A buddy of mine posted on her Facebook page the other day a line from "The Princess Bride," probably one of the most-quoted movies of all time. It seems everyone knows at least a couple of bits from that flick: "Inconceivable!""You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." "As you wish." etc. My kids have seen that movie a number of times, and in fact last year Thing Two--true story--pulled off a classic. She was at her first day at a day camp and the kids were all supposed to write their names on one of those "Hello, my name is" name tags. So in an incredibly inspired burst of awesomeness, my then-6-year-old wrote, after "Hello, my name is..." "Thalia. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
This morning at breakfast, the spousal unit brought up another of the most-quoted movies ever, brought on by Thing One's entree choice of....dry white toast. Chris asked her if she wanted four whole fried chickens with that. So then that got me thinking, in the girls' pop culture education, they at some point must see "The Blues Brothers." Admittedly, unlike "The Princess Bride" which is on its own an excellent movie, "The Blues Brothers" really isn't that great a flick. In fact, I would argue it's less a movie than a two-hour filmed vaudeville act with a lot of pretty big names in it. And I also concede that the older I get and the more times I see that movie, the more tiresome I find the car chase scenes. But I just think that in certain social situations, you have to be able to ask everyone at the table who wants an orange whip, announce that you hate Illinois Nazis, proclaim that you're getting the band back together, or reassure people that you're on a mission from God.
So, are the kids old enough to see The Blues Brothers? There isn't of course any sex or violence to speak of. But I'm just not sure about all the dialogue--aside from all the potty words, which I can probably dismiss up front with a disclaimer, a lot of it is pretty adult in an admittedly juvenile sort of way. Abra is going on 10 years old and is reasonably sophisticated, but I'm just not sure I want in the opening scene of a movie to explain about the "soiled" condom. Might interrupt the flow of the humor. And as Abra also frequently points out to us, she's THE ONLY one of her friends who's never even seen the Brady Bunch because we never sit around and watch Nickelodeon. So perhaps the Blues Brothers are a bit premature.
Anybody ever watch The Blues Brothers with your kids? How old were they? What other movies are floating around out there that are chock full of must-have cultural references?
And, I leave you with what is probably my favorite scene from the Blues Brothers, though I could just as easily have selected James Brown in the pulpit or Aretha Franklin dancing around the diner in her pink slippers (though I can never find a quality YouTube clip of the latter which probably influences my decision in this blog post). Enjoy.
2 comments:
OK. We let ours watch it ages ago, and in fact, we were quoting "I hate Illinois Nazis" only yesterday. We don't do violence - or we didn't, except for James Bond and now that A is into film, and is 14, he is allowed more berth - so I guess we avoid *most* gratuitous violence, and don't allow toy guns or first person shooter games. That being said, we are fairly lax on sophomoric humor and other such things. Monty Python has long been in the repertoire, although it does provide, as do most of our choices, many 'teachable moments.' They do say, "Soiled Prophylactic," so for a long time they either didn't catch it or we flooded over it or made something up. As to favorite scenes, I do love the hut, hut, hut/elevator music juxtaposition, and the one where Ray Charles stops the kid form shoplifting and then wails. The fact is, I can't honestly stop myself from thinking of all the great scenes. Not Oscar-worthy, but a damned entertaining movie, nonetheless. "We got both kinds - Country AND Western." Carrie Fisher with an Uzi . . . Full tank of gas, half pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses . . . How much for the women? Must. Stop.
"glossed" over. Darn that apple!
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