In order to celebrate Mother's Day, I'm listing out my personal top 10 films about mother-child relationships that I like.
(Compiling a list of good films about mother and child relationships just seem so much harder than those about father and son...)
THE LAND BEFORE TIME
This is THE ultimate movie about motherly love. The death of Littlefoot's mom after she valiantly protected him from a Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of the most traumatic scene I've ever watched as a child. Anyway, til this very day, I feel that Disney's LION KING, which came out 6 years after this animated masterpiece, isa rip-off of heavily influenced by THE LAND BEFORE TIME.
Here's the scene where Littlefoot's mom tells him about The Great Valley
TERMINATOR 2
Besides being one of the greatest action sci-fi films of all-time, Terminator 2 is ultimately a film about motherly love. Like Littlefoot's mom, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) was unafraid of anything when she had to desperately protect her child from danger... even when facing someone like the near-invincible T-1000. She had such a lasting impact on her son that in T3, it was pretty obvious the grown-up John Connor was attracted to the Claire Danes character cos' she reminded him of his mom.
Here's someone's tribute to Sarah Connor.
THE SIXTH SENSE
This isn't really just a story about a boy who sees dead people, or some dude who didn't know that he had already become a ghost after getting shot at the beginning of the film, but also a great mother-son story.
Their bonding scene in the car towards the end between Lynn (Toni Collette) and Cole (Haley Joel Osment) was the most emotional scene of the whole film. Both of them deserved their Oscar nominations.
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
More like a cautionary tale, but not only about the consequences of being addicted to drugs. It's also a tragedy of miscommunication and growing distance between mother and son. Things wouldn't have gone straight to hell if Sara (Ellen Burstyn) and Harry (Jared Leto) had well, spoken and understood each other more. They ended up doing some really stupid things that led them to the dark and hopeless ending.
Here's its trailer:
PSYCHO
Guy killed his mother and preserved her corpse for many years, while his mind became dominated by the persona of his mother, which made him totally psychotic.
A true showing of one's love for his mother.
Okay, I'm just kidding.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
Not really a mother-son film, since the son died pretty early in the film. But still a film about motherly love, about how the woman dealt with the loss of her son, and how she lived her life after that. My memories of this movie are pretty vague since I watched it not long after it came out, but a good movie for mothers to watch, I guess.
FREAKY FRIDAY
Haven't seen the original, but I thought the 2003 Jamie Lee Curtis/ Lindsay Lohan version's pretty good. Mother and daughter cannot get along, then they switch bodies, and are forced to adapt to the other's life, gradually learning to understand each other more. Pretty surprised that this movie's only made four years ago, with all these news about Lindsay Lohan since then, it definitely felt much longer ago when I saw this.
Here's the moment when their bodies were switched.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Guy travels back in time, stumbles upon a younger version of his mom, and younger version of his mom develops a crush for him.
Real motherly love.
Okay, I'm kidding about this film too.
IMA AI NI YUKIMASU いま会いにゆきます
The only Asian film in the list. Woman dies and returns to her husband and young son one year later during rainy season. I prefer the TV drama version, but the film version's depiction of mother and son relationship is still very touching.
Here's the trailer.
Well, that's all I can think of. What about you? (... maybe 5xmom will have some suggestions)
BTW: Happy Mother's Day, mom.
(Compiling a list of good films about mother and child relationships just seem so much harder than those about father and son...)
THE LAND BEFORE TIME
This is THE ultimate movie about motherly love. The death of Littlefoot's mom after she valiantly protected him from a Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of the most traumatic scene I've ever watched as a child. Anyway, til this very day, I feel that Disney's LION KING, which came out 6 years after this animated masterpiece, is
Here's the scene where Littlefoot's mom tells him about The Great Valley
TERMINATOR 2
Besides being one of the greatest action sci-fi films of all-time, Terminator 2 is ultimately a film about motherly love. Like Littlefoot's mom, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) was unafraid of anything when she had to desperately protect her child from danger... even when facing someone like the near-invincible T-1000. She had such a lasting impact on her son that in T3, it was pretty obvious the grown-up John Connor was attracted to the Claire Danes character cos' she reminded him of his mom.
Here's someone's tribute to Sarah Connor.
THE SIXTH SENSE
This isn't really just a story about a boy who sees dead people, or some dude who didn't know that he had already become a ghost after getting shot at the beginning of the film, but also a great mother-son story.
Their bonding scene in the car towards the end between Lynn (Toni Collette) and Cole (Haley Joel Osment) was the most emotional scene of the whole film. Both of them deserved their Oscar nominations.
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
More like a cautionary tale, but not only about the consequences of being addicted to drugs. It's also a tragedy of miscommunication and growing distance between mother and son. Things wouldn't have gone straight to hell if Sara (Ellen Burstyn) and Harry (Jared Leto) had well, spoken and understood each other more. They ended up doing some really stupid things that led them to the dark and hopeless ending.
Here's its trailer:
PSYCHO
Guy killed his mother and preserved her corpse for many years, while his mind became dominated by the persona of his mother, which made him totally psychotic.
A true showing of one's love for his mother.
Okay, I'm just kidding.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
Not really a mother-son film, since the son died pretty early in the film. But still a film about motherly love, about how the woman dealt with the loss of her son, and how she lived her life after that. My memories of this movie are pretty vague since I watched it not long after it came out, but a good movie for mothers to watch, I guess.
FREAKY FRIDAY
Haven't seen the original, but I thought the 2003 Jamie Lee Curtis/ Lindsay Lohan version's pretty good. Mother and daughter cannot get along, then they switch bodies, and are forced to adapt to the other's life, gradually learning to understand each other more. Pretty surprised that this movie's only made four years ago, with all these news about Lindsay Lohan since then, it definitely felt much longer ago when I saw this.
Here's the moment when their bodies were switched.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Guy travels back in time, stumbles upon a younger version of his mom, and younger version of his mom develops a crush for him.
Real motherly love.
Okay, I'm kidding about this film too.
IMA AI NI YUKIMASU いま会いにゆきます
The only Asian film in the list. Woman dies and returns to her husband and young son one year later during rainy season. I prefer the TV drama version, but the film version's depiction of mother and son relationship is still very touching.
Here's the trailer.
Well, that's all I can think of. What about you? (... maybe 5xmom will have some suggestions)
BTW: Happy Mother's Day, mom.
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