We should be weary of our children's fantasies being manipulated to support something they don't understand

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2006)

OK, was I drunk? or did Santa Clause pull weapons out of his toy bag for the children?? I haven't read the books, but it seems pretty clear to me that the purpose of this story is to harness children's tendency towards self-grandizing fantasy, and leverage it in support of what was at the time, the war effort against Nazi Germany. Like Plato encourages in the Republic, this story functions an allegory meant to teach children about the "good". The problem I have with this film however, is that I'm not sure the "good" that this film encourages really is good.
The film climaxes with children (after all learning valuable lessons such as remain loyal, keep faith, and be brave) leading the highly Chirstianized army against the evil authoritarian enemy. The shots of the children fighting in the war are grandiose and highly stylized. What erks me is that these are children, and that these are children in the movie theatre having their fantasies tickled by such depictions. While the books were written in the context of World War 2, the film, now being shown to American children, functions as excellent propaganda for soldier recruitment for the war right now. By fetishizing the notion of bravely fighting for the "good", the film clearly works in the favour of current armed forces who depend on similar myths in order to gather recruits.
This film should not be accepted uncritically, and parents should be concerned about the way children's fantasies are subtly being leveraged in support of war. Though sometimes there may be good reason for going to war, it is never the case that it is glorious. We are wise to remind our children of this, and should be careful not to let their fantasies pull them into something they don't yet understand.