Make us an offer ... a good film can really
shore up family values
To label something a "family film" is to leave it open to wild (and sometimes wilful) misinterpretation. The genre includes kids' films, energetic cartoon romps of the migraine-inducing variety. It can be used to throw a loose canopy over the sort of movies that traditionally stuff the Christmas TV schedules. Alternatively it can refer to films that are actually about families. And this, typically, is where the genre takes some curious twists and turns.
You may have read the Guardian's list of the 50 greatest family films in the history of the world, ever. Please be advised that this list is completely objective and non-negotiable. Moral guardians may be assured that we have attempted to steer clear of movies showcasing casual sex and cartoon violence (hence no James Bond flicks); yet at the same time cineastes should note that we have also avoided sentimental mush with no artistic merit. To this end we have even threaded the list with darker fare like The Ladykillers, Stand By Me and Night of the Hunter.
Even so, one wonders what an alternative list of family films might look like. Don't get me wrong; the list as it stands is pure gold standard. And yet, by coming at the genre from a different angle, we might dream up one that captures the dark side of the family force. It would allow us to include such "family films" as Festen, in which a family get-together is destroyed by accusations of child abuse, or possibly Todd Solondz's Happiness. We could make room for documentaries like Tarnation, Capturing the Friedmans, or Terry Zwigoff's peerless Crumb, in which artist Robert Crumb emerges as the sanest member of a spectacularly dysfunctional band of brothers. We could fill the chart with this and this and this, for what are these if not classic family films?
