A Good Family Movie- I am David

I mentioned that on Saturday night, my teenage sons and their friends gathered in our basement to watch I Am David from Netflix.  When the teens are still talking about it the next day, you know it was a good movie.

I chose the film because it stars Jim Caviezel (Jesus in Passion of the Christ). Mr. Caviezel is wonderful in the film, but the true star is 13-year old Ben Tibber. This is the tale of a young boy who has spent most of his life in persecution at a Bulgarian Communist concentration camp. With instructions and a mission from an unseen friend, David successfully escapes the camp. With only a loaf of bread, a compass and a pocket knife he makes his way to Greece and Italy and then heads straight north all the way to Denmark! The movie focuses on his challenges and experiences as he makes this daunting journey to freedom.

There is a lot of meat here for a family to delve into. There is the sheer geography of the trip that kids and parents might want to look over to understand the magnitude of this undertaking. There is the history of life in Europe after World War II and the beginnings of the cold war. But I think what most of our teens wanted to talk about was the sacrifice of on one individual for another and the more fundamental question of whether people are basically good, or basically evil.

My elementary aged kids enjoyed the film as well and even Rosie sat still for most of it. She found the grandmother-type character played by Joan Plowright to be the most captivating.

I would highly recommend this family film and would definitely recommend it to homeschoolers looking for something to illustrate that time of history, or for jr. high or high school catechists looking for DVD appropriate for their classes.

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