Raise Your Voice

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Raise Your Voice's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Raise Your Voice completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 4 January 2005.

Overall comments and recommendations

Raise Your Voice is yet another movie which ends in a competitive concert to see who will win the $10,000 academic scholarship. The lead role is played by Hilary Duff as Terri Fletcher, an aspiring voice student who actually comes up against some seriously talented music students. Duff plays the part of a 16 year old girl quite well as it doesn't require great acting skills, but the film would have been better if the role had been filled by someone with real musical talent. The story line is well worn and as such will have limited appeal.

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 Raise Your Voice contains the following information:

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

A synopsis of the story

Terri Fletcher is 16 years old and longs to be a singer but her over-protective father Simon forbids her attending summer school in Los Angeles . Older brother Paul dotes on his sister and believes she is very talented and so submits a DVD of her singing to Bristol Hill Conservatorium, one of the most prestigious music schools in the country. When Paul argues with his father trying to persuade him to allow Terri to go, he gets grounded. However Terri has bought tickets for them both to a rock concert that night and so decide to sneak out of the house, breaking their father's rules. On the way home a drunk driver runs a red light and ploughs into their car killing Paul and leaving Terri hospitalised. This of course devastates the family. As it happens Paul's video of Terri gains her entrance into Bristol Hill but Terri no longer wants to go. Terri's mother believes her daughter should go and so devises a plan with Aunt Nina to deceive Simon and get her into music school.

Terri has difficulty fitting into the school, as most of the students are only there to concentrate on their music and on winning the final prize of an academic scholarship worth $10,000. Terri manages to befriend Jay an English boy who's attracted to her and they team up to write and compose. Things get a bit complicated on more than one occasion when Simon decides to see how Terri's getting on but Nina manages to handle the situations quite well until Terri's cover is finally blown. Simon is naturally very angry to learn he's been so deceived and drives to LA to bring his daughter home on the night of the final concert. Terri decides to follow her brother's advice and confronts her Father.

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.

The only violence in this movie is when Terri and Jay have a fight which ends in Terri pushing Jay over.

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 some material that would scare children in this age group:

• Terri and Paul are sitting in the car when another car crashes into them
• Terri wakes up in hospital with tubes in her nose and attached to machinery
• Paul dies as a result of the crash – everyone is very distressed
• A funeral is held for Paul
• Their mother weeps while sorting out Paul's clothes

Over the age of eight

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

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 over the age of eight and into their teens could still be disturbed by the above mentioned scenes.

Product placement

Research shows that children, particularly children under the age of eight, are vulnerable to product placement in movies. Even if the child doesn't recall seeing a particular brand in the movie, they will choose that brand in preference to another, if they have just seen it used or displayed in a movie. This effect may be exacerbated if the product is highlighted as part of the story or if an actor or character they admire is seen to endorse or enjoy the product.

The ‘Pepsi' product was displayed or used in this movie.

Sexual references

There is one sexual reference early in the movie when a boy at school obviously likes Terri and her friend talks about him getting her pregnant.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity, but a very passionate kissing scene between two of the music students.

Use of substances

There is some drinking of alcohol:

• Aunt Nina drinks at home
• Jay gets drunk after arguing with Terri. He wakes up with a hangover.

Coarse language

There is a little coarse language:

• Frequent use of ‘Oh my God'
• Occasional use of ‘crap', ‘friggin' and ‘jackass'

The movie's message

The take home message is that it's okay to disobey your parents if their wishes oppose your own.

Values parents may wish to encourage include persistence in the face of adversity.

The following content could be used by parents to discuss with their children what their own family's values are, and what the real life consequences can be of disobeying, deceiving and lying to your parents. Parents could also discuss when and how it might be okay to stand up to their parents.