Big Fish

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Big Fish's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Big Fish completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 5 February 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Big Fish is a great story about a person’s self discovery and the discovery of that person’s self by his adult son. William’s scepticism of his father’s tall tales about his life is challenged by the ending of Edward’s life. This movie is full of fantastic characters and adventures, bravery and heroism and is very entertaining for adults and adolescents.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Big Fish contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

William Bloom has listened all his life to his father Edward’s tall, fishy tales about his life. William, now married and expecting his first child, would like to know the true account of Edward’s life as he feels that he and his father are “strangers who know each other very well”.

Edward, however, refuses to budge from his version which begins with his dramatic entrance into the world when he literally pops out of his mother’s womb and goes flying down the hospital corridor. As a child, Edward is the dare devil who knocks on the door of a witch’s house asking to see her glass eye. He grows up to be the local hero of Ashton, the baseball star, the winner of the science fair and rescuer of dogs from burning houses.

One day a giant of a man named Carl comes to live in a cave near Ashton much to the distress of the local residents. Of course Edward goes to visit Carl to discuss the possibility of his moving on. They become friends and decide to leave for the bigger world together. Edward goes on to have many adventures in his life and meets many unusual characters. He visits Spectre, a seemingly perfect place, where he meets a poet from Ashton. Spectre however is not as it appears and has underlying problems which Edward revisits later on. He and Carl go on to join a circus working for a Mr. Calloway who is really a werewolf and where Edward works for three years in exchange for information about the woman he wishes to marry.

After he’s married, Edward is called up to war and is parachuted into enemy territory where he meets conjoined twins who are singing stars. Edward brings them back to America to join Mr. Calloway’s circus. Of course William is highly sceptical about all these stories but the end of Edward’s life holds even more surprises for William.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including the following scenes:

• Carl's booming voice blows Edward with force to the ground.
• While he’s at the circus Edward gets knocked over by a ride, is shot out of a cannon and puts his head in a lion’s mouth.
• Edward goes into Mr. Calloway’s caravan and is pounced upon by a fierce wolf (Mr. Calloway) who growls and bares his teeth menacingly.
• Attendants have a gun to shoot wolf but shoot Edward by mistake.
• Don Price, one of Edward’s childhood rivals, beats him up badly because he takes his fiancée from him. Edward is left with a bloody mouth and bruising to his face.
• The poet fires guns while holding up a bank.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

There is quite a lot of material that would scare children in this age group. As well as the violent scenes mentioned above, the following could scare very young children:

• When Edward’s mother gives birth to him, she is in a lot of pain and screams a great deal.
• As a child Edward loves to tell stories about witches, snakes and quick sand. He talks about witches who eat children and use their bones to cast spells.
• Edward’s friends dare him to go inside the witch’s house to get her glass eye and then tell him that she’ll make soap out of him.
• The witch opens the door and looks really scary with a wrinkled face, eye patch, glass eye and dishevelled hair.
• The witch shows her glass eye to Edward and the other boys who all see how they’re going to die in it.
• When Edward goes to the cave to confront the giant, scary music plays and crows screech at him. The giant is very scary and yells in a very deep loud voice. He is extremely tall and looks grotesque. He walks out of the cave with a loud thumping noise.
• Edward tells the giant he’s been sent as a human sacrifice for him to eat.
• The road to Spectre is very scary – wooded and misty, said to be haunted. Owls screech at Edward and crows take his hat. Edward throws rocks at the crows disturbing a bee hive; the bees then attack Edward. Jumping spiders also jump on him and he’s trapped by trees which wrap their branches around him.
• Edward sees a woman bathing in a lake in the nude and a snake is rapidly approaching her. Edward dives into the water to rescue the woman; when he gets out he’s covered in leeches.
• At the circus a cat jumps from the high wire. Also Colossus (another giant, not as big as Carl) explodes out of his van and eats fire.
• When the wolf is threatening Edward, he throws a stick at it. We then see Mr. Calloway returning (in the nude and very hairy) with the stick in his mouth.
• Edward gets caught driving in a massive downpour and can't see through his windscreen. His car is engulfed in water and he sees a woman swimming around the car in the nude. When the flood subsides, the car is shown stuck in the top of a tall tree.
• Edward as an old man is taking a bath with his clothes on and is lying under the water; he looks like he’s dead.
• William tells his father, on his death bed, a story of how he thinks he dies and he carries his body to a lake where he drops him and he turns into a large fish.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Most children in this age group would probably understand that this is fantasy. However, some scenes might still frighten children in this age group including the following:

• Edward’s mother giving birth
• The scene where the wolf viciously growls at Edward and then goes off to turn into Mr. Calloway.
• Don Price beating up Edward.
• Edward in his car sinking to the bottom of the lake.
• Edward lying in the bath appearing dead.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group would probably not be scared by this movie except for maybe the werewolf scene.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity but only from a back view. None was provocative and the woman is shown in a respectful way:

• The woman bathing in the lake
• Mr. Calloway returning with the stick in his mouth
• The woman swimming in the lake.

Use of substances

There is some drinking at a wedding.

Coarse language

There is a little coarse language including the occasional use of ‘bitch’ and ‘shit’.

The movie's message

The take home message is one of tolerance and acceptance of others, regardless of their outward appearance. It’s also about finding one’s way in life and defining the difference between truth and emotion.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• friendship
• tolerance
• optimism
• selflessness
• seeing things from another perspective
• seeing the good in others
• courage and bravery
• fidelity.