List by Ronan Doyle
Won't Someone Please Think of the Children?
A selection of non-kids' films with child protagonists, organised loosely in order of preference. There's an undeniable power to showing the world through a child's eyes in film, a unique sort of contextualisation that filters the complexities of the adult world through the lens of youthful innocence to simplify things down to their basest constituents. Suggestions very welcome, teenagers not included. List limited to films ranked 3.5 stars or more for convenience's sake.
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You forgot one of my favorites "Empire of the Sun" early work for both Steven Spielberg and Christian Bale.
BTW what the heck are you doing posting at 5 in the morning? I'm assuming you write when you cant sleep.
I wouldn't really consider Rome, Open City as having a child protagonist. Or am I misremembering the film?
How about Funny Games?
@Kevin Maybe Open CIty doesn't quite have a child as a protagonist per se, but it does view a lot of its events through child's eyes, particularly the more shocking scenes. But perhaps you're right, a lot of it does take place without the children at all. As for Funny Games, I wouldn't consider the child's perspective to be used at all. The film's deliberately tailored to the audience viewpoint in my opinion.
@Monirom I haven't seen Empire of the Sun I'm afraid. I'll have to add it to my watchlist. As for 5am posting... No excuse really, I'm just a very serious night owl.
Have you ever seen the pretty good Dutch film 'Oorlogswinter'? Would suit this list just fine I think!
Also, maybe Billy Elliot?
I compiled a similar list a couple of months ago but your list is more exhaustive so feel free to add any films from my list that aren't already on yours - the list
Also add If I Had a Gun, Venice (2010), El Sur, Witman Boys and O Sangue.
And Johnny Mad Dog.
How about Tideland...but then that may not be a 3-5 star film for you I guess, fits the list.
Whoops, if I'd seen that list before I wouldn't have bothered making this one. Nice call on Johnny Mad Dog, funny how I managed to miss one watched just lately. Adding plenty to my watchlist now.
@Dirk I certainly haven't, on the watchlist it goes. Nor have I seen Billy Elliot actually, will need to check that out too.
TIdeland was one of the first things on my mind actually. It does a wonderful job of showing the world from a child's eyes, but for me it's a failed experiment. Tried it twice and just found it disappointing both times unfortunately.
I can't think of any your missing, but there's a couple that I would definitely say are for children. My Neighbour Totoro is definitely a kids film, there's pretty much nothing dark or scary in it at all. I also think Willy Wonka, Time Bandits and Hugo also fit the bill of kids films.
I agree with you on the latter three actually, I think I'll take them off. As for Totoro, it's certainly a film I'd have no problem showing to a child, but I think it's quite adult in its themes in the way it deals with growing up without a parent, living in a time of difficulty, that sort of thing.