There are certain movies that address the unchangable realities of life. The lessons they tach and issues they address are timeless. Therefore, they speak to every generation. Watching movies together is a great bonding experience, and create an opportunity to dialogue about life (its joy, sorrows, injustices,relation to family, challenges,etc.) What movies could you envision watching with your kids, grandkids, and beyond due to the quality of the film and what it says about life (considering the kids are 14 years and older)? Here is a sampling of mine:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Outsiders
Ordinary People
A River Runs Through It
Marty
It's a Wonderful Life (Christmas time)
Girl Interrupted
Born of the Fourth of July
Contact
Shawshank Redemption
Schindler's List
12 Angry Men
Fight Club
Amadeus
Braveheart
Unforgiven
The Green Mile
The Deer Hunter
Ghandi
Philadelphia
The Grapes of Wrath
Big Fish
In the Heat of the Night
The Passion of Christ
Stand and Deliver
Radio

What would you watch with them for their benefit?

Every Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd film.
Pygmalion
Gone With the Wind
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Quiet Man
Room at the Top
The Innocents

I'm going to stop for tonight. I believe the main way to teach kids is to show them how to grow up and to also show them right and wrong examples of grown-ups. If I kept going, I'd end up listing hundreds of films which may not seem like "family films", such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Cabaret, two of my 15-year-old daughter Sarah's faves, and she's the most well-rounded, mature teenager I know. (I'm a high school teacher, and NO, I'm not at all prejudiced. )

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
Every Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd film.
Pygmalion
Gone With the Wind
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Quiet Man
Room at the Top
The Innocents

I'm going to stop for tonight. I believe the main way to teach kids is to show them how to grow up and to also show them right and wrong examples of grown-ups. If I kept going, I'd end up listing hundreds of films which may not seem like "family films", such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Cabaret, two of my 15-year-old daughter Sarah's faves, and she's the most well-rounded, mature teenager I know. (I'm a high school teacher, and NO, I'm not at all prejudiced. )

Interesting list. It is amazing that I haven't thought about Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in years. What a great Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton movie, and a good film to look marriage, unfulfilled dreams, and how one can be lonely even while living in relationship. I need to watch this particular film again. Thanks.

grandkids ? then i would definitely remove 'passion of the christ' from the list.

add:

narnia
maybe terms of endearment
de sica's bicycle thief
disney's beauty and the beast
" the lion king