Great films about childhood

Magical Realist

Valued Senior Member
Ten great films about childhood and coming of age. I've seen "Spirit of the Beehive" and will always cherish its haunting and moving images. I would add to the list Stand By Me, The Florida Project, ET, To Kill A Mockingbird, Closer, The Secret Garden, Hugo, Night of the Hunter, The 400 Blows, The Red Balloon, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, A Christmas Story, The Bridge To Terabithia. and My Neighbor Totoro. Any others you can think of?


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Maybe a bit on the periphery, but:

Pan's Labyrinth
The Breakfast Club
Dazed and Confused
Dead Poet's Society
 
Another one - actually, the one I was trying to remember when Run Wild, Run Free popped into my head instead - was Touching Wild Horses. A more recent film on the same theme, beautifully and simply presented.
Also: Swallows and Amazons; Eyes of an Angel; Far from Home; The Secret garden; Harriet the Spy; A Christmas Story - and I though Good Boy! was a lot of fun.
On the darker side: Lord of the Flies; Forgotten; Good Night Mr Tom
Not crazy about adolescent angst, but younger kids can be quite engaging, especially if the cute is diluted by an even cuter animal.
 
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Ten great films about childhood and coming of age. [...]

Will never see "Catcher in the Rye" on one of those lists. Even long after Salinger's death, his ghost-grip and estate remains firm in preventing it from being placed on the screen.
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Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout

Stand by Me

Who Can Kill a Child?

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
 
Loved Walkabout., Saw it in a theater with my mom and little sister when I was 11. Will watch again as an adult.
 
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The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
I loved that movie! Don't think it was about childhood, though. She was was way too precocious and peculiar for that.
Childhood, I think of as before puberty. But I know a lot of people consider teenagers children. By and large, I like little kids but don't have much time for babies and adolescents.
Not movies but a tv serials: Granite Flats and Wonder Years.
 
I loved that movie! Don't think it was about childhood, though. She was was way too precocious and peculiar for that.
Childhood, I think of as before puberty. But I know a lot of people consider teenagers children. By and large, I like little kids but don't have much time for babies and adolescents.
Yeah, everything Jodi Foster did during that period is fantastic--she even appears in one of the best episodes of Kung Fu ("Aletheia"). She was 13 when she made that film which is still a "kid" by my terms, but she also seemed unusually wise and worldly for her age.

I think early adolescence is interesting, but by their sophomore or junior year of high school,"kids" seem to lose the ability to suspend disbelief or something. They also become less frantic and hyperactive, for want of a better word. If I had to be around a person or persons whom I didn't know for some curious reason, I would definitely choose to hang out with "kids" rather than "adults" any day. Kids and dogs, though obviously I generally prefer the company of the latter.
 
If I had to be around a person or persons whom I didn't know for some curious reason, I would definitely choose to hang out with "kids" rather than "adults" any day. Kids and dogs, though obviously I generally prefer the company of the latter.
I like kids best between 6 and 10. Under 6, they're inarticulate and often too conservative, especially girls. After 10 or so they start getting jaded; following fashion, wanting material goods, intimidated by their peers' opinion. The most charming people I've known were 7- or 8-year-old boys. They feel the responsibility of manhood; they're gallant and protective, yet still have the scope for fantasy. In a year or two, they'll stop carrying Mother's groceries, building forts out of blankets and will no longer understand what their dog is saying.
 
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