The Sell Job: Watching Old Movies With Kids

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

One of the things we who write about classic film, whether we’re bloggers or otherwise, get asked alllllll the time is, “How do I get my kids to watch old movies?”

This is totally understandable. Kids’ content is not what it used to be, streaming services can be unreliable as far as recommendations go (What is Friends doing in HBO Max’s kids’ section?), and too many celebs and filmmakers have alienated audiences, so naturally people are looking for alternatives.

In my case, the old movie love started young, probably around junior high, because in the late eighties and early nineties VCRs were becoming relatively cheap and video stores were everywhere. It was a big event when The Hunt For Red October was released on VHS for a cool eighty dollars.

At first my old movie experiences were love by association. My parents were born in 1941 and 1942, and when we went to the video store we made a beeline for the classics because those were the movies they saw as kids and were excited to see again. Pretty much everything was fair game, from war movies to westerns to musicals to sci-fi to screwball comedy. Three generations of my immediate family have Yankee Doodle Dandy memorized because we’d watch it every year on Independence Day. My dad still watches it. The rest of us politely beg off, although we like the movie.

My son started even younger than I did because he’s never known a time without easily accessible home media. He’s seen the old and the new, even silent films. One of his favorite movies is the 1920 German expressionist masterpiece, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which I highly recommend, by the way, especially for Tim Burton fans. It. Is. Awesome.

It might seem like I’m bragging, but we’re really not special as far as tastes and experiences go. Anyone can be a classic movie fan, even if they come into it knowing next to nothing about them, and here are my tips for introducing kids (and grownups) to the fantastic, rich world of old movies:

Black and white is no big deal.

So often “How do I get my kids to watch old movies?” is followed up by, “My kids hate anything in black and white.” If this is your kids, don’t sweat it. There’s so much to like about Old Movie World that the black-and-white vs. color beef will be just a footnote.

Take inventory.

Chances are, kids have already seen some old movies and didn’t even know it. Like The Wizard of Oz. Or the Hayley Mills version of The Parent Trap. Or The Sound of Music. Or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. These and others can easily be gateway films for the more hardcore stuff like Singin’ In the Rain and Casablanca.

Don’t go it alone.

Picking movies can be overwhelming whether one is a film newbie or not, and a guidebook is a huge boon. I like Leonard Maltin because he’s super-OG and one of the nicest people in the film industry. Roger Ebert is terrific as well, natch. The guides can be a little expensive, but the classic movie volumes and Great Film guides won’t date the way the year-specific books inevitably do.

Look for the familiar.

This is a no-brainer. If your kids enjoyed Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, they might enjoy Listen, Darling or In the Good Old Summertime. Maybe your family are classic rock fans, so A Hard Day’s Night or Elvis movies would be shoo-ins. Or if your kids liked the new Father of the Bride movie, the 1991 and 1950 versions may be worth a look. Other fun rabbit holes are all the different versions of Peter Pan that have been made over the years or trope fests like Forbidden Planet and Them!.

Let kids pick.

What can work for picky eaters can work for picky movie-watchers, too: If kids are involved in the decision-making process, they’re more likely to be into whatever is on the screen. Maybe. We all have the right to change our minds. One of the cool things about classic film is that any movie made during the Production Code Era (between 1934 and 1966) will be pretty safe as far as content goes, so there are lots and lots of choices.

Go for the crazy, even if it’s in black and white.

One of the obstacles to The Sell Job is the fear that old movies will move too slowly for kids who are used to quick cuts and meme-friendly dialogue, and this can be true. However, plenty of old movies get plenty nutty, delightfully so. Some great examples are Arsenic and Old Lace, Support Your Local Sheriff, You Can’t Take It With You, Bringing Up Baby, and The Doughgirls.

Give kids something to look for.

When I watched Strangers On a Train in one of my university film studies classes, the professor encouraged us to notice all the times Alfred Hitchcock used pairs of objects or crossed objects as metaphors for Bruno’s duplicity (There are a lot). Kids could also count how many times a certain word or phrase is used. Or predict whether a movie will have a happy or sad ending. The sky’s the limit.

Don’t force anything.

This is a big one, as parents know. Kids tend to dig their heels in if they feel pushed into something, and old movies should not be one of those things. They’re supposed to be fun. If kids won’t jump into Old Movie World with both feet or even dip a toenail in, don’t worry about it. As the cliche goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and down the road your kids may surprise everyone with their old movie-loving prowess.