Saturday, I hosted a viewing party for my friends Bethany and Misha because Bethany had never seen this movie and it's Misha's absolute favorite. I don't know that Bethany loved it as much as Misha (and I) but it was an important part of her ongoing movie education.Bastian (Barret Oliver) is a young boy trying to cope with the recent loss of his mother. School has been hard, bullies harass him, and his dad (Gerald McRaney) doesn't know how to reach him. So Bastian retreats into books. One day, running from the kids who put him in a dumpster, Bastian finds an old bookshop, complete with a crotchety old proprietor (Thomas Hill) who very sternly warns Bastian that the book he is reading is much too intense for a child, then conveniently leaving it behind so Bastian can take it, because that old man knows more about children and human nature than anyone else in Bastian's life. Boy and book retreat to the attic of his school and Bastian is immediately captivated by the adventures of the warrior Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) against The Nothing which is eating the land of Fantasia.
As a kids' movie, this is still great. As an allegory for adulthood, it's even better. I'm sure there are people who have written full academic papers on how The Nothing is a metaphor for depression and loss of innocence while the characters Atreyu (and Bastian) meet are thinly veiled archetypes. What I'm saying is that this movie holds up shockingly well. And everyone should own it.
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