Your list of "must see" movies for young adults

[Andrew NDB]

Let's say you've got a 13-17 year old person, and you want to impart upon them the best movies you've seen or are otherwise aware of.

For example, my daughter. I've been showing her the "best" movies of my time that I've seen that seem to be "must sees." So far, what I've shown her (those that I consider "must see" anyway -- obviously I've shown her stuff like Robocop and Terminator and Rambo and all that):

* Forrest Gump
* The Green Mile
* Dances with Wolves
* The Rocky/Creed series
* Godfather trilogy
* Scarface
* Casino
* Goodfellas

Which other ones can you think of?

[neatoman]

Alien
Clockwork Orange
The Shining
Psycho
Misery
The Seventh Seal
This is England
Fight Club
Akira
2001
Life of Brian
Rosemary's Baby
Citizen Kane

[CyberCubed]

Should 12 year old girls be watching movies with tons of violence, deaths, women being treated poorly or like sex objects, etc?

Clockwork Orange has a woman being gang raped and then murdered. What little girl is going to want to watch that? You'll probably traumatize her.

[neatoman]

Should 12 year old girls be watching movies with tons of violence, deaths, women being treated poorly or like sex objects, etc?

Clockwork Orange has a woman being gang raped and then murdered. What little girl is going to want to watch that? You'll probably traumatize her.

A girl between the ages of 13 and 17 (which is what Andrew asked about, not 12) isn't exactly a "little" girl. When I was that age I could easily take seeing an alien monster burst out of John Hurt's chest or the rape in Clockwork Orange. Ironically Akira, the fully animated movie, is the only one out the ones I listed that features a scene I couldn't stand at that age. But it's animated, so who knows how anyone will react?

Hell, when I was like 10 or maybe even younger, my teacher showed Wings of Glass (Vingar av Glas). In case you don't know, that movie features a scene in which a girl in her late teens or early twenties is getting raped by her cousin, the context is that he assumes it's okay because their parents are pushing for them to get married. Remember, a teacher showed this to kids who were younger than 13.

Anyway, I might as well add a few more contenders:

King Kong (the original)
Godzilla (the original, definitely not the american cut of the movie)
Night of the Living Dead (the original)
Dawn of the Dead (the orignal)
Pan's Labyrinth
Nosferatu (both the original and the remake)

[CyberCubed]

There's a big difference between sci-fi and cartoonish violence that everyone knows isn't real, and realistic type violence where women are raped/beaten/killed.

Kids watching something like Terminator, Alien, etc. is fine because it's all over the top and you know it's not real. More serious movies dealing with realistic torture/violence is a different story. Also for little girls it's probably even more bothersome because it's something that could happen to them in real life.

[neatoman]

There's a big difference between sci-fi and cartoonish violence that everyone knows isn't real, and realistic type violence where women are raped/beaten/killed.

Kids watching something like Terminator, Alien, etc. is fine because it's all over the top and you know it's not real. More serious movies dealing with realistic torture/violence is a different story. Also for little girls it's probably even more bothersome because it's something that could happen to them in real life.

Uh, sure? A robot from the future or an alien with a bizarre life cycle is never going to kill you in real life, but some psycho with a gun can still murder you and wild animal can maul you to death. The exact cirumstance is unrealistic but the actual killing isn't too far off from something that can happen in real life.

And again, were not talking about children who are all that young, we're discussing teenagers here. I'm pretty sure if a girl of about 15 or so saw the rape scene in Clockwork Orange she might be shocked but I don't she'd be emotionally scarred or anything.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

* Weird Science
* Alien and Aliens
* Princess Mononoke
* Jurassic Park
* Superman (1978 film)
* The Goonies
* Rudy
* Remember the Titans
* Jumanji (the original)
* Home Alone

[CyberCubed]

And again, were not talking about children who are all that young, we're discussing teenagers here. I'm pretty sure if a girl of about 15 or so saw the rape scene in Clockwork Orange she might be shocked but I don't she'd be emotionally scarred or anything.

Andrew's daughter is around 12 or 13, so well, it's up to him as a parent whether he thinks a movie with a woman being raped and then murdered is fine for her to watch at that age.

[neatoman]

Andrew's daughter is around 12 or 13, so well, it's up to him as a parent whether he thinks a movie with a woman being raped and then murdered is fine for her to watch at that age.

Sure, obviously that is his responsibility as a parent and it will depend on what his daughter is like. It's just that from my point of view, teenagers are typically capable dealing such imagery because I know I was, and as I also stated that I myself was expected to be able to handle seeing a rape scene before the age of 13.

[Andrew NDB]

Totally showed her Clockwork Orange. She was bored with it but liked the switch up with the main guy in the last bits.

[CyberCubed]

You'd think a young pre-teen girl would be most interested in romance movies with a female teen lead who finds "the guy of her dreams" and lives happily ever after. Or at least that's as far as I know from what's been marketed to girls.

[nylemon]

For a young girl, only LeotheLateBloomer's list make sense to me.:teek:

[Leo656]

The more I see people talk about what is or isn't "appropriate" for a young person to view, the more convinced I am that nobody past age 25 remembers at all what it was like to actually BE a "young person".

You show a kid age 12-ish and up any of that stuff, the worst that'll happen is they won't "get it" or they'll be disinterested, as Andrew said his daughter was with Clockwork Orange. But that's literally it. You're not gonna "warp" or "damage" them.

Discounting, of course, the possibility that the kid in question is anywhere on "the spectrum", which obviously has a completely separate set of issues and criteria. I see "grown-ups" online saying they can't handle fight scenes in movies or even the more "intense" scenes in Disney cartoons, but again, they have issues that makes that kind of thing make sense in context.

But I assume that we're talking about the average, "normal" type of kid. In which case, no, you can show them pretty much anything and they'll be Fine. They just might not "get" or like it. But it's not gonna hurt them in any way.

[CyberCubed]

I mean I saw all kinds of violent movies when I was 5-10 years old, the same movies from the 80's and early 90's everyone saw. My father would just watch them right in front of me.

But I imagine for young girls it's different? Many of these movies have violence against women, or the women just treated for sex appeal, etc. There's a reason why Disney princess movies and movies with female leads are always aimed at young girls, they're the kind of the thing they grow up with. I'm sure a girl wants to see a woman protagonist reach her dream than to see some women treated like a porno girl in some action movie.

[nylemon]

I don't know how your girl feel about the movies you showed to her, was she really curious about these movies, like some motivates make she want to see dad's recommendations? Or is it just exclusively born in you mind like well it's good so you just need to see it, no matter you like it or what, you will get it if you watch it, like a dictatorship father?

Cause in my knowledge, those movies mostly are just don't fix to a young girl and I personally not the one buy things like "well, it's a piece work of the god so you must see it". If I want see a movie, I read it from an article or something else that I decide I really want to see it on my own, not by people saying roughly that it's good so you must see.

Those are all great movies in my mind, but I really think you should not push it, she will get it one day or maybe not, make it natural.:)

[Andrew NDB]

I don't know how your girl feel about the movies you showed to her, was she really curious about these movies, like some motivates make she want to see dad's recommendations?

That's really none of your business. But for your information, she is constantly asking me for "good" movies to watch because she generally likes the ones I bring to the table. She aged out of stuff like "Monster High" probably 3 years ago.

[Coola Yagami]

I mean I saw all kinds of violent movies when I was 5-10 years old, the same movies from the 80's and early 90's everyone saw. My father would just watch them right in front of me.

But I imagine for young girls it's different? Many of these movies have violence against women, or the women just treated for sex appeal, etc. There's a reason why Disney princess movies and movies with female leads are always aimed at young girls, they're the kind of the thing they grow up with. I'm sure a girl wants to see a woman protagonist reach her dream than to see some women treated like a porno girl in some action movie.

In a certain way the Disney princess movies can be sorta more harmful if you think about it. In real life there is no random prince guy that's just gonna find you and sweep you off your feet.

It's kinda like Hitch where they try to sell the idea that even a fatass like Kevin James could get with a supermodel as long as 'he's just himself' or whatever.

[nylemon]

That's really none of your business. But for your information, she is constantly asking me for "good" movies to watch because she generally likes the ones I bring to the table. She aged out of stuff like "Monster High" probably 3 years ago.

Then it makes all sense, sorry for put the discussion to the other direction. Clockwork Orange is the most stand out, I don't know some of the movies but most others are okay. Still shocked that you showed the movie to your girl, I was shocked when I was like 18 when I saw that movie, it's my own opinion though, plz don't bother.

[nylemon]

In a certain way the Disney princess movies can be sorta more harmful if you think about it. In real life there is no random prince guy that's just gonna find you and sweep you off your feet.

It's kinda like Hitch where they try to sell the idea that even a fatass like Kevin James could get with a supermodel as long as 'he's just himself' or whatever.

Disney princesses have their own issues, I think what cubed mean is those movies are too hard core movies for a girl too, but since the girl ask for it then she is pretty ready to handle it.

[CyberCubed]

Aerial ran off to get married at 16. I bet in the live action version they'll age her up to 18. I wonder if Disney is kicking themselves making her only 16...but then again it was 1989.

[Leo656]

They already did "age her up" slightly. In the original story she was 15. And given how that was published in 1837, even at 15 the Ariel character was practically a spinster by that standards of most of the world. For most of history if a girl wasn't married off by then it was generally accepted that there was something wrong with her.

But yes, they'll most likely make her 17-18 in the new one. Because times and standards change. But I doubt they were "kicking themselves" about their approach to their first version. It was already a "fix" on the original. Depending on how one looks at it, of course. The original isn't very much of a "kids' story" to begin with, and both the original and Disney versions have plenty of issues. The age of the protagonist is the absolute least of any of it.

But no, nothing that's going to "warp" a kid, most likely. I mean, given how it's 2020 and more than 60% of marriages end in divorce, any little girl who believes in "Prince Charming" and/or "Happily Ever After" probably also still believes in Santa Claus, and thus has issues of their own to work through that go far beyond what they're seeing in cartoons.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah. Besides that I've noticed a lot of females tend to find action movies "boring." Not even talking about just superhero movies but the older stuff like the Die Hard movies, Lethal Weapon, most Arnold Schwarzeneggar movies, etc.

If a movie is all about this one action hero guy with guns blazing and explosions and one-liners, a lot of females tend to zone out or get bored easily. I notice this online a lot too on other forums that had a lot of female users, they would all talk about how they didn't care for most action or sci-fi movies with the exception of a few. Sure there's some exceptions, but it's a trend I noticed.