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Reviews
Le ballon rouge (1956)
Too graphic, traumatic for children
I know people's jaws will drop in disbelief at this, but I'm convinced that this movie is too disturbing for elementary school-age children.
Thirty years after seeing it for the first time, the feelings that come up when I think about it are: anxiety and fear, a sense that people can be inexplicably and utterly cruel and inhumane to each other, and a sense that there is a lot of injustice in the world.
Also, the message at the end of the movie is that good things always happen to good people, and that it feels good to give your enemies the comeuppance they deserve.
Most of you will call me crazy, or see this as an example of going too far in analyzing what should be a nice story about friendship. But I'm telling you, these are the feelings that come up for me, from a movie I haven't seen in thirty years. It left a lasting impression on me that is very far from the message an adult gets when they see it.
I'm writing this because some former 3rd-6th grade classmates of mine, now in our late 30's, were talking about this recently and all of us felt more or less the same way.
How many millions of people describe traumatic reactions to Bambi, Dumbo, Wizard of Oz, etc? Just becasue previous generations were blind to the damage that these images do to children doesn't mean that we have to be.
A Knight's Tale (2001)
endearing or preposterously bad, I can't decide
A good story, but with mind-numbingly preposterous anachronisms. In the opening scene, I thought it was going to turn out to be a comedy when the audience to a joust was shown singing "we will rock you". Later, the same effect at a banquet with people dancing to David Bowie's "Golden Years". Plus, a herald introducing the Hero like something out of the WWF.
At times enchanting, at times so painfully bad I almost walked out (and several others in the theater did).
This movie doesn't know what it is supposed to be. It's not whimsical enough to be a fantasy, not funny enough to be a comedy, and not realistic enough to be taken seriously, but not *quite* bad enough that I didn't somehow enjoy it.
It's like a peanut-butter and cheese sandwich.