Clash of the Titans....or How to torture a 6 year old

[Deej]

When I was a kid, I remember visiting a relative’s home and being sat down in front of the TV while the “Grown Folks” did and talked about whatever “Grown Folks” do and talk about. The program I was conned into watching was the old Superman TV show, 1950’s, bloated George Reeves, b&w, in short everything that kids don’t want to see. Being a rather astute young man, I quickly noticed that this wasn’t the Superman I had in mind, the Chris Reeve movie was really big at the time. It was explained to me that while the show didn’t have the new fangled special effects that the new movie has, it was still really good and that I’d enjoy if I just watched it….LIES! But, watch it I did. Apparently, I wasn’t that astute after all.

I mention this because I recently was on the other side of this con. My girlfriend/better-half/significant other/ball & chain has a wonderful 6 year old son whom I love very much. I would never do anything to harm his fragile psyche or otherwise do harm to him. But, I recently purchased a dvd copy of Clash of the Titans(which I haven’t seen in years). When I was seven, this movie was cool as hell, as I haven’t grown up much in the last 21 years, the movie is still cool as hell to me. So, in an attempt to be a strong male role model and impart a bit of my life wisdom on the young child, I invited him to watch the flick with me. I explained that the special effects were not what he was used to but that it was really good and if he’d just watch it…….well, failure. Dismal, horrible, hurtful, mind-rending failure. He politely suffered through about 45 minutes of this classic of classics before he quietly drifted off into another room, to play with the dogs, a toy, do my taxes, anything but watch the movie. Granted, it’s a bit dated, and the effects are seriously old-school, but there’s plenty of blood and hacking, and stabbing and all the other things I know he likes and that we often enjoy together, where did we go wrong.  I realize he’s just a kid, but he was able to pay rapt attention to The Two Towers, while I was forced to go alphabetize my cd’s.

I think this will cause me to lose sleep! What if he grows up wrong? What if(horror of horrors)he grows into a man with a boring video collection? I am truly agonizing over this. I know you can’t make someone into what you want them to be, or into a version of yourself, but how to spare him from a life of pg-13, Josh Hartnett, Mark Wahlburg, remake of cool film, movie watching?  Oh, the humanity!!!

[Ash]

How could he not like "Clash of the Titans"!?

I remember loving it as a kid and I watched it about 6 months ago and it was every bit as good now as it was then.

His dislike for it is truly mind boggling!
It has everything a young kid could love....magic helmets, shields, swords, Calibos Lord of the Marsh, Pegasus, the Kraken, giant scorpions, a mechanical owl, Cerebrus the 3 headed dog & best of all Medusa!
My friend Jill has two kids under the age of 10 and they absolutely love it.

If it were me I'd ask him what he didn't like about it.

No offense but maybe he's just weird.

[Eirik]

I agree that Clash has everything that a six year old kid ought to love.  However the answer to the quandry is in the original post.  This kid saw Two Towers?  What do you expect?  The bar has been raised.  My dad could never figure out why I didn't think the original Thing From Another World was scary at all.  News Flash - I grew up with Halloween, Alien, Jaws...  The Thing From Another World??  The monster was a guy with a prosthetically enlarged forehead, and you only saw him twice!  It's kinda like taking a kid to see Saving Private Ryan and then wondering why he didn't think Sands of Iwo Jima was realistic.

[Jim H]

When you're six, you don't care how good the effects are.  About all I have to add.

[Susan]

>>He politely suffered through about 45 minutes of this classic of classics before he quietly drifted off into another room, to play with the dogs, a toy, do my taxes, anything but watch the movie. Granted, it’s a bit dated,<<

It has nothing to do with being dated. It's the fact that parents today never expose their kids to old movies from an early age(let alone non-animated films or films that aren't technically kiddie films), and most kids are over-stimulated and can only sit down through a movie if it's hyper and loaded with constant action and a pumping score.

[Deej]

Susan wrote:
>
> It has nothing to do with being dated. It's the fact that
> parents today never expose their kids to old movies from an
> early age(let alone non-animated films or films that aren't
> technically kiddie films), and most kids are over-stimulated
> and can only sit down through a movie if it's hyper and loaded
> with constant action and a pumping score.
>

You could have a point there, Susan. My old man used to watch a lot of old westerns on the tube when I was a kid, which , I guess conditioned me to older films and b&w. And, of course, I developed a huge love for old b&w movies(where my love of craptastic cinema comes from, I don't know).

I'm considering an Ipcress File/A Clockwork Orange-style form of old movie saturation. Expose him to nothing else but old and hugely crappy films!! Just can't figure out how to build a sensory deprivation chamber, or where to put it once built, no room in the hallway. Also, how to place those metal bits on his eyes to keep him shutting his eyelids!?! Almost impossible without his mom putting the kabash on it, or social services getting involved. Well, perhaps I'll just accept defeat and be thankful that he never enjoyed Barney videos. Small favors, right?

PS. Many thanks to daveblackeye15 for introducing me to the word "craptastic". Can't get it out of my dented little head!! My new favorite word, next to "Misanthrope".



Post Edited (11-16-03 11:29)

[Anon E. Mouse]

Seek the help of an Exorcist.  Seriously.

[Susan]

I think conditioning isn't a far fetched idea, it's a reality and can easily be imposed on any child. When I was a kid we didn't watch whatever i wanted on the tv (like alot of parents do now just to please the kids). I had to sit through Dallas, or other boring grown-up shows or watch their movies, James Bond, War movies and so on. So I ended up watching reruns of the Honeymooners, little rascals..a wide assortment of movies and tv shows that weren't *kiddie* stuff nor soley animated. In time I was a 7 year old who LOVED the classics as much as current films..plus I don't remember a whole lot of kiddie films back then anyways, mostly "family" films. Now our society caters to children like they are demi-gods, and all movies that come out for them are fast-paced animated stuff, not to mention most kids have tv's in their room and watch cartoon network 24 hours a day. They have leapfrog books that talk and teach them to read, all their toys and stuffed animals have to talk or light up and do something (look at infant toys as well)

Over-stimulation

It's no wonder kids are so dang hyper. I mean do you remember a generation whether every other weekend a movie was hitting theaters "just for kids"? Most people's movie collections are largely comprised of movies FOR their kids. When I was a kid there were about 2 kid movies in our collection (101 dalmations and pete's dragon) and the rest was stuff like King Kong, Clash of the Titans midway, 10 commandments, cheech and chong..etc. (and btw I was never traumatized by it like we live in this bubble in today's society where we think every little thing is going to send a child into therapy and he'll never recover - which is ironic since all they do is play violent video games and grow up to watch excessively violent movies)

And yeah, we sat through cheech and chong, our parents realized at age 5 we didn't know what pot was nor cared, and if boobs came on the tube mom would promptly cover my eyes..lol. My folks liked doing things as a family, they didn't just let the tv babysit us..we watched it together. There is hope, either keep exposing them to that stuff and don't tell them it's OLD or a classic or they already draw their opinions. Plus i think they become more open minded as they get older...at least the potential is there, hopefully a responsible adult is there to nurture it and to expose them to good films. I say when they are young make it fun, have a picnic spread on the floor. Or maybe when going to the video store let THEM pick out the movie, but steer them away from the new movie section and have them browse through the genre's.



Post Edited (11-16-03 11:35)

[jmc]

My eleven year old nephew stayed over last night and we watched 2 horror films, HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION and the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.  He agreed with me that the first was mostly lame--he definitely didn't like Busta Rhymes karate kicking Michael Myers.  He had never seen any of the TCM films, remake or otherwise and he really seemed to enjoy TEXAS CHAINSAW.  He said that "It's a scary movie that gets right to the point!"  

I can easily see how a six-year old who likes the Peter Jackson LOTR movies might not like CLASH OF THE TITANS.  I think I was maybe nine years old when it came out and even though I liked it I definitely felt like it was a show for kids.  If there had been anything like the LOTR films around there I probably wouldn't have liked CLASH OF THE TITANS that much either.  But then, I was kind of a weird kid--I decided around eight or nine years old that all the cartoons were stupid so I started watching LOST IN SPACE and TWILIGHT ZONE reruns on the UHF channel.

[FearlessFreep]

Mi kids like the new Star Wars movies but also really like "Them" and the old Godzilla movies

[Mitch McAfee]

Now,  I love Harryhausen. I have original, framed posters & lobby cards of his films proudly hanging up around the house. My Harryhausen collection is vast & I've spent thousands & thousands on it.

Yep I'm a Stop Motion / Harryhausen nerd. And proud of it ;-) And I love all of his films except Clash of the Titans! ( Eye of The Tiger is a guilty pleasure)...

Clash bores the pants of me!!!!! I cannot sit through this film, usually just skip to the Dynamation sequences. The direction is so stodgy & wooden. The live action moves at such a snails pace that you can't help but wonder how they thought they could compete with more dynamic & exciting films of the time (like Raiders, Star Wars, Superman etc).

Granted the dynamations bits are exciting, in particular the Medusa sequence. But sheesh!

A real shame that Ray's last film was this stinker.

[AndyC]

Hard to imagine a kid not liking Clash of the Titans. Although, Greek mythology might not be as familiar to kids today. I agree that the difference in special effects isn't really that noticeable to younger children. Probably just a good idea to put it in, tell him its a cool movie, and don't bother with any explanations or apologies that might make him put his guard up. I used to watch a lot of old shows when I was a kid, and was blissfully unaware that they were from well before my time.

I can relate to Susan. When I was that age, we had one TV that we all watched together. Being one vote in a family of six, and the youngest by several years, we didn't often watch what I wanted. So, I found myself watching a lot of MASH, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore and other shows with comedy based on politics and adult relationships and other things that went right over my head. Likewise, there were detective shows and dramas and news programs and nature shows and old movies and all kinds of other stuff that I'll admit I didn't like at first. Of course, I grew into it, and I'm thankful I wasn't able to just watch a bunch of kids' shows. Kids need to be challenged. If we keep them insulated in their own child-centred world, how are they ever supposed to grow out of it?

[Susan]

>>( Eye of The Tiger is a guilty pleasure)... <<

I'm so glad i'm not in that boat alone - that is my favorite sinbad movie ;-)

[daveblackeye15]

Deej said

You're Quite welcome Deej. Today..I realized that  I made a difference in the world (Craptastic does have a nice ring to it you know).

Anyway, It makes sense that kids today are raised on hyperactive and loud stuff and find older movies boring, thankfully I've always loved older movies (maybe it was Toho's "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster" that started me on the path ) and also thankfully I've actually got several friends that i've helped them discover the older movies. My best friend says that "Night of the Living Dead" is one of his top five favorite horror movies and he's the same age as me,(16) .Sadly another one of my friends thought that Mad Max, and Road Warrior, were boring as hell (well actually he thinks all aged movies are dull) Clash of the Titans is a very fun movie.

[Deej]

daveblackeye15 wrote:

.Sadly another
> one of my friends thought that Mad Max, and Road Warrior, were
> boring as hell (well actually he thinks all aged movies are
> dull)

I suppose I can understand how the Road-Warrior movies could seem dated, but never boring. Well, maybe the bit with the primitive kids in Thunderdome. That was pretty yawn inducing. But in all, I think they're pretty exciting, action packed, edge of your seat, thrill O' rama type flicks.

However, after watching I Love The 80's Strikes Back, it does seem kinda like a leather queen's wet dream(not that there's anything wrong with that). Subtext aside, I dig 'em.