War Film for ASD 12 year old

[BrunchBarBandit]

My 12 year old ASD son has developed a special interest in geo-politics and wars around the world over several centuries and can talk about them (endlessly it seems, bless him)

He’s never been very interested in films, and sitting down as a family to have a movie night but it occurred to me that we might tempt him with a war film.

I’m looking for ideas. Some realism (blood and guts) would be ok but not too excessive.

It can be any war

Can I ask for MNtrs recommendations?

Band of Brothers

The Douglas Bader one. Reach for the sky? Been years since I've seen it and I remember the book best

Hacksaw Ridge.

That’s REALLY helpful, thanks
I’d never come across this before

How funny, I watched this on tv this afternoon! I hadn’t seen for years, We had poem at the end as a reading at our wedding 20 years ago

Edited to say I’m thinking of the wrong film 🙈 I’m thinking of a Matter of Life & Death. Reach for the Sky is a great film though!

Zulu is great, if you can get past Michael Caine with a posh accent..

Dambusters - the one with the dog's name.

The Way to the Stars - airmen in WW2.The one where John Mills reads 'For Johnny'.

Does he like football? Escape to Victory is quite good fun, though I could do without Sly Stallone as Token Yank. And maybe it doesn't work so well for people who are too young to remember and recognise all the footballers.

Downfall (German, final days of WW2)
Flags of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima (Japanese theatre WW2)
The Eight Hundred (Battle of Shanhai)
Tae Guk Gi (Korean War)
The Battle of Algiers (Algerian independence from the French)
Das Boot (German, WW2)
Joyeux Noel (French, WW1)
Ivan's Childhood (Soviet, WW2)

Sounds just like my son. He loves geopolitics. He sat with his dad and watched 1917 the other week and loved it. Next on the list is His Darkest Hour.

He also loved Black Adder Goes Forth.

Goodnight Mr Tom

I use commonsensemedia.com for age guidance, a breakdown of why that age is recommended, and reviews.

I’d take a close look at why he doesn’t watch movies. How empathetic is he? Do visual images get “stuck” in his head? Is he struggling to process the intense emotions of music? If you can figure out what his struggles are, it might be easier to pinpoint what sort of movies to go for. I’d just be very careful not to tempt him with a special interest, if he has good reasons for avoiding movies, even if they don’t seem important from your pov. He may not be able to articulate this yet, but you might be able to piece it together from your own observations.

Older movies (I’m thinking 60s, 70s) left a lot more to the imagination, simplified the plot lines, distinguished good/bad characters very clearly, and generally require slower cognitive processing and might be an easier entry point.

Ahhh, he and I did watch this together (over a few nights) a couple of months ago because they read it at school.

My husband loves this kind of stuff.Zulu Dawn is his recommendation.

Yes, I see where you are coming from here. I wouldn’t want to force the idea of family film night but did want to explore if there was anything that worked for him. I thought films might give him another dimension to consider and show him that I’m interested in his interests.

tbh I’m also looking for a shared family activity. We don’t really have that altogether. He and I can watch a film together from time to time, but generally over a few nights and if he can have control of the ‘buttons’ so he can stop and rewatch if he wants to. It’s rare for the 4 of us to sit together at home other than mealtimes but I recognise that he needs some control and process time. And, you are right to have pointed it out, about figuring out his struggles with movies. Thank you. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

Glory - about the first black regiment in the US civil war. It's a 15, though, so check it first.

For a series, Sharpe - Napoleonic wars.

We also have a son with ASD and a special interest in battles/ military history so was following for ideas. Our DS also hated films and what we found worked with him was explaining the story in detail before hand. I think it both helped with processing/ understanding and also gave him some warning of any scary bits. They weren’t so scary when he was expecting them and if they were he could leave the room without missing anything as he already knew what would happen.

Agree about finding out reasons films are hard, a lot of these are quite loud or have the sudden noise of bombs or gunfire.

How much does your DC care about accuracy or can distinguish that this is fiction? If this is a special interest will he be bothered by the inaccuracy in films. Some people for instance generally don’t like that there are Americans as heroes in particular battles when the Americans had not entered the war.

Googling does bring up lists of films that are more accurate. The other alternative or addition might be watching a documentary together

Accuracy would be something we’d have to address. He understands stories and things that are adapted for entertainment. It’s a good idea to check out the accuracy of a film before hand though so we can have a heads up.

I liked the idea of the previous poster @karmakameleon who suggested explanations upfront. Loud noises won’t be an issue but if we can prepare him for accuracy that would help.

We’ve just asked him if he’d like to watch a film together tonight but he has declined. He said ‘maybe tomorrow’ - that’s his way of getting himself ready for something new

Das Boot (film, TV series, might be an English language version now but otherwise its subtitles, but absolutely worth the effort. The boat is actually a submarine).

Heroes Of Telemark (pretty old WW2 film)
Operation Daybreak (but you will all cry).

Carve her name with pride - Violet Szabo's role as an SOE operative in WWII. Old film, so pretty much gore free.

Codebreaker, about Alan Turing.

If he could manage subtitles, Gold Run - the true story of the attempt to get the Norwegian gold reserves out of the country before the Germans invaded In WWII. This one's another 15, but quite interesting on the logistics and international forces collaborating.

Ah yes, these are great suggestions. I think he’d find Codebreaker fascinating, and Carve her Name with Pride would appeal as a true story and good to have a female lead character

Re historical accuracy, we make a bit of a game of this with DS. So we go in with the assumption that there will be some artistic license and see who can spot the inaccuracies. Sometimes DS surprises himself with things that he thought were made up but actually true (or closer to truth than fiction).