The Princess Bride... The Goonies.... Flight of the Navigator...
There are a precious few movies that made one feel a sense of wonder as a child. While there were many entertaining titles available, both on VHS, and for the classic 8 and 16bit consoles, very seldom did one truly cut through the monotony of school and the endless tedium of summer, when we could not afford to take trips, or it became too hot to even go to the city pool. One movie however sticks out. It is Explorers, starring River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke. Released in 1985, it is the tale of three boys who begin sharing dreams of a circuit board schematic. Little did they know however, but that single schematic would be the beginning of an adventure which would take them beyond the solar system. Ben, the leader of the group is the first to have the dreams. He writes down the diagrams as best as he can remember them, and immediately takes them to his best friend, Wolfgang(it's not his fault his parents won't let him change it), who builds the circuit on a breadboard. Together with another boy named Darren, they discover the circuit generated an energy field which could not be affected by gravity or even a brick wall. Emboldened by this revelation, they raid a junkyard and build a spaceship to search for the beings responsible for this wondrous technology.
The movie, whole wholesome in general, does have some profanity, adolescent innuendo, and a scene involving beer, however the director labored to minimize such questionable content and mold what remained in such a way as to create a realistic portrayal of three kids nearing the end of childhood and trying to discern what was truly worth bringing into manhood. The overall moral(yes there is a moral to this movie) is to never let go of one's sense of wonder. This lesson is personified in a Sheriff's deputy who manages to track down their space ship, however he realizes almost too late that the kids he chased had held true to such wisdom far better than he had. This, I believe is part of Christ's message, albeit in a different form. He said to come to Him as a child, as in without fear or bias. The sense of wonder we all knew staring up at the stars as children was lost in the frantic hustle called adulthood, and we have become blind to God's most awe-inspiring miracles. Perhaps we, like the deputy in the film, just need to look up and truly see what's there.
This movie is in my opinion, appropriate for kids around 12 and up, since the characters are themselves between 12 and 14 years of age, however as with anything, use your own discernment.
DC Tech
