Family Movie Night

Did you know that movies made before about 1960 are probably safe for your family?

I love old movies and I am especially interested in the story behind the making of the great epics like Cleopatra and the 10 Commandments. This summer I was reading about the making of Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was a groundbreaking movie for a number of reasons. It had the largest budget ever spent on a movie, it saw the beginning of the Taylor-Burton affair which lead to the emergence of modern day paparazzi and it directly contributed to the formation of our current movie rating system.

I showed Cleopatra to Josh toward the end of the last school year because we had finally reached Julius Caesar in our study of history. Some of it is, well, lewd and I fast forwarded a few scenes. Otherwise, it was well worth watching because it gave him a brilliant visual picture of swaggering Roman soldiers, preening Senators and opulent Egypt. (This movie is not what I would consider family friendly. Elizabeth Taylor is in various states of undress, a fact for which the movie is famous. There is no 'nudity' per se, but there is alot of skin. All most certainly too much skin for some folks.)

Before Cleopatra, movies were reviewed by a motion picture sensor board which basically evaluated movies for decency. The board even evaluated the costumes worn by the actors, and if they showed too much they were declared 'indecent.' (I'm reminded of the scene in the Aviator when Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes is called before the sensor board and there is a debate about how much cleavage can be shown on screen....)

Anyway.

My point is that if you are having a hard time finding movies that are not disappointingly inappropriate for your children despite a G or PG rating, consider the wealth of classics made before 1960. Obviously, you have to be aware of the appropriateness of the subject matter, but otherwise you should find few(er) unwanted surprises.

Recently we've enjoyed:

On deck we have:




I think I will preview Swiss Family Robinson, just in case there are any blood thirsty cannibals or burning at the stake.

In case you are wondering I downloaded the movies legally from iTunes and we watch on our iMac. I recommend the "customers who like this also bought" feature on iTunes and Amazon for jogging your memory about movies you might enjoy.

I'd love some suggestions, so comment or email them!

P.S. If you are interested in a great site for researching the content of current movies and videos, check out www.pluggedin.com.