Summer Camp Movies: Watch Them and Be a Better Parent

By Martha Brockenbrough
MSN Cinemama

It's easy to romanticize childhood as a time of complete innocence ... a time of white T-shirts and denim shorts, of Popsicles and bubble wands.

And then you watch a few classic summer camp movies and you remember: Childhood is a jungle. A sweaty, bug-filled, hormonally charged jungle. One that often doubled as a battleground, pitting boys against girls, rich kids against poor ones, and geeks against jocks.

No matter how good a job you're doing with your kids, it's worth remembering that, right now, they're probably fighting their own private war on one of these fronts, the poor little soldiers. This is why it's worth revisiting some of those old summer camp movies -- not because they're examples of great cinema, but because they take you back to that time.

These movies don't necessarily make great viewing for kids, unless you're down with swearing, sexual references, deception and rampant cruelty. Not every kid will be able to keep all of that stuff in context. But you're a grown-up. You get the difference, and you'll be more sympathetic to growing pains once you've relived them on-screen.

The pain: a general feeling of incompetence
The treatment: "Meatballs"

When this movie came out in 1979, I never understood why I wasn't allowed to watch it. Now I get it. It's got swearing, sexual references, inappropriate nicknames (Spaz? Really?), and all sorts of other things conscientious parents freak out about.

It also perfectly captures what it feels like to be the loner in a seemingly impenetrable group. The movie tells the story of a kid named Rudy (Chris Makepeace, who went on to star in "My Bodyguard" when that movie was one of two PG titles available for rent at our local video store in the days of the VHS/Beta war). Poor Rudy. He's the only child of a father too busy to attend parents day at camp, and worse, he doesn't know how to play soccer.

So a camp counselor played by a young Bill Murray looks after him, coaching him in long-distance running, blackjack and other manly arts. Rudy does finally get his moment to shine, but only after a hilarious scene in which Murray teaches kids how to lose with style.

For parents, it's a great reminder that kids sometimes need extra time to find what they're good at. One-on-one time with a parent can be really helpful.

"Meatballs" is rated PG, from the days before there was a PG-13 rating. That's what it'd probably get today, though Murray's mullet deserves an R rating for totally radical.

The pain: feeling at odds with how everyone else does things
The treatment: "Addams Family Values"

Movie sequels are hardly ever as good as the first movie. This sequel to the "Addams Family" is one of the rare exceptions, and possibly because of one word: Pubert. It's the filthy name the Addams parents give to their mustachioed baby, and its hilarity has not been diminished in the 15 years since it came out.

In this movie, a conniving nanny (Joan Cusack) wants to marry Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) so that she can kill him and make off with his fortune. She convinces Morticia (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) to send Wednesday (a young Christina Ricci) and her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) to an exclusive camp for rich kids.