally beloved films of the past 25 years.
And if that proves too nostalgic for your taste, I’ll send you and your older children to “Pieces of April,” where a bickering, seemingly hopeless family deals with breast cancer and an estranged daughter at a chaotic Thanksgiving meal.
The perfect family movie is not a formula, it’s a reaction. It burns its mark onto my list the moment I feel like grabbing someone by the arm, meeting their gaze with the wide eyes of the fanatic, and saying, “You have got to see ‘The Color of Paradise.’ You’ve never seen meadows this beautiful! You’ve never seen an Iranian movie! You’ve never seen a child actor like this!”
Or, “I watched ‘Meatballs’ again with my kids the other day. You know how your son is stressing out about that hockey tryout? Tell him what Tripper said — It just doesn’t matter! It just doesn’t matter!”
Or, “If you can’t cry when the dad walks on the diamond at the end of ‘Field of Dreams,’ you must have been raised by aliens in another solar system.”
A list of great family movies must come with that passion — a yearning for the silliness, or the sentiment, or the wonder that waits inside a cinematic surprise.
Sometimes it’s learning about a movie you never would have found on your own — I’m sure I wouldn’t have discovered the deep, quiet joys of “The Station Agent” unless I’d been assigned to a film festival that year. At other times, it’s remembering how much a movie meant to you in your own childhood, and sitting your kids down to give it a try. “My Bodyguard” has helped more than one generation of teenagers feel less miserable about high school.
Consider these lists the start of your argument. Yes, everyone tells me how much they love “My Dog Skip.” I could probably write about it every other week. Yes, I will write about “Princess Bride,” but I’m saving it for a rainy day. And no, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is not too old or too colorless. It’s a classic — make that a timeless classic of longing, regret and fulfillment. If you don’t like it, make your own list.
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com
“The Denver Post Guide to the Best Family Films” is available online and at local bookstores.
Some films to relieve too much togetherness
Here are some terrific family movies from a few different categories that might help you through those long days and nights of too much holiday togetherness.
If your relatives aren’t speaking to each other on day four, sit everybody down to lose themselves in a movie.
Sci-fi holidays
Science fiction movies let parents escape and let kids make fun of just how wrong they got the “technology of the future.” “Silent Running” may get a conversation going about global warming, and whether we could save the planet by sending whole chunks of it into space. “The Abyss” is James Cameron at his underwater best, and the scene where the divers learn to breathe water is eerily effective. “Contact” is great sci-fi, politics, religion and Jodie Foster all poured into one jet-fuel tank.
Half-pint holidays
Don’t just turn the TV on for the screaming kids and leave the room. Stick around and enjoy quality movies that resonate on more than one level. Disney’s classic “Robin Hood” is one example — is it right to steal from the rich and give to the poor? If so, how come we don’t do it in this century? How about the adolescent witches of the animated “Kiki’s Delivery Service”? What if witches used their special powers to do everyday good deeds, what would that look like? And if you miss the talents of Tim Curry, join the kids for a showing of “Muppet Treasure Island,” based on the classic novel, full of great songs and slapstick comedy.
Hilarious holidays
Don’t leave all the ho-ho- hos to Santa. Stir the family pot with some jiggling laughter and gratuitous guffaws. “City Slickers” has horses, landscape, Billy Crystal’s goofy mug and enough bantering cowboys to fill a wagon train. “The Return of the Pink Panther,” comprising some of Peter Sellers’ finest moments on film, has jokes that play from age 3 to age 83 — believe me, I’ve tried it with four generations at once. And “Young Frankenstein” may launch your gathering into a Mel Brooks film festival, leading quickly to “Blazing Saddles” and the original “The Producers.”High school holidays
If your teens are moping around the house and you can’t remember why life looked so bleak back then, turn to some of the teenage classics. “The Outsiders” is an unexpected Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece, while “The Chocolate Wars” is an equally brutal story based on an equally fine adolescent novel. “My Bodyguard” resonates with anyone who’s ever been bullied, and “The Breakfast Club” is a terrific ensemble acting exercise masterfully conducted by John Hughes.
Handkerchief holidays
When you need a good cry at Christmas, this movie subset is for you. Miss the late family dog? The aforementioned “My Dog Skip” will have grown men bawling like puppies. “Sounder” shows a tough Southern family fighting through all kinds of tragedy. “October Sky” is a beautiful and true story that will tune up all of your heartstrings. In between football games, “Brian’s Song” helps put the gridiron in proper perspective. If fishing is the family sport, Robert Redford’s direction and narration in “A River Runs Through It” will leave a lump in all throats.
Holidays for the holidays
What’s a Christmas break for, if not to torture the kids with the nostalgic movies that shaped your own yuletide memories? “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” are obvious, but they shouldn’t be overlooked just because they’re on TV all the time. Sit the family down and watch them in their complete glory — both are steeped in a melancholy that gives honesty to their surface sentiments. Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a fun way to see what the modern version of Noel looks like to someone visiting from another planet — in this case, someone visiting from Planet Halloween.
And if you’re feeling a little naughty on Christmas Eve, before the renewed niceness of Christmas morning, enjoy the multilayered stories of “Love Actually.” It’s rated R, but won’t seem raunchy to your older teens compared with the unbridled romp that was “Superbad.” The British Isles’ best acting talent assembles for “Love Actually,” along with Laura Linney from the States, and the results are wonderfully bittersweet.
Michael Booth
