Show and Movie Suggestions

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“I’m Sorry” on TruTV is absolutely hilarious. Not kid friendly, though. Lots of adult/sexual humor, although no actual nudity or anything
 
I liked “A Man for All Seasons” about Thomas More, the 1968 version.

A general resource would be the US Bishops website: www.usccb.org then search for “media” and then “movies”. They rate movies as to whether they are acceptable and what things are problematic with the movie. The list goes back decades.

Pax
 
Here are a few of my favorite films with me doing my best imitation of a film critic:

Ben Hur: epic story of a wealthy Jewish man who winds up a galley slave through the betrayal of a Roman friend; his family is then dramatically affected by the power of Christ. Amazing film!

Quo Vadis: about Christianity’s conflict with the Roman Empire through the story of a Christian woman and pagan Roman general.

I Confess: Alfred Hitchcock film about a priest who hears the confession of a murderer. In time circumstantial evidence begins to point to the priest as the murderer and yet he can’t say anything at all to defend himself because of the seal of confession.

Mrs. Miniver: about a British family dealing with WWII on the homefront. Academy Award Winner for Best Picture.

The Best Years of Our Lives: about three WWII vets who have to try to adjust to civilian life again and their struggles with their families. Really well-done film. Another Best Picture award winner. A stirring film!

Johnny Belinda: about a deaf farm girl who is helped by a young doctor.

A Man for all Seasons: about the life and martyrdom of St. Thomas More

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days: suspenseful German film about the young anti-Nazi Sophie Scholl who is arrested by the Gestapo. Don’t worry, there is no brutality shown. Her bravery is truly awe-inspiring! This film stuck with me for weeks!

Molokai: about Fr. Damien who went to minister to the lepers on the island of Molokai, really well done film about a wonderful saint!

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison: about a marine and a nun who are stranded on a Pacific island during WWII.

A Patch of Blue: about a poor, blind white girl who befriends a young black man and how he helps her learn things and gain confidence; wonderful dialogue and truly likeable characters!

Broken Trail: don’t be scared off by the fact that it’s a western. I’m not a fan of westerns but I loved this movie. It’s a great story about two cowboys who come into contact with 5 Chinese girls who are being transported to a mining town to be used as prostitutes and how they save them from such a horrible fate. Stunningly filmed!

The Unfished Dance: about a young girl at a ballet school who commits a terrible sin but discovers the grace of forgiveness. Beautifully filmed and stunning dance sequences!
 
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Here are many more movies without anything inappropriate to get you started:

Hugo
Napoleon and Samantha
Duma
The Sound of Music
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Dark Victory
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Rebecca
The Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
Casablanca
The Human Comedy
Madame Curie
Going My Way
Gaslight
The Yearling
Friendly Persuasion
The Heiress
The Quiet Man
Roman Holiday
The Nun’s Story
Lilies of the Field
 
Before borrowing a dvd I often check usccb, decentfilms, or IMDb (“parental guide”) for objectionable material (my preference; lots of people have higher tolerance for it).

I’ve found good suggestions on the Vatican 100 movie list. As for animation, a lesser-known collection to recommend is those from Ghibli Studios.
When I had cable I was a fan of TCM, but even in some of the old movies you realize the direction Hollywood was going.
 
Thanks for all these suggestions and descriptions. I so appreciate your time 🙂
 
I just watched “The Peanut Butter Falcon” very good and feel good movie.
Debbie
 
If you have Amazon prime, I really like an Israeli show called “srugim”. It’s about young religious singles living in Jerusalem. I feel like it helps me know more about Jerusalem and Judaism.
 
I like a lot of British crime dramas. I think they’d probably fit your criteria. Obviously these are not 100% sex-free zones, but these would be passing references or at most brief glimpses, not prolonged graphic sex scenes. For example, I just watched an episode of Lewis. There was the odd line like, “A had a one night stand with B”, “X was Y’s lover”. In the series Endeavour, you sometimes see a couple waking up in the same bed in the morning, so it is implied that they probably had sex. I assume what you’re trying to avoid is stuff like the famous scene from Don’t Look Now etc.

If you are into crime dramas, my top recommendations are:
  1. The Missing and Baptiste (the latter is a spin-off of the former)
  2. Unforgotten
  3. Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour (original, sequel, prequel - the prequel is actually the best in my opinion)
  4. Van Der Valk (set in Amsterdam, but British made and in English)
  5. Manhunt, A Confession, White House Farm (very accurate dramatizations of some of Britain’s most high-profile murders)
  6. A Touch of Frost (older series starring Sir David Jason, still very worth watching)
  7. Safe (by Harlan Coben, but set in the posh SW suburbs of Manchester)
There are more I could mention, but those are my current top recommendations.
 
Cartoon Saloon:
Movies by this studio and absolutely wonderful and on occasion bring me to tears. The animation is absolutely beautiful and the detail is breathtaking.

Song of the Sea (on Netflix) - A little girl without a voice finds it when discovers that her mother was a Selkey
Secret of Kells- A young boy living in a Catholic Abbey in Ireland explores the world outside, and makes friends with fairies.
The Breadwinner (also on Netflix)- A Muslim girl’s father is taken as a prisoner, and she is required to pretend to be a boy in order to make money for her family.

All of these are exquisite and I recommend them if you love art, and Irish Culture. The Breadwinner is the only one that is not family friendly. (Violence) Please check them out. They make my heart full.
 
Also, if you want a longer running series and you like comedies, I recommend Frasier. It’s just about the best thing ever on TV. Although it doesn’t exactly embrace Catholic morality, it does overall have a very positive message about the importance of family and friends.

I don’t know where you’re from or how old you are, but my dad is a huge Anglophile and almost 60. We used to watch Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister together (still do sometimes!) It’s the classic political satire. Even Margaret Thatcher was a fan. When I lived in the UK I felt that a lot of things made sense because I’d watched those series (and the humor made more sense because I was meeting the sort of people portrayed).
 
Anything by Studio Ghibli. I’d personally recommend Whispers of the Heart, Spirited Away, and Grave of the Fireflies, although the last one has a few violent images. (They make sense in context though, seeing as it’s a World War Two Movie.)
In addition to being good stories, the films are very pretty to look at. Pause anywhere in the movie and you could probably frame the shot you paused at. The animators’ attention to detail is incredible.
 
I watched The Third Man this afternoon, which I had DVR’ed off TCM a couple of weeks ago. Good movie, but I was surprised by a very quick shot of female almost-nudity in a bar. I checked the Wikipedia entry and apparently this shot was in the original British version, but it obviously wouldn’t have passed muster with the U.S. censors when the film was originally released in 1949. It seems the British version with the above mentioned shot is now the prevalent version on home video.
 
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