Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: movie review

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi all - 

I respectfully beg to differ with the posted review of Lord of the Rings, 
although I do agree that it is at the very upper edge of PG-13 and parents need 
to think hard before taking younger kids.

I have two kids who love to read.  My 10 year old girl has read both Harry 
Potter and the Lord of the Rings books at least three times through.  My 7 year 
old boy has also read the Harry Potter books three or four times and is almost 
done with the Lord of the Rings the first time. They have seen the Harry Potter 
and the LOTR movies - but they didn't really want to see the Harry Potter movie 
more than once, and they begged and pleaded to see the LOTR over and over. They 
reached my limit on the fourth viewing.

My husband and I discussed the emotional and physical violence in the stories 
and movies with the kids before and after they saw both movies.  They know a 
lot about how special effects are put together and what's real and what's 
imaginary. They haven't acted out any of the violence in the movies, but I can 
tell by their questions at dinner and their imagination games with the other 
kids here that they have absorbed a lot of ideas about how good and evil can 
mix in a single person, when everyone used to be just nice or bad.

When one of the other parents in the neighborhood asked me whether I thought 
the movie would be appropriate for her son, I told her I think it's a judgement 
call.  Some 12 year olds will only see the violence and miss that violence is, 
in this story and movie, representing the strength of the internal and external 
struggles between good and evil; and some 7 year olds will, while briefly 
riding a primate adrenaline high from the viewing, be left with lots of ideas 
to chew on.

The kids independently expressed the idea that the Harry Potter movie "is" the 
book, but the LOTR movie is an interpretation of the book.  We had a wonderful 
discussion on a rainy car ride about how the first movie could have worked if 
they interpreted it and how the LOTR movie could work if told with Gollum as 
the main figure.  Anything that makes kids have fun working this hard is OK 
with me.

Besides, the movie really makes me want to go to New Zealand - the scenery 
almost steals the show.

Jessie Handforth Kome
Eno Commons
Durham, NC


_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l