Grade-Schooler

by Jeffrey Wells and Jett Wells

Jeff says: Forget it ‑- by the time they're in grade school, you're not running the show anymore. You can keep them away from movies with sexual content (which you should) or violence (lots of luck), but you can't tell them what to like. Boys of this age, in particular, are always going to be into action stuff, monster movies and broad (i.e., dumb) comedies that you'd rather they stay away from.

I always tried to show my boys action films for a slightly older level of comprehension ‑- the Alien movies, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I also tried to steer them toward action flicks that had an element of genuine heroism, i.e., stronger characters helping or protecting the less strong, like Shane, which I showed them two or three times. I also tried out various 1950s invaders-from-outer-space films, which were the only black-and-white films they could stomach. The value might have sunk in along the way of The Thing, King Kong and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Jett says: Every six-year-old boy prefers supernatural characters in combat to morose intellectuals discovering the true meaning of life through tragedy. And sure, kids always want color. Black and white is too old-fashioned for tots in grade school, for the same reason that my grandfather's war stories put me to sleep. And yet films like The Thing (the 1951 version with the howling alien) make old-fashioned seem cool.

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