My kids don’t like dogs.
Oh, they’ll say that they like the furry critters if you ask. But in real life, when dogs show up, all three of my kiddos kind of freak out and run the other way. Many of our friends own dogs, but to watch my children, you’d think they were pet wolverines or badgers or something when we spend time with them.
But last week something interesting happened that involved two dogs, one on the big screen and the other at the house of some friends.
My son had been asking if we could see the new movie Max, which is about a Malinois shepherd (think German shepherd) service dog whose handler is killed in Afghanistan. Max essentially suffers from a canine version of post-traumatic stress disorder after the event, and he’s due to be put down when he bonds with the younger brother of the soldier he once worked with.
After checking Plugged In (of course!), I decided we could go see this movie as a family. My three kids loved the dog-and-boy adventure. Indeed, it had a throwback vibe that made it feel like something that could have been produced in the 1970s or ’80s. Critics mostly disliked it, but I really appreciated its old-fashioned sensibility.
A couple of hours after we saw the film, it was time for us to go to our small group with several other families. The friends hosting our group that week have an enormous German shepherd with a propensity for barking. Frankly, it even intimidates me a bit. And my kids have never wanted to have anything to do with the animal. Generally speaking, our friends put their dog in its fenced-off run outside when company comes over. But for whatever reason that night, they decided to let him out to play with everyone.
I was waiting a bit nervously (OK, maybe my kids’ phobias come from me after all!) for my children to come running when the dog came anywhere near them. But then something really remarkable happened: They all started playing with the dog. Playing without fear, without running away. Really playing with the pup.
It was something I’d never seen them do with any dog, let alone one as big as our friends’ German shepherd. They played together a long time, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if they’d always loved romping with massive canines.
For just a moment, I wondered, What’s changed here? And then it hit me: We’d just seen a movie about a dog that looked exactly like the one my kids were suddenly enjoying so much.
I can’t prove that watching Max changed my children’s attitudes toward dogs. But, on the other hand, I can’t identify any other factor that would have so quickly caused them to behave so differently around an animal that had always frightened them before.
For me, I think it underlines once again the power of a good story. When we see characters onscreen whom we like and identify with, it has the power to help us see the world differently. That might mean engaging with something or someone that has previously frightened us, which certainly seemed to be the case with my children. It might mean that our attitudes toward something are shifted one way or another.
Whatever the change in our perspective or attitudes might be, I think this anecdote from my own family is a reminder that movies are powerful influences when it comes to reshaping our fears, our dreams, our imagination, our understanding. Some stories may indeed merely entertain; but others are working on deeply held ideas, beliefs and anxieties, and we’d do well to remember that even something as simple as a dog movie might be influencing our family in ways we never could have anticipated.
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