Spare Change

Benji Bites

Posted by Bryan

We went to the Benji movie last night. Met the dog. Met Joe Camp. He (Camp) gave an appeal to support his movie the same way "we" supported The Passion of The Christ. He shared how Benji was made "outside of the Hollywood system" in the same way Gibson made his movie. The Benji movie, with a PG rating, was described by its maker as 'a family movie' without 'poop jokes,' that deals with 'serious issues' while having 'the most humor in any of the Benji movies.'

With that, here's the good, the bad, and the ugly from Benji: Off the Leash.

The Good:

The dog is cute, a pretty good Benji, as far as Benjis go (yeah, I myself really don't even know what that means). The acting was decent, and the production value was good, too. I was a little concerned when the film started (following the massive appeal to go out and see the movie again when it hit theaters on August 20, bringing friends, to ensure its success) that it was going to be one of those "church basement specials." It wasn't. It was a real movie with as much qualitative equity as many others in the genre. I laughed a few times, I felt a bit of sympathy. The movie, while not a tour de force, was at least partially emotionally evoking.

The Bad:

The plot isn't terribly compelling. The movie is about 20 minutes too long, mostly because of an extraneous subplot that is an homage to the earlier Benji movies (at least that's what Kelli tells me, since I have long forgotten the earlier efforts). There were a few times I felt like I had seen the exact same footage of the scruffy mutt just a few minutes earlier. How many times do we have to see a tight shot of Benji as he poignantly lies his little doggie head upon his little doggie front paws? Okay! We get it! He's sad! Move it along!

At this point, I'll have to warn you if you read further, you'll discover some plot spoilers. However, if you don't read further, you'll miss why I left the theater from a family movie made by a Christian man angrier than I've been in a long time.

That brings us to...
The Ugly:

Even as I type these words, I pray for grace in what I communicate. How's that for a measure of what I'm about to share? I am extremely unhappy about this movie, and I cannot nor will not endorse it to be seen by others, especially those with young children (kids under 10, I'd say). I can't, won't tell people to go watch a "Family Movie" where the family is dysfunctional, where the son is openly defiant, where the mother is stereotypically victimized, and --most egregious of all -- where the father is verbally and physically abusive to his own family.

Yes, thank you so much Mr. Camp, for introducing my children to the issue of domestic violence. Hearing my son ask, "Why was that daddy so mean to his son? Why did he tackle him like that?" And hearing my daughter ask, "How did the mommy get that bruise on her head?" will be the lasting memories from your dog movie. And frankly, that hacks me off. Remember that parents are the ones bringing their kids to the movies. Parents pay for the stubs. So having a wife-beating, child-abusing, dog-killing dad is not a way to endear your movie to viewers.

I'm also fairly unhappy that I listened to a sincere appeal that this movie is so different from its Hollywood counterparts, but offered repeated insults along the lines of "butthead," "idiot," and "stupid." If I have to choose between a movie like Shrek where we have to have a discussion about farting in public, compared to multiple ones following Benji about how you don't use words like "butthead," how children shouldn't tell their mommies to leave their daddies because he doesn't love them, and about how most daddies really do love their wives and children very much and would never be mean and hit them, guess where i'm going. Let 'er rip don-kay!

I was reminded later that the first Benji movie's topic wasn't any lighter than this one...two children were kidnapped in the original and rescued by the lovable scamp. Maybe the problem, then, lies in the effort to create a movie in 2004 based on the idyllic innocence of 1974. Kidnapping and domestic violence were ugly things that certainly existed, but they weren't commonplace. To have stories about these issues back then was disconnected to the common experience of most folks. But the children of 1974 are the parents of today, and we live in a time where our headlines are filled with kidnapping and domestic violence. We want our children's doggie movies to be a little more light-hearted and a lot less undermining to our children's trust in our innate love and good care for them.

Am I over-reacting? I've asked myself that many times. Ultimately, this movie may be fine for families with children a little older, who have unfortunately been little more exposed to some of the uglier elements of the human condition. I doubt though, that this movie's positive merits would appeal to older children. I am not an advocate of protecting my children from the world...but I am a strong advocate of being able to determine when and where is the appropriate time to discuss matters of such grave importance. I am not pleased when a movie we watch under other pretenses awkwardly forces the issue before my children who have no capacity or context to understand the intricacies of strained dysfunctional family relations.

I really want Joe Camp to succeed, so much so that I'm going to try and communicate my concerns with him personally (I was reminded that was the biblical response). He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, a man with a sincere desire to change the tone of entertainment. I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and check out his next effort. This one -- Benji off His Leash -- missed the mark. It didn't match its own hype, and what it did leave with my family was certainly not suitable for my children.