Schindlers List rating age

SACRAMENTO -- Jessica Gildersleeve-Fong figures she was old

enough. But just barely. She was 14 when she first watched

"Schindler's List."

"I guess I was old enough," she says. But she found it hard to

watch, as do most viewers of any age.

"It was really moving. But I thought it was kind of bloody,"

says Gildersleeve-Fong, now 15 and in the ninth-grade at Kennedy

High School. Watching was strictly her choice. She wanted to see it

after visiting the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington,

D.C., on vacation. She saw the video alone at home last year.

"I think younger kids shouldn't watch it. I think you need to be

older to really appreciate it," she says.

Every parent will have to decide how old is old enough when

"Schindler's List" airs Sunday night from 6:30 to 10 on NBC

[Channel 2 in Tulsa]. The 1993 movie graphically depicts the

horrors of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews perished. At what

age should kids watch?

Most experts say that some sixth-graders, at 11, are mature

enough. They say most middle-school kids -- ages 12 and 13 -- can

watch it, while high school kids are definitely old enough.

Ultimately, though, parents have to decide for themselves. Whatever

the decision, experts stress the importance of watching the movie,

which was rated R when it was released, with your kids.

It's an issue that even Steven Spielberg, who directed the film,

is concerned about. In a brief introduction that will air before

the showing, he says:

"I want you -- and especially parents -- to know that

'Schindler's List' is more explicit and more graphic than anything

you may have seen before on network television.

"... While every parent should make a judgment for their own

family, I do not personally believe this is a film for the very

young. My younger children, for example, of elementary school age,

have still not seen `Schindler's List.' If they were of high school

age, I would want them to."

The 31/2-hour movie, which won seven Oscars, tells the true

story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi party member and war profiteer who

saved 1,100 Jews from the death camps during World War II. The film

stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ben Kingsley as the Jewish manager

of Schindler's factory and Ralph Fiennes as a particularly vicious

Nazi.

It is not easy to watch. Jewish prisoners are shot in the head

with a casualness that is stunning. Mothers run after trucks that

carry their children to death. Concentration camp prisoners are

forced to extract gold teeth from dead prisoners.

There is none of the distancing comfort of fiction. But many

feel that history demands that we watch and remember -- and pass on

the difficult lesson to our children.

"I think that kids do need to know what happened," says Rabbi

Reuven Taff of the Mosaic Law congregation in the Arden area. "We

need to sensitize our youth to the fact that these atrocities

occurred. And the film helps to send the message to those who deny

that the Holocaust ever happened that it did occur."

Taff will be watching the movie with his wife and three sons,

ages 12, 14 and 18.

In much the same way that "Roots" became a historical event 20

years ago, those who watch "Schindler's List" Sunday may also feel

that they are part of something monumental. NBC expects some 30

million Americans to tune in -- 5 million more people than saw the

movie in U.S. theaters during its initial release. Its impact has

been global -- more than 200 million people around the world have

seen it. It has also become part of the curriculum at many schools.

Videotapes of the film and study guides are already in 25,000

schools and libraries across the country. Close to 2 million high

school students have seen it in free screenings.

The TV version, which will be shown without commercials and will

have two 105 second intermissions, has been cut by less than a

minute, and NBC will not disclose what the trims are. The broadcast

is sponsored entirely by Ford. The film's violence and nudity are

still strong enough for the network to have given the broadcast the

first TV-M rating on commercial television. The rating means it is

not intended for children under 17.

Susan Cosden director of education, for the congregation B'nai

Israel in Land Park, where 310 kids from preschool through high

school receive religious instruction, says some sixth-graders may

be able to handle the movie. In area synagogue programs, sixth

grade is when kids start studying the Holocaust fully. Mostly,

Cosden stresses the need for families to watch together -- and not

just Jewish families.

"I think one of the greatest things that this can offer families

is a time to discuss it. Also, it's a real opportunity for the

non-Jewish community, especially since this is from the viewpoint

of a righteous gentile."

"If a kid sees it, you've got to help them with it," says Les

Finke. His daughter, who is in fifth grade, is not ready, he says.

"She's still recovering from 'Bambi.'"

He'll wait to watch it with her, even though it's hard.

"I'm anxious to watch it with her, the movie was so monumental

in my life."

"Schindler's List" gave Finke, who is 46, a new vocation. After

seeing it, he became one of a handful of those trained to conduct

video interviews with survivors for Spielberg's Shoah Foundation,

which has conducted some 27,000 interviews. He has conducted one so

far. He says the foundation knows of about 40 survivors who live in

the Sacramento area.

Finke will speak with young adults and seniors at a gathering

before the movie is shown at the Jewish Federation's Albert

Einstein Residence Center, a senior housing complex in the Arden

area, where Finke is director.

But such gatherings are rare. Most people will watch with their

immediate families. Like Marlene Anapolsky and her family, who will

be watching at home in Gold River.

"I think knowing that everyone is watching it at the same time

makes it special. It's like when Hanukkah and Passover come, and

you know everyone is doing the same thing at the same time," she

says.

Tags

• Film
• Broadcasting Events
• School
• Show
• Education
• Susan Cosden
• Jessica Gildersleeve-fong
• Reuven Taff
• Broadcast
• Steven Spielberg
• High School