Screen a Classic Film With Kids or Grandkids

Great films have always been an inspiration for this historian. Over the years the filmmakers have become very adept at placing the viewer in the scene on the screen. I’m a sucker for a good story, so when I combine the desire to go back in time with a compelling narrative, I’m easily swept up into film. We have the sound, we have the visual images, we have the memory of smells, we have the emotional empathy and sympathy to be drawn into well crafted films.

The first memorable feature film I saw on the big screen was at the Indiana Theater in downtown Indianapolis about 1958. It opened in 1927 and seated 3,300. I went to a Godzilla movie with my older brothers, but I was only six or seven, and I still carry some of that trauma with me today. It must have been the 1956 Godzilla: King of the Monsters film. It was terrifying. Let’s just say I have had no desire to see another Godzilla movie since that day.

There were two good theaters in the town where I grew up. I got over my initial scare by looking to other film genres. I cried over Old Yeller, laughed with Flubberand the Nutty Professor, and thrilled to How the West Was Won. As I grew older my interest in history and literature grew rapidly. I read classic novels like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. My history reading got lots of encouragement from my parents, and my dad, especially, fed this interest. He gave me a copy of William A. Shirer’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ when I was in the sixth grade. That was heavy reading, but I devoured it. Soon there arrived Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples’. These opened up all kinds of historical vistas including figures of history like Napoleon, Bismarck, Wellington, and many others.

The 1960s were a great era for film, as were the 1970s. I’m no film historian, but there were many films using great themes that came along then. There was David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago in 1965, and Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet in 1968. When Patton arrived in theaters in 1970 I was immersed in reading the Ladislas Farago biography. It was spectacular. 

Another David Lean film, Ryan’s Daughter, came out in 1970. That film was captivating, pulling in the drama of the Great War, the British troubles in Ireland, and a forbidden love between Sarah Miles and Christopher Jones. John Mills outshone them all with his performance as Michael, the intellectually challenged resident of the tiny Irish village. Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer was released in the same year. Its unforgettable and moving charge of the Scots Greys put me on the battlefield on that June day in 1815. Volumes have been written on these films, but my purpose here is to encourage you, dear reader, to share great movies with your kids or grandkids.

Over many years of teaching, I used short pieces of film to illustrate the history we were studying in class, stopping to talk about the context and gravity of historical figures and actions. I would ask students if they had seen great films of the past, and for the most part, to my astonishment, they nearly always said no. They were only rarely familiar with Ben-Hur, Casablanca, or Dr. Zhivago. None of them had seen Patton or The Three Musketeers (1973), or High Noon. They were unfamiliar with The Ten Commandments, Gone With The Wind, and Lawrence of Arabia.

Those of us born in the baby boom (1942-1962) were shaped by the experience of seeing great films in real theaters.

Today I am asking you to recreate some of these experiences for your kids and grandkids. Call it Blockbuster Movie Night or An Evening with the Grands at the Homebody Theater, or just Fun Flickers, but get them invited over for a good, fun time.

These days most homes have large screen TVs with the ability to stream or play film videos. My mother always cautioned us about sitting too close to the screen, but I think it’s okay to ignore that advice and sit rather close to get the big screen feeling. There should be no ads. If there’s an intermission in the film, take a break then while the music plays and resume seats for the rest of the film. Having real popcorn or movie candy is fun and will contribute to the feeling you had way back when. Seating should be luxurious and comfortable. Make an event out of it and make it a regular thing. Saturday night works great. Do you remember the video introduction to NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies with all the marquee lights at old fashioned movie theaters, then a major recent film? There’s some inspiration!

These days, kids will see plenty of new Disney films, so I encourage you to go back to an earlier time for great characters, great courage, great villainy, and great family viewing. There are thousands of wonderful films, but the following are among my personal favorites.

• Fantasia (1940, with Stokowski conducting)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Peter Pan (1953)
• Pinocchio (1940)
• Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• 101 Dalmatians (1961)
• Snow White (1937)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
• Oklahoma!
• Mary Poppins
• The Sound of Music
• It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
• How the West Was Won
• The Music Man
• River of No Return
• Waterloo
• Gone With The Wind
• Henry V
• Romeo and Juliet
• Dr. Zhivago
• The Ten Commandments
• Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• High Noon
• The African Queen
• Midway (1976 with Charlton Heston)
• The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
• The Lighthorsemen (1987)
• Young Winston (Simon Ward)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• Conager (Sam Eliot)
• Open Range
• Pride and Prejudice (1995)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)

So send out those invitations or offer to watch the grandkids while the parents have an evening, pop the popcorn, and settle back for some great memories.

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