Half-Pint House

War Horse

 

I broke a cardinal rule before taking my entire family to see War Horse earlier this month. I did not bother to watch a single trailer or even read a synopsis of the movie. And, no, the name War Horse did not even tip me off. It's been *that* kind of a semester. So, yes, I took my 12, 11, 9, and 8 year old girls to see a movie about war. And horses. And war. And I didn't realize I was doing it. I just thought, "It's Steven Spielberg, for cryin' out loud, it's going to be awesome!" I kind of forgot about the Saving Private Ryan side of Steven Spielberg and was focused very narrowly on the ET side of him. You might see where this is going.

And my justification for ignoring the not-so-subtle hint in the title of the movie? Seabiscuit. That movie was not about biscuits on the sea. It was about a race horse. So in my warped mind I thought we were going to watch a family friendly movie about a race horse named War Horse.

Here's my first disclaimer: While watching the movie on the big screen, I was kicking myself multiple times for taking my girls to see it. But here we sit almost four weeks later and I can't say I'm sorry we did that anymore.

Immediately after watching the movie I tried to sum it up for my friends by calling it a mash-up of Saving Private Ryan and My Friend Flicka. How in the world? But it's still kind of that way in my mind. It's a sweet, sweet, hard, hard story of a boy and a horse. And let's not forget the war, but at the core, it's about the boy and the horse.

I don't want to give away the movie for those of you planning to see it this week. I'll just throw out this little word of caution: Consider that the war scenes are fairly brutal. Not nearly as brutal as some movies, but if you are taking young kids with you, this is a consideration best made on the front end. I'm not sorry my children saw the movie, but hindsight tells me that my two youngest would have been better served by watching it as a DVD on our small TV instead of in the theater.

My 12yo, however, seems to have been deeply impacted by the movie. She sobbed like a baby several times throughout and when the credits rolls, announced it to be the best movie she'd ever seen.

Here are the official specs:

• Website and Mobile site: warhorsemovie.com
• Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/WarHorseMovie
• Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/warhorsemovie

• Genre: Drama
• Rating: PG-13
• U.S. Release date: December 25, 2011
• Running time: 146 minutes

• Cast: Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Producers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
• Executive Producers: Frank Marshall, Revel Guest
• Screenplay by: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis

Based on the book by: Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage play by Nick Stafford, originally produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot

DreamWorks Pictures’ “War Horse,” director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

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War Horse. It opens December 25, 2011. Merry Christmas.

Disclosure: Tickets were provided for my family to attend. No other compensation was received. I keep a proper disclosure statement here.

 

 

 

Thoughts on The Help plus a Giveaway!

Craig and I took the girls to see an interesting movie this week. I wrote about my thoughts on The Help for WORLDMag.com this week.

I'm also giving away a prize pack of goodies from The Help over at my review blog right now!

 

This is Home

Our family still processes almost everything with music. It's pretty much how Craig and I figured out who we were at the very beginning of our relationship and it's pretty much how we all apologize to each other now and how we continue to process everything. Our kids are starting to do the same. We've been slowly pulling together a family playlist for this time of transition in our lives. M12 added the latest to the list for us and it's probably the most appropriate of all the ones we have on it so far.

This is Home by Switchfoot:

 

So we went to the movies on Tuesday...Savvy?

I'm telling you, this whole having kids old enough to babysit themselves thing is pretty awesome. It took us long enough to get here, but now that we are...well, we don't really utilize this new awesomeness that much, but it's super nice to know we can if we want to. And on Tuesday night we wanted to.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides, sailed into St. Louis a few days early for a pre-screening. The past screenings we've gone to we've been able to take our whole family, but they anticipated a large turn out for this one and just gave us two tickets. And man, oh, man, they were right. The theater was PACKED including one tiny dog that apparently sneaked past security. They were tight on the cell phones and cameras alright, but tiny dogs? No problem!

Evidentally the tiny dog really likes pirate movies, though, because we never heard a peep from it all night and it was sitting right in front of us. Maybe he was mesmerized by the mermaids.

I'm definitely not going to outline the story for you - basically you know - there's this crazy pirate who gets in all kinds of mischief but he's hilarous in the doings of it and he survives in the end, savvy?

I'll confess that all of our kids have watched the three previous Pirates of the Caribbean movie and they were all bent out of shape that Craig and I were going to this one without them. But I'll tell you that while we were watching this on the big screen (and this was one of the few movies where I thought the 3D was effective and worth it) I was really glad the girls weren't there. I had kind of forgotten that we do have them cover their eyes are various parts of the others and there was plenty in this one that would have ignited our 9yo's throw up response to oversized violence. She would deny it, though. She's the one who loves the pirates the most!

We'd had a fair amount of family discussion on the disappointment of Will and Elizabeth not being in this one, but I'll tell you that while watching it, I totally forgot all about Will and Elizabeth until the movie was over and then I was all, "Oh drat, they didn't include Will and Elizabeth!" In short, it didn't take away from the movie at all. Johnny Depp is what makes this movie what it is, don't you know?

I enjoyed the Angelica character in this one and liked how the movie ended to set up the next one. Craig and I were talking about the various different ways #5 could end up going.

Overall, a fun way to spend a couple of hours and I'd defintely recommend seeing it on the big screen while you can.

Traveling Light

I was searching for another song on YouTube yesterday and found this one quite by accident. It's Traveling Light as sung by Joel Hanson and Sara Groves:

 

Honestly, I find the graphics in this video to be quite distracting (I couldn't find another version of it anywhere), but I absolutely LOVE the song. I tried find it on iTunes so I could just download that one, but instead ended up ordering the entire album from Amazon. I'm really looking forward to its coming. I'm not surprised I like it so much. I was a PFR fan before being a PFR fan was cool and I have two of Joel Hanson's solo albums. Sara Groves is a more recent addition to my library (as in within the past couple of years) but I really like her too. This song is a win!

I've had the lyrics of this song playing over and over in my head all day. Down by the riverside/I laid my burdens down/Now I'm traveling light/My spirit lifted high/I found my freedom now/And I'm traveling light

Speaking of laying my burdens down, I wrote about prayer today for WORLDMag.com. In this case it's more of a lifting up rather than a laying down, but the point, I believe, is exactly the same.

I can relate. Can you?

 

Looking for a Cure for Bieber Fever?

I'm offering up an alternative cure for Bieber Fever today at WORLDMag. You know you love me. I know you care. *giggle*

Megamind

Megamind : Incredibly handsome, criminal genius, and master of all villainy.

I took my two youngest girls to see this movie in the theater a little while ago and walked out thinking two main things: 1) there are definitely some interesting themes worth discussing and 2) it's kind of a Despicable Me wannabe.

We were recently sent a copy of Megamind on DVD and have watched it multiple times since then and while my first thought is still in place, my second thought no longer is.

It's true there's a similarity in the two in that the guys who were "bad" were really "good" but the storylines are significantly different and I get that now.

First things first: there's a reason it is rated PG. There are a fair amount of words used that we don't consider appropriate for common usage in our family, but our girls have a clear understanding of that and these words haven't become part of their vocabulary.

What has become part of their daily speech, however, are some of Megamind's hilarious phrasings and pronunciations. Mel-ON-choly has become a permanent family word as has spee-I-der. Funny, funny.

Some of the themes we've explored as a family at different times have been around the idea of good vs. evil. The movie pulls out a nature vs. nurture idea. Megamind, as a baby hurtling toward earth in his space pod, ends up being raised in a prison and thus becomes a criminal while Metro Man, as a baby, ends up in the lap of luxury and inevitably becomes the hero. If you've seen the movie, you know that while Megamind has a strong pull to be the villain, his good nature wins in the end because that's who he really is. Metro Man who really is a good guy just gets tired of it and chooses to walk away to follow a different career path - one he's not good at at all, but one he loves. Really an interesting idea there in that if we are given gifts and abilities to do something, but no longer have the passion it takes to fullfill said calling, are we still responsible to do so?

When Megamind "eliminates" the good guy because that's what he's supposed to do, he realizes how empty his life has become without a hero to try to fight all the time. He discovers he has no purpose in life.

Then there's the whole aspect in which Megamind attempts to create a new hero out of complete loser by injecting some of Metro Man's DNA into him. The "hero" becomes strong and has amazing new abilities, but he's never been infused with a proper motive to be good, so he becomes the antithesis of it.

There really are some fascinating discussion points in this movie - some that will go right over a child's head, but that would make for a great discussion with older kids or even adults who aren't afraid of an animated movie every now and then.

So my honest impression of this movie is this: you really need to watch it more than once to appreciate it for what it is. Consider pulling someone else in to watch it with you so you can hash out all the ethical angles of the story in the end. I think you might be pleasantly surprised by what you come up with.

I was given a copy of this movie to watch for the purpose of reviewing. I accepted the review because we are movie-loving family and I knew my kids would enjoy watching it again. In truth, I enjoyed watching it again. And again. It makes me feel less mel-ON-choly. These opinions are my own. I keep a proper disclosure statment here.

Waiting for Superman

Maybe I'm the last person to watch Waiting for Superman. Maybe I needed to be mentally prepared for what I was about to see. Maybe I already expected what was laid out before me. Maybe ignorance isn't as bliss as we all thought it was.

Anyone who has hung around my blog for any length of time knows that I care deeply about education. It's true, though, that I primarly care deeply about the education of my own children. But isn't that sort of the point? Any parent who is doing their job cares about the education of their own children. I think I got that drilled into me tonight more intensly than I ever have before.

Geoffery Canada tells the story at the very beginning of the movie about how he loved Superman comics and the character of Superman himself. He really thought Superman would be coming soon to fix all of his problems. One day his mother informed him that Superman wasn't real. He started crying and he says he wasn't crying because Superman wasn't real in the way Santa Clause isn't real. He was crying because for the first time he realized that no one was coming who had the power to save them.

Geoffery Canada is doing amazing things in Harlem with underserved kids and these kids are, in turn, doing some amazing things as a result.

There are other great people doing great things for kids in our country, but overall, it's too little and, I fear, too late.

Another quote from the movie: Millions of kids are walking the streets with no vested interest in living. The schools have failed them and they have no reason to live.

One school was mentioned in which in a time span of 40 years, 40,000 kids out of 60,000 did not graduate. This school shows an enrollment of 1,200 kids in the 9th grade each year, but by the time they reach their sophomore year, 800 of them have dropped out.

800 HAVE DROPPED OUT.

The statistics are staggering, but more so because for every school they profiled there are hundreds more.

I learned to distrust and, dare I say it, hate, the NEA when I was pursuing my Early Childhood Education degree from Oklahoma State University in the early 90's. OSU didn't teach me to hate the NEA because they were also in disagreement with the principles of the organization, they taught me to hate it with their outright worship of said organization. Incidentally, they also taught me to distrust and disagree with the concept of whole language reading instruction in the same manner.

More than the stories of the failing schools and sickening statistics and the lack of anyone in the position of power to actually DO anything about it came the very real profiles of the five students who just wanted a fighting chance at life by means of a decent education.

Watching the lotteries at the end of the film filled me with the intense dread on their behalf and disappointment with them when most of their names/numbers did not get called.

Part of me wants to say, HOMESCHOOL YOUR KIDS IF YOUR SITUATION IS REALLY THAT BAD, but I know these parents either don't have that as an option or don't know they have it as an option. For these families and thousands of others, the only solution to their situations is for more Geoffrey Canadas to rise up and make it happen.

And I wonder what it will take to make more of us actually do something.

Former DC area superintendent Michelle Rhee says at the end with regards to teachers who care more about tenure and personal benefits than they do quality teaching and education, "Now I see things in a more coherent way. It becomes all about the adult."

I wonder if it always has been.

If you haven't seen this movie yet and you care anything at all about the state of education in this country, you really must watch it. And then we need to do something.

Let me know when you figure out what the needs to be.

I was given a copy of this movie to watch for the purpose of reviewing. I accepted the review because I really did want to watch it and have great interest in this topic. I thought the movie was very well done. These opinions are my own. I keep a proper disclosure statment here.

This Week in Music: William and Maggie

I know. I fell off the face of the planet for a few days, but I'm resurfacing. The current installment of music to add to the playlist that marks this season of life for our family is William and Maggie by Charlie Peacock.

But who am I kidding? This song makes it on pretty much every seasonal life marker for us. It's "our song."