Thinking about family movie nights

In which an Orthodox classical school points to entertainment that matters

Long ago, when our children were growing up, many visitors to our home would comment on our packed shelves of DVDs and VHS tapes (historical info here). Often we heard variations on these words: “Oh my! Your family sure watches a lot of TV!”

No, I would explain, we don’t. But do have a very good television set (only one) for family theater use and we have collected quite a few movies and television shows that we believe are worth watching. In this case, “worth watching” is defined as movies and programs that we think are brilliant, hilarious, artistically solid and worth serious thought by bookish Christians.

All of the above? Well, “The Philadelphia Story” leaps to mind.

Our family also had another entertainment goal. We wanted to think and have fun at the same time. We wanted to be the home where our teen-ager’s friends would come for bizarre and interesting movie nights and/or events that demonstrated that we LOVED movies, but weren’t all that interested in the vast majority of flicks that showed up in shopping-mall multiplexes.

What kind of “strange” but logical movie nights? How about the war-movie classic “The Great Escape” (a favorite of our son) followed by “Chicken Run”? What’s the connection? Think about it. It’s all about the prisoner bouncing the ball over and over off the wall of the cell.

Here’s a great slapstick night — “Bringing Up Baby” followed by “What’s Up Doc?” Very silly, but lots of fun.

One more! One party to rule them all, with showings of the three extended versions of “The Lord of the Rings” (wait for it) back to back, with Middle Earth food inserted at appropriate places. You would start at about 10 a.m. and end this festival at what time?

We also had another family rule/goal. If a movie was based on a book, children could not see the movie until they had read the book or had it read to them. The lesson: The real story and the worldview of the author was In. The. Book.

All of this personal information is a prelude to an interesting article that I ran into the other day on the social-media feed of an Orthodox classical school in Wichita, Kansas — Christ the Savior Academy — to which I have strong family ties (to state it mildly). The title: “6 Films Suitable for a Christian Family (and How to Watch Them Well.”

The author, one Joshua Moore, was described with this blurb:

Joshua is a student of the Great Books program at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. He is the father of one girl, and the husband of another. The bookshelf makes up half of their entertainment, the other half being made up by the outdoors.

That’s an interesting start.

Now, I imagine that many Rational Sheep readers may disagree with a few things in Moore’s piece (just as they may disagree with the Mattingly family strategies described above). Frankly, that’s beside the point.

The key is that families need to make informed decisions about technology and entertainment, decisions leading to strategies that work for them. Oh, and there are moral, cultural and theological implications to these decisions. Declining to make decisions about these issues? That’s a decision with moral, cultural and theological implications, too.

Here’s Moore’s overture:

What movies should we be showing our kids? We want our children to experience beautiful, educational stories. And we want to share this experience alongside our children. This is a lovely thing. In our day, the primary medium for storytelling as a shared experience is film. We might not, as often as past generations, crowd around a campfire and listen to grandfather orate a grand tale, (though we certainly should); we might not read books aloud to each other as was common in days past, (although we could if we wish); we might not so often prioritize the medium of the stage, (and what a pleasure it would be if we did); but still we gather with our friends and family around the screen, and this too is a lovely thing.

Yet we so often struggle to find something of value to put on that screen. In a world saturated with increasingly mediocre or often downright terrible films, where can we find movies that align with our values? Specifically, where can we discover Christian family movies that offer beautiful, educational narratives which support the Orthodox Christian values we seek to instill in our family?

What we are looking for is often referred to as a ‘family movie’, and I believe this term does well enough for our purposes. But I want to be clear what I do not mean by this term. A family movie is not a children’s movie. A children’s movie is a movie so mind-numbingly dull that an adult cannot bear to watch it. Such a movie affects our children’s souls just as candy affects their bodies — it does not nourish. If we cannot stand to watch these films, why should we expect our children to benefit from them?

Moore also provides some guidelines for these activities. Let the debates begin.

Here is one example that is very, very similar to the Mattingly family approach:

Gathering as a family to experience a work of beautiful art is no small thing. We should wholeheartedly dedicate the time such a gathering takes. Rather than spontaneously turning on the TV when the appetite hits, we should plan the moment in advance. If we are not intentional, our children will learn to watch a movie in the evening simply because there is nothing better to do.

We should instead get them excited throughout the day for the movie we are all going to watch together in the evening. A good film should easily garner this excitement and anticipation. If the movie cannot elicit excited anticipation throughout the day, that is a sign it might not be worth watching at all.

In our house, some films were worth watching many times. This led to games that developed over the years, formally or informally. How many quotes from “Casablanca” do you know?

You need to read the whole Moore piece. However, I will add one more excerpt that hints at other issues in this discussion.

We do not experience these films alone; we share these experiences with the whole family. When the film has finished sharing its beauty with us, we should turn to share our hearts with each other. Even if you are a no-talking-during-the-movie family, you should talk after the movie. Every member of the family should be able to voice something they found beautiful, or sad, or otherwise memorable. Perhaps these reflections will even prompt beautiful conversations which last late into the night. At least, they give everyone the opportunity to affirm to one another that, ‘yes, I loved it too’.

It is no good if, once the screen is off, nobody in your family feels like voicing something they remember. Even if the movie felt enjoyable in the moment, this is a sign that your souls were not deeply affected.

Now, what movies does Moore recommend?

I’ll let readers go to the piece to see how he weaves that discussion into the rest of the text. I agree with some of his choices and would certainly add many from, well, my family’s packed shelves of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Please let me know your reactions in the comments pages. Oh, and I am almost done with this month of traveling. That’s for your patience with extra typos.