Movie Night
Family Movie Night is something that many families are already doing. If you enjoy watching movies together, you're half way there! The other half is the discussion time where you actively engage the themes, values and characters in the movie. All movies contain a message of some sort, sometimes good and sometimes not. As a parent, your job is to teach and discuss the things in movies or TV shows, whether they are a positive representation of the way they should live or whether they are negative depictions.
The first step is to decide on which movie to watch. This can be a challenge, especially if your family ranges in age. The goal is to find something that everyone can enjoy. There are several online resources you can use to help in this search.
- Focus on the Family's Plugged In Online – pluggedin.com – This is a great site to give you a complete review of movies and their worldview. Plugged In has reviews of movies on DVD and those still in theaters. In addition, they also have reviews for music, TV shows and video games as well. Plugged In does not make specific age recommendations on movies.
- The Dove Foundation – dove.org – The Dove Foundation has well documented reviews of movies (both DVD and theatrical) and has specific measures on six factors: Sex, language, violence, drugs, nudity and other. They provide you counts of each time one of these things shows up in a movie. Dove makes specific age recommendations on movies (all ages, 12+ or not family approved).
- Movieguide – movieguide.org – Movieguide has very comprehensive reviews that give you detailed information that not only cover the issues of violence, sex and profanity, but also dig deeply into the moral content, theology and worldviews of the movies (both theatrical and DVD). They have a rating system that rates movies on production quality and moral content but do not make specific age recommendations on movies.
The second step is to lead your family in discussion around the various themes in the movie. Don't get overwhelmed on this one. Some movies will have online discussion guides and Plugged In has a specific section of movies (Movie Nights) on their site where they actually provide questions to discuss with your kids. If you can't find questions online for a movie, follow these simple steps:
- Read an online review before you watch the movie so you are familiar with the content of the movie before you watch it with your kids.
- Based on that review, identify two or three concepts to discuss (honesty, faithfulness, etc). You can also find some scripture references around these topics in advance.
- Look for specific instances in the movie when characters exhibit these traits (or the lack of these traits) and ask your kids questions about them.
- The more you do this, the more they will begin to identify these traits themselves.
- Remember, this time is meant to be fun, so it is not the right time to launch into 20 questions. That is a good way to kill this event.