Blogger Q&A: What Movie Reminds You Of Your Family?
In the Blogger Q&A series, we ask our bloggers to share their opinions on a movie-related question. Got something you want to ask the bloggers? Submit a question on our official Flickchart Facebook page and it could be featured in a future post!
For our Thanksgiving Day (U.S.) Q&A we could have shared our favorite Turkey Day movies, but let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of really succulent choices. Some far more interesting answers come from the question “What movie reminds you of your family?” After all, there’s more to this holiday than football; there are movies, too! Oh yeah, and togetherness and stuff.
Hannah — Cheaper by the Dozen
I debated back and forth whether this should be a movie that reminds me of my family because I grew up watching it, in which case I could choose something like The Court Jester or Holiday Inn, but in the end I decided it’d be the most fun to go with the movie that reminds me of my family because the characters make me think of my family, and I think I’d have to go with the original Cheaper by the Dozen. I was the oldest of eight children, and while both my parents were more like the Myrna Loy character in this flick, the tone here is perfect. It’s one of the few movies about large families that doesn’t imply that we’re constantly in unmanageable chaos — because, really, I haven’t met any large families that are, and this characterization frustrated me to no end growing up, especially in the Steve Martin remake. My family was far more laidback than the Gilbreths, and we certainly didn’t have dozens of efficiency systems in place, but the (generally) friendly interactions between the myriad of siblings, or between a parent and one of the many children, always makes me smile because it gets my life just about right. — Hannah Keefer
Cheaper by the Dozen on Flickchart
- Global ranking: 6920
- Wins 33% of matchups
- 274 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 0 have it in their top 20
Jandy — Shenandoah
This is gonna be a weird one, but I’m gonna say Shenandoah, a 1965 Civil War-era film starring James Stewart as the patriarch of a Shenandoah Valley family trying to stay out of the war but unable to do so as it rages around them, pitting brothers against brothers and cousins against cousins. My parents weren’t huge movie watchers, but my mom loved the classic era films she grew up with, so she’d pick up a VHS now and again when she saw one she remembered or with a star she loved, like James Stewart. By this time I was a pre-teen very into movies and I felt I had already moved on from whatever my mom liked, you know. So when she brought home Shenandoah, I didn’t want to watch it. I sat in a chair as far away from the TV as I could looking at bookshelves, whatever I could see instead of watching the movie. But I caught enough glimpses and heard enough that when they stopped in the middle for the evening (like I said, not big movie-watchers — taking two nights for a movie was common), I secretly snuck back down to the TV room after bedtime to finish watching it. I’ll never forget that experience — sometimes rebelling against stuff your parents want to watch with you isn’t worth it. I’ll also always remember one of the lines from the movie; soldiers are loading prisoners of war onto a train to go to the prison camp, and Stewart disapprovingly tells the captain “You run a sad kind of a train, mister. It takes people where they don’t want to go, and doesn’t let them off when they’re ready.” My dad loved that line, too, and I found it applicable to many other war (and especially Holocaust) movies later on in my life. — Jandy Hardesty
Shenandoah on Flickchart
- Global ranking: 4542
- Wins 46% of matchups
- 146 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 1 has it in their top 20 (and it’s not Jandy!)
Naomi — Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
There are a lot of movies that remind me of different members of my family. I have always seen my father in Atticus Finch. Clichéd though it may be, I see my sisters in Little Women. My mother in Room for One More. My brother in any character that you can trust one hundred percent to come through for you no matter what. But one single movie that brings them all together? Heck, I can’t even find a they’re all willing to watch together. There is one film, though, that no matter how many times I watch it reminds me of my family in a different way. Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation certainly has characters that represent my parents, but there’s no one that particularly reminds me of my sisters or brother. The movie doesn’t make me think of my family because of the characters themselves, but rather because of what they go through. Its shows parents and grown-up children who have moved out and are starting their own lives and families. During the movie they learn that they will always need one another and will always be connected. Having family that’s so spread out (we were once on three different continents for several years), and being the youngest, it’s easy to feel like you are losing the bonds of family, that these people you care about so deeply are growing away and apart. But Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation reminds me that no matter how long it will sometimes be between visits, sometimes even between phone calls, there will always be that connection. There will always be my family. — Naomi Laeuchli
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation on Flickchart
- Global ranking: 7798
- Wins 41% of matchups
- 90 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 0 have it in their top 20
David — Jaws
Like Naomi, I associate different movies with different members of my family. Treasure of the Sierra Madre is my dad, who recommended it to me early in my exploration of classic movies. Gunga Din was one of my grandfather’s favorite movies, and my grandmother still watches Charade whenever it comes on TV. My younger brother once watched our Jurassic Park VHS at least four times in one day, and even now I can quote an obscure line to him and have it appreciated. But the film that most reminds me of my family is probably Jaws. It’s my mom’s favorite movie, but it pertains to my dad, too: the story goes that he watched the movie with his feet up on his theater seat. I watched it quite a lot as a young’n, and it’s currently #6 on my Flickchart. — David Conrad
Jaws on Flickchart
- Global ranking: 58
- Wins 58% of matchups
- 70611 users have ranked it
- 852 have it at #1
- 11786 have it in their top 20
National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) is the only movie that comes to mind. It was a super fun movie, despite being like watching my family vacations.