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After a conversation about video games at dinner I realised that the media the kids consume is full of cultural references and inspirations that they know absolutely nothing about. And as avid internet users they see many memes that they have no idea where they're from. We tried to make movies a family thing a long time ago but my eldest can't watch films so we basically stopped doing it. But turns out my youngest, nearly 12, really wants to watch films with us. She's now mature enough to appreciate young person/teen movies, so what should go on the list?
Bagpuss
Ivor the engine
Life of Brian
The Holy Grail
Obviously the first two aren't films but to be fair I don't think I could take 100 minutes of grumbly gasworks
Bad Taste - ‘Ooh aren’t I lucky, I got a chunky bit’
Animal House - ‘What am I? A zit’
Cheech and Chong’s up in smoke - ‘This is called Labrador. Cause next door’s dog ate my stash and I had to follow the mother****er around with a baggie’
Ghostbusters
Groundhog Day
Spinal Tap
Animal House seconded
Breakfast Club
Lost Boys
Beetlejuice
Heathers
Lots of things. What does she like?
Lost boys
ferris bulers day off
goonies
all the back to the future films
princess bride.
local hero possibly
os trainspottimg a bit to sweary and druggy???
Breakfast club
Weekend at Bernie's
Easy a
Ferris buellers day off (obvs)
Space balls.
Holes
(and don't forget to tell her who 'the Fonz' was) 😉
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars
Back to the Future
Stand by Me
Dirty Dancing
Footloose
Mamma Mia
All wend down very well with my young teenage daughters.
Life of Brian did not........
Cultural references that are meme relevent?
Aliens
Predator
Terminator 2
That should get you going for starters.
quadrophenia - as long as you ignore the 125 outside the window.
For example, this meme would mean nothing to someone whos never watched T2:
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Gremlins
Wayne's World
Bill and Ted
The ones my daughters absolutely loved when we were doing cultural education stuff at about the same age
Blazing Saddles
Breakfast Club
Bill and Ted
Waynes World
Life of Brian
Ferris Buellers Day Off
The Holy Grail
They both quote Wayne’s World, Bill and Ted and Life of Brian all the time
He’s not the messiah!!!…
Bill and Ted
Waynes World
These are good shouts, but they have not aged well, IMO.
Wayne's world
Total recall
Preditor
Deliverence
Several others like full metal jack or load of Vietnam films but might be a bit mutch for a 12 year-old but you know her best
Ready Player One would be my suggestion. Full of cultural references from the original story. Failing that, Porkies? 😁
Maybe Good Will Hunting? And one I have made my slightly older kids watch is Meet Joe Black. Not necessarily cultural references, but big movies from our time. Maybe even Die Hard, such a great movie that is still referenced today.
My kids have even endured Matrix, but just the first one. Was good for them to see where a lot of modern day effects have emerged from.
Eat the rich
Loads of films mentioned here that I used to absolutely love but how often do you go back and watch them? Sometimes it's hard!
Films have changed. Old ones are sloooow. I've been rewatching a lot of old favourites recently and they don't half plod along. If you've blitzed your attention span with YouTube and scrolling you've got no chance.
There's not much here I'd share with an 11 or 12 year old.
Predator is still the best monster film ever made though. I'll watch that every time it's on.
I'm not sure she'll get Spinal Tap. It's a mockumentary poking fun at bands she's never heard of in a 30 year old genre.
I think you have to have had a certain level of religious and historical education to understand Life of Brian I think.
You’re overthinking it Molls. You don’t need to be overly familiar with too many parts of the Old Testament to find Bigus Dickus funny
As we’re all left-footers, so my offspring have had a catholic education forced on them, they found the Life of Brian absolutely brilliant
Forest Gump for cultural references
Gladiator?
Yep, great film.
The colour Purple
In the heat of the night
Schindler's List
And the epic Conan films.. Red Sonja basically anything with Arnie in it.
And commando.
And Twins!
Not Ghostbusters. Blowjobs and sex etc not good for kids.
All the Marvel films
Jurassic Park/World etc
And Rambo -first blood.
Ivor the Engine: I don’t think I could take 100 minutes of grumbly gasworks
I have the DVD set. There's a story line with one episode feeding into the next.
This completely escaped me as a kid catching random episodes on a weekday afternoon at 5pm.
And:
- Grease
Not Ghostbusters. Blowjobs and sex etc not good for kids.
I was 13 when it came out, I think the average 12 year old now knows a lot more than I did back then. It's my most watched film ever, I had a copied VHS that I must have watched 50+ times. I think it was the only film I had.
"the flowers are still standing!"
Silence of the lambs
Rambo
Jay and silent bob strike back
Blue juice
National Lampoon's Vacation and European Vacation
.. but a strong chance it was just my family / childhood that made them so amusing to us.
Thinking about Gladiator, Terminator and Austin Powers for my kids.
Plus the whole Rick Moranis key master stuff.
Hang on a minute. Why does the youth of today need to know the cultural references of their forefathers? Surely they can and should be creating there own cultural references?
I mean, everything we've been quoting is stuff that is from the time when we grew up, and not the time our parents/grandparents grew up. Otherwise we'd be cracking up over tommy trinder gags
Some of what I grew up with is now considered racist, sexist, homophobic, Ivor and bagpuss possibly not but I've never felt comfortable with Madeleine the rag doll. Why not professor Madeleine
It feels a bit our cultural references are better than yours, and are the only true way
Romanus Domus!
Airplane
Cool runnings
Uncle Buck
Blues brothers
Planes Trains and automobiles
Anything else with John candy
ET
Beetle Juice (?)
Hang on a minute. Why does the youth of today need to know the cultural references of their forefathers? Surely they can and should be creating there own cultural references?
So they can be included in the joke, share the fun!
How did Darth Vader know what Luke was getting for Christmas? He felt his presents.
That doesn't work if you don't know what it's referencing.
It's not about better or worse, it's just acknowledging that there's a wider culture and it can be nice to participate in it.
Oh I totally agree,. But By that metric I'll need to go back and get all the jokes and sketches from the 40s 50s and 60s so Ive got a idea what the hell my parents are s****ing at
You should, there are some absolute classics!
I would choose Bringing Up Baby or Philadelphia Story over the latest film about CGI superheroes flinging trucks at each other any day, any day, any day (Mr shankly)
Hang on a minute. Why does the youth of today need to know the cultural references of their forefathers? Surely they can and should be creating there own cultural references?
I know what you're saying, but my 19 year old daughters favourite film is The Breakfast Club, made decades before she was born. Because the subject is absolutely universal and just as relevant to her as it was to us.
Its probably aged better than than the rest as its all essentially filmed in one room anyway, and since 80's/90's retro stuff is what all da kidz are wearing nowadays even the clothes are the same. It could have been filmed last week 😂
And the epic Conan films
The bit where he's living in a cage and they throw terrified (but sexy) women in for his pleasure is eye opening.
Weird Science
I watched that very recently and I wish I'd left it in my memory banks.
National Lampoon's Summer Vacation
Oh my god, the dog went on the picnic basket!
Pink Panther (Peter Sellers)
Birdy num nums!
Twins
One MILLLLION dollars
Hang on a minute. Why does the youth of today need to know the cultural references of their forefathers?
Good question. Because every film (or book etc) is built on a cultural foundation of every other film. They don't exist on their own. Everything has cultural context.
Star wars is an obvious example. Ir is a space film with baddies, sure. But who are the baddies? It's not really discussed, but we understand they characters because they're based on Nazis from war films which we've also seen. We understand the Jedi thing because it's based on Chinese martial arts concepts that we are families with. There's very little screen time devoted to Luke's dissatisfaction living in the sticks and his desire to leave town and get some excitement because it's a standard film trope that we all understand. But you understand it better if you've seen other films that feature it. The scene in The Force Awakens (is it?) Where the baddies destroy the village, we recognise that from more modern war films and that made it all the more chilling for me. We know what's going on when we see it.
The Breakfast Club features four stereotypes familiar to American audiences from their own high school experiences. But not ours. How do we know all about the conflicts between jocks, geeks, bad boys and rich girls? Because of all the films we've seen about them.
I mean of course you can watch and enjoy films regardless, but you'll get more.out of them if you understand where they come from, how and why they're made and what they're really about.
Auberge Espagnol
Subway
The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei)
Les Bronzés font du ski
Jamõn Jamõn
Run Lola Run
Les Délices de Tokyo
All watched twice, first in VO then with subtitles or dubbed. Because the world is multi-cultural.
Not Ghostbusters. Blowjobs and sex etc not good for kids.
Went straight over my daughters head, if they understand then they already know about it.
Oh and Porkies was shit. Was of its time but there are a million better improvements to that formula. I'd rather watch Police Academy.
Anyway, my suggestions:
Red Bank series (Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma, J&SBSB etc.). I'd start with Mallrats.
Aliens, predator etc.
Robocop & 2
Terminator & 2
Tropic Thunder
Tank Girl
Star Wars films then Spaceballs
Some 90s gangster films followed by Don't Be a Menace To South Central...
Hackers
Baseketball
Mad Max series
Brat pack stuff. Ferris Beuller at minimum.
Total Recall
Death Race 2000 (can watch the Statham one later)
Human Traffic
The Matrix & Animatrix (leave it there)
Gremlins
BTTF series
Pick a Nick Cage film but if stuck Con Air
Speed
Mean Girls
Shrek
Beverly Hills Cop
Labyrinth
Muppets Christmas Carol
Blues Brothers
Carwash
TV:
Spaced
End of the day she's your kid and you know her better than we do to decide what's relevant or suitable. At that age I'd be fine with anything rated 15 and 18 at discretion (bearing in mind a lot of 80s stuff is unbelievably tame by today's standards).
@edukator I think you've missed the point somewhat, none of those bar one really hit mainstream culture which was what the brief was. However on that note:
Taxi (original French films)
5th Element (because Besson & it's fantastic)
Battle Royale
Run Lola Run (definitely agree)
Pick a Nick Cage film but if stuck Con Air
Con Air???
Con Air is quite possibly the worst film, and indeed the worst piece of entertainment of any type, in all of recorded history! Even Vogon poetry wasn't as bad 😅
Withnail and I.
Winner of the Internet today goes to @duncancallum.
Everyone should have an Uncle Monty.
<p style="text-align: left;">+ Shallow Grave should be in there. Quality.</p>
Well if everybody else is just going to pick films they liked in their youth then:
Eraserhead, Withnail & I, Naked Lunch, Videodrome, Terminator, Aliens (attempted to watch Alien not that long ago and got bored). Existenz, Time Crimes. The less mainstream films because the mainstream "classics" will get shoved down their throat at some point anyway!
All watched twice, first in VO then with subtitles or dubbed. Because the world is multi-cultural.
Not sure if it's really of interest to the OP's kids, but for rave / acid house / 80s history, the documentary "Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain" is ace. Essentially rave culture presented to present day school teenagers. Or as the blub says, "A re-evaluation of acid house, a musical phenomenon that, as this film shows, did not spring out of nowhere, but owed its emergence to the social and political landscape of 1980s Britain." From memory, it includes the miners strike and the Battle of the Beanfield.
Pops up on iPlayer now and again.
Con Air is quite possibly the worst film, and indeed the worst piece of entertainment of any type, in all of recorded history!
Almost. Con Air is quite possibly the best film, and indeed the best piece of entertainment of any type, in all recorded history.
Love Con Air. Perfect mindless entertainment. I mean,
ranks alongside Taxi Driver's "you talkin' to me" scene for inspired dialogue and breathtaking acting.
"none of those bar one really hit mainstream culture which was what the brief was."
I suggest you read Molgrips opening post again. The word "mainstream" does not appear. It's about memes and cultural references. The main thing in my head about the Taxi films is the number of times I've seen its main star in the news in court for various offences.
However, if I use a quip from les Bronzés it usually gets a laugh, Auberge Espagnol plays delightfully with stereotypes (especially the British male)... there's something to be learned from all of them.
I also thought about the Molgrips audience, a young female. There are no explosions, stupid stunts or laughable computer graphics in any of my suggestions. There's romance (and sometimes passion gone wrong), male/female balance, social comment, insights into different stages in peoples lives, and only one person gets killed (in the Spanish one)
And why pick on me, Sqirrelking? Some of the other suggestions on the thread are properly shit and uttterly inappropriate. 😉 No need to answer the question, I know the answer.
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
No, the OP stated:
the media the kids consume is full of cultural references and inspirations that they know absolutely nothing about
Now unless those films have some inspiration or impact on said references then my point stands.
And why pick on me, Sqirrelking? Some of the other suggestions on the thread are properly shit. 😉 No need to answer the question, I know the answer.
I'm afraid you'll have to answer for me then since I only "picked" on you since you missed the brief so widely.
And shit or not, they are still culturally relevant. Culture doesn't begin and end in the art house.
You always find fault with whatever I post, Squirrelking. You often only enter threads to slag me of, insult me or moan about me using non British references. You've done it here again.
Penelope Cruz, Cecile de France, Romain Duris, Isabelle Adjani, Christophe Lambert, Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch... Cultural references to die for. 🙂
Edit: I make a point of not entering a thread to slag off what you say however outrageous I find it, I'm perceptive enough to have realised you have a thing about me and do nothing to provoke you, it would be nice if that non-aggression poilicy were reciprocated.
Okay last word on this.
Can you please stop with this persecution complex nonsense? Stop flattering yourself that I actually care enough about your opinions that I go looking for you to ridicule them. I don't. I just passed comment about your wildly off the mark suggestions, get over it.
Now kindly stop defecating on this thread and try not making it about you. Nobody else is impressed by this nonsense.
If you think the cultural touchstones of a generation (which is what the thread is actually about) are
Auberge Espagnol
Subway
The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei)
Les Bronzés font du ski
Jamõn Jamõn
Run Lola Run
Les Délices de Tokyo
Then you probably need to take a moment, take a step back and maybe think about taking your head out from up your own arse 🙄
To use a quote from Mike Leigh’s Naked, which you’ve probably made your kids watch, dubbed in Spanish, then again with Icelandic subtitles
“Are you taking the ****ing piss?!!”
“I thought you were giving it away”
Jamõn Jamõn
I'm not sure Gary Glitter songs are really appropriate for kids in this day and age 😕
She's 12. Robocop? Really? The opening sequence?
Not sure if it’s really of interest to the OP’s kids, but for rave / acid house / 80s history
Umm...
Anyway I don't think you will get much out of a spoof movie unless you have already seen the things it's sending up.
@molgrips as I said, it's your call and not necessarily something to be watched right now but it's a fantastic satire like Starship Troopers was later on. In fact it's a fantastic movie on many levels so I stand by that.
I was looking at it more as a list for the next few years and beyond. Make watching shitty old movies with dad night a thing.
And any spoofs I listed were after the relevant material.
Edit: what about the opening sequence? Do you mean later when Murphy gets shot to hell?
If i could take a quick side bar - the one , and only, time i have personally interacted with you @Edukator, you said that we, and i quote, "never" agree on anything. As if it was some sort of running blood feud.
It was literally the first time i had ever talked directly with you about anything.
And tbf you really don't seem to have understood the remit of this thread.
Though Isabelle Adjani walking down those steps into the Subway still makes my heart go pitter-pat.
shock corridor
top gun
the god father 1 and 2
and all the other films recommended above
and band of brothers.
Harry Potter
Toy Story 1-3
Finding Nemo
Big Wednesday
BMX Bandits
RAD
Star wars is an obvious example. Ir is a space film with baddies, sure. But who are the baddies? It’s not really discussed, but we understand they characters because they’re based on Nazis from war films which we’ve also seen. We understand the Jedi thing because it’s based on Chinese martial arts concepts that we are families with.
Good point - should add a classic Shaw Brothers martial arts film to the list. Or Way of the Dragon (if the scene where his sister dies isn't ott) and Fist of Fury. Bruce Lee has to be one of the greatest cross-cultural film icons of the 20th century?
", “never” agree on anything. "
We don't, more evidence in this thread.
Actors embody more than just their roles. Jane Birkin has died and there have been hours dedicated to her on my favourite radio and TV channels. It's not just about her music and films, it's about her letter to Pompidou about the death penalty and in general her part in the fight for human rights. Adjani likewise, she is a cultural and social reference.
Jeez you guys live in a tiny blinkered world. I hope Molgrip's daughter is more open to things foreign, finds inspiration in them and things worth referencing. When even the most staunch remainers on STW demonstrate such resistance to things foreign was Brexit really such a surprise.
Adjani in Subway "Monsieur le Préfet, votre baraque est nul, votre dîner est nul est je vous emmerde tous"
The ones my daughters absolutely loved when we were doing cultural education stuff at about the same age
Blazing Saddles
That's a bold choice, I love them film but not sure it would go down well with my 12 year old son.
He really liked Life of Brian, Terminator 1&2, Tremors was a really favourite as was Shaun of the dead.
There's loads of decent suggestions on here, I probably wouldn't add much to it, the thing that I found cool, was just the idea of spending time watching and talking about them with my kids. That shared experience of laughing crying and creating "family jokes" is what it's all about.
A few more occurred to me last night - some later ones would fit the bill:
Anchorman (well, that escalated quickly)
Napoleon dynamite
Did anyone say Groundhog Day?
Edukator List
Is that for real? You forgot Salo.
----
Don't forget the film's outs parents suggested.
Zulu, Lawrence of Arabia, Ice Cold in Alex, On the Waterfront etc.
And grand parents....
Metropolis. ....
And....Birth of a Nation.