they don’t make ‘em like they used to
so i just finished watching “willow” and “the neverending story” back to back. it had been several years since i’d seen “willow” last, and easily twenty years since i’d seen “the neverending story.” the cool thing was that they both held up very well, but the remarkable thing was how incredibly dark both films are.
i’d often joked with students that growing up in the ’80s was profoundly different then growing up in the late ’09s and the ’00s. we used to do things like play all-neighborhood flashlight tag and hide-and-go seek, sledding down hills into oncoming traffic and so forth - things that no parent today would let their kids do.
and so upon watching these two films, i was reminded of how different childrens’ movies were when i was growing up. having taught younger kids before moving on to high school, i had a fairly good pulse on modern childrens’ movies, and in the last ten years or so, only “the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe” comes close to the peril of ’80s movies.
“the neverending story” features death, suicide, violence towards young children (not implied, but depicted), profound cruelty and desolation. even so, the film is engrossing (sans a very poorly placed pop song), and is a better depiction of being young (and bookish, as was my case) than most anything today’s kids are exposed to.
if you remember watching these movies as a kid, definitely throw them into your netflix queue… just not the shit sequels :)
