Wholesome Movies

Hi.  Derek and I love watching movies.  We love finding movies to watch that are wholesome (That model good values and teach good virtues). 

Here is a quote from Oliver DeMille's Thomas Jefferson Education: as a guideline in choosing classic literature. It applies equally well to movies, TV shows, live performances, music, etc.

"There are four types of stories (as discussed in the excellent book The Healing Power of Stories by Daniel Taylor): Bent, Broken, Whole and Healing.

• Bent stories portray evil as good and good as evil. Such stories are meant to increase the evil of the reader, such as pornography and many horror books and movies. The best decision regarding Bent stories is to avoid them like the plague.
  
• Broken stories portray evil as evil and good as good, but evil wins. Something is broken; not right; in need of fixing. Such books are not uplifting, but can be very inspiring. Broken stories can be very good for the reader if they motivate one to heal them, to fix them. The Communist Manifesto is a broken classic, so are Lord of the Flies, and 1984. In each of these, evil wins. But they have been very motivating to me because I have felt a real need to help reverse them in the real world.
  
• Whole stories are where good is good and good wins. Most of the classics are in this category, and readers should spend most of their time in such works.
  
• Healing stories can be either whole or broken stories where the reader is profoundly moved, changed, significantly improved by their reading experience.

I recommend a set of three rules in coming face-to-face with greatness through the classics.

1. Never read or watch Bent stories.
   
2. Develop a personal canon of Healing stories.
   
3. Spend the majority of your studies in Whole works, but don't neglect Broken stories that you ought to be fixing."

We love movies that are whole.  We also love some broken movies,  like "The Diary of Anne Frank."  You would definitely have to say that when Anne and her family are captured at the end of the movie it is broken, or perhaps you see that movie as whole since Anne's diary goes on to inspire others.  Either way,

This blog is set up to:

1. Remind us of the wholesome movies that we have enjoyed
2. Share those movies with the world.

We'd welcome your comments and insights in the movies we review and movies that we might want to watch.

Ps. The quotes from Thomas Jefferson Education and The Healing Power of Stories came from http://ldshomeschoolinginca.org/guide.html