Movies for Unschoolers
These were in response to this request, in November 2015:
Name a movie (not THE movie, but ONE single movie) that you would recommend to every unschooling family to watch, that you think they would watch more than once.
Thank you, Sylvia Woodman, for collecting and arranging.
Accepted
Auntie Mame
Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV show not the movie)
Back to the Future
Big Hero 6
Coraline
The Croods
Curious George
Dead Poet's Society
Dinosaur Train (PBS TV Series)
Dolphin Tale
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Fly Away Home
Frozen
How to Train Your Dragon
Howl's Moving Castle
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney version)
Inside Out
Karate Kid
Kiki's Delivery Service
Labyrinth
The Last Unicorn
The Lego Movie
Little Miss Sunshine.
Mary Poppins
Matilda
My family and other Animals
Mr Peabody and Sherman
Nanny McPhee
My Neighbor Totoro
The Neverending Story
October Sky
Pippi Longstocking
Ponyo
Princess Bride
School of Rock
The Secret of Kells
Secret of Roan Inish
Serenity
Shark Boy and Lava Girl
Shrek
Song of the Seas
The Sound of Music
Spirited Away
Stand By Me
Star Wars
Strictly Ballroom
Swiss Family Robinson
That thing you do
The Truman Show
Up
Wall-e
The Way, Way Back
Wild Thornberrys
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
The list above was from a discussion in 2015.
Below, collected in 2010 in a different kind of discussion. The best movies ever might come out next year, so the lists will never be "complete."
MOVIES ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
between younger kids
Goonies
Christmas Story
The Cure
My Girl
Stand By Me
Heidi
Holes
Bridge to Terabithia
Hoot
Madagascar
Little Vampires
between older kids
The Breakfast Club
American Grafitti
Mean Girls
10 Things I Hate About You
Tuck Everlasting
between children and adults
Whale Rider
Searching for Bobby Fisher
About a Boy
Into the Wild
Fly Away Home
Dead Poet's Society
The Water Horse (a father who died)
Billy Elliot
The Spiderwicke Chronicles
Sydney White
Pollyanna
The Parent Trap
Freaky Friday
Paper Moon
Mighty Ducks
Karate Kid (all three)
Adventures in Babysitting
Mary Poppins
The Addams Family
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Hope and Glory
The Sound of Music
Where the Heart Is
Mrs. Doubtfire
Frequency
Rigoletto
The Rogue Stallion
Split Infinity
Cinema Paradiso
Fruits Basket
Hikaru No Go
Spirited Away
My Neighbor Totoro
Little Miss Sunshine
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Dan Filbin, 2017:
Just adding to the list of Movies for Unschoolers in Sandra's Big Book: - Latcho Drom
- Baghdad Cafe
- My Bodyguard
- Breaking Away
Cheers!
The list in the book is:
- Mary Poppins
- Heidi (with Shirley Temple)
- The Sound of Music
- Searching for Bobby Fischer ("Innocent Moves" is the title in the UK)
- Ferris Beuller's Day Off
I didn't see it on your list so I wanted to suggest "Little Miss
Sunshine." It is one of our *favorite* movies as a family. The
description to me should read "A beautiful love story of a
dysfunctional family." The end has me sobbing and laughing
hysterically all at the same time. I cannot recommend this movie
enough.
Wendy S. in GA
Meadow Linden (meadowblue...) recommends:
Lionheart - a documentary about a 17 year old Australian who sailed around the world by himself (the youngest ever). He was not a homeschooler but makes a great case for unschooling.
Accepted - this is a mainstream, Hollywood movie about a young man who starts his own unschooly college. I was practically cheering at the end of this movie!
A Family Undertaking - a documentary about the home funeral movement...just another group of people doing things in a real and natural way. If you're squeamish about looking at dead bodies, you may not want to watch it but we thought it was done in a very respectful and beautiful way.
[email protected] wrote:
One movie that I associate with unschooling, because it is about
thinking outside the box, and living life passionately (but it is NOT
for little kids...) is Pleasantville.
Toby McGuire and Reese Witherspoon both star, and it may be the
first big movie for both of them. It also has Jeff Daniels
from "Dumb and Dumber" and "Fly Away Home"
Fly Away Home is VERY unschooly. The one about the flock of geese
that bonds to a high school girl and she has to lead them through the
air to a wintering spot...that's a good one for depicting a life of
passion and interest.
But to tell you the truth, movies are just Highly Graphic
Storytelling :) and the little brains inside their little skulls are
clicking away making connections that we can't imagine...and so, like
everything else, movies ARE unschooly. Just like chopping firewood,
baking bread, drawing symmetrical designs, counting change, swimming,
reading Nate the Great, and grocery shopping are 
Yes, yes, yes! Loved this whole post. It is imo all about the Power of
Story.
Pleasantville is one of our family favorites for just these unschool-y
reasons. Then we discovered Strictly Ballroom last week and had great fun
relating its themes back to Pleasantville, Dirty Dancing, and Footloose. We
decided the Preacher in Footloose, the Mayor in Pleasantville, and the toupeed
Dance Association head in Strictly Ballroom (Barry I think) all were the same
character, embodying the repressive forces of convention, keeping the populace in
line so people can't grow beyond the bounds those leaders represent and
believe are necessary.
As an academic thinker, what I like about the heroes in each of these
movies is that they beat the controller-standardizers at their own game. In
other words, they aren't brought up as rebels or indoctrinated to rebel. They
don't set out to be rebels at all, and they don't come to it by default because
they aren't able enough to excel within the rules. Instead they come to it
gradually and reluctantly, for their own reasons. It is a personal journey with
meaning only to that young person who tries first of all to fit in rather than
to rebel.
The Strictly Ballroom dancer was the best at all the conventional
steps, and then he needed even more, to grow beyond their limits. Tobey Maguire
knew and loved everything about the old black-and-white tv world—he didn't
want to rebel, but eventually it happened in spite of his desire to fit in, just
because its limits couldn't hold him forever.
The preacher's daughter in Footloose who just wants to rebel and run
away has a horrible time of it until she's inspired to understand her own
feelings and her father's feelings as well. Same with the Dirty Dancing daughter,
who is such a good girl in every way, until she meets the rebel dance teacher
and her generous heart grows even more, finally breaking through beyond
societal limitations. All the successful hero characters first steep themselves in
the rules and boundaries and learn to understand them, thereby also learning
about and eventually exceeding their own limitations through experience. These
are acts of personal growth and discovery, not social rebellion.
That's how we see unschooling. That's the Power of Our Story.
Not trying to rebel or decide anything for anyone else, or reform the
public schools or take over homeschooling. We are simply being true to our own
family's journey of personal growth and discovery. We do this just like in
the movies, by first knowing more than most people about what those boundaries
are and how to live within them and what is possible beyond them. And
sometimes, it just happens to have revolutionary import of which we never dreamed! :)
JJ
Movies for CHEERING UP! Recommended by Paula/sjogy 1/18/02:
Monty Python
Wallace & Grommet (animation)
Muppets Treasure Island
The Princess Bride
Born Yesterday
Raising Arizona
O Brother Where Art Thou
Galaxy Quest (highly recommended!)
Meet the Parents
Dana recommends:
Billy Murray in "The man who knew too little"
Steve Martin's "The Jerk"
guaranteed to lift your spirits :)
Good for awakening ideas about learning:
Mary Poppins
The Sound of Music
Ferris Beuller's Day Off (too rough for some little kids)
Heidi (Shirley Temple)
Just plain rich with images, characters, history, ideas, STUFF:
Spartacus
El Cid
Ben Hur
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Star Wars (all)
Karate Kid (all three in marathon was cool once!)
Hamlet (I like the one with Mel Gibson)
Romeo and Juliet (I like the one by from Zeffirelli from 1968)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Music Man
The Last Starfighter
Last Action Hero
The Patriot
I think those would be easy to see the wealth in. When you get better at it,
more comfortable with what your child likes, knows, and wants to know, you
could find lots of value in just about any movie. We had plenty to talk
about the other day with The Little Princess, with Shirley Temple. We talked
LOTS about characterization and motivation and plot detail after the first
Ninja Turtle Movie, when the boys were little. They have learned to milk a
movie for all it's worth, and I helped. Marty came in halfway through Joe
vs. the Volcano (which I bought at the fleamarket after someone quoted it
here, or at unschooling.com), and though I offered to rewind it, he was happy
to just pick up where it was and fall into it.
How NOT to watch movies:
Don't be cynical and critical and dismissive. Find the good acting, the good
sets, the good props. Don't say "OH BROTHER." If there's a movie you really
don't like, don't watch it with your kids. For me, that is Robin Hood,
Prince of Thieves, which I think is atrocious. I walked out of it in the
theatre. It was on TV the other night, and I watched some I had missed that
first night, and TRIED to watch it to the end, but the script and the acting
and the whole concept just irritated me beyond bearing, and I turned it off.
If someone else had been watching too and been interested, I would have just
left the room instead and let them watch in peace.
Can others add movies to this list? I'll just gather up a list and put it on
the web and when this discussion comes up again we can send people there for
viewing ideas.
Sandra
I can't make a long list—I'll have to just add them as they come
Fiddler on the Roof
All Mel Brooks movies - especially The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and The
Twelve Chairs
The Muppets Treasure Island
The Muppets Christmas Carol
Time Bandits
Wallace and Gromit cartoons - and Chicken Run
Into the West
The Secret of Roan Inish
paula, in a family of movie lovers
(sjogy)
So, I am adding our favorite movie videos to this list.
* The King and I
*
* The Sound of Music
*
* Kiki's Delivery Service
*
* My Neighbor Totoro
*
* The Indian in the Cupboard
*
* Wild America
*
* The Ten Commandments
AnneO
The Truman Show (soundtrack too)
Songcatcher (also own the "soundtrack" even though it isn't really from the
movie, but inspired by it)
I don't think anyone mentioned The Princess Bride
Defending Your Life
The Fifth Element
Ditto on Time Bandits and The Secret of Roan Inish.
Jocelyn Vilter
Anne Mills posted this on Facebook in May 2010:
MY OWN UNSCHOOLING MOVIES LIST
MUSIC & LYRICS avec Hugh Grant (pour ado mais ca peut etre bien) très drôle le début et quand Hugh est sur chante en concert...
MAMA MIA avec Merryl Streep - pure merveille musicale
Sister Act
Men in Black
The Blues Brothers
The Commitments
Dirty Dancing
Pretty Woman
Nacho Libre avec Jack Black SO SO FUNNY
SCHOOL OF ROCK
Top Ten Favorite Movie... lists by Lisa Bentley's family, on their "Do Life Right" blog. There are two movie lists (one by her husband, for dads), and top TV shows they saw in 2007. The movie lists include many older movies, and each listing has great commentary.
Joyce Fetteroll has collected other people's movie recommendations too, and those lists are
here
Thoughts about repeated viewings: Again! Again!
Much more on movies
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connections
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strewing
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