Young@Heart

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Young@Heart's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Young@Heart completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 21 October 2008.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Young@Heart contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• 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

Young@Heart is a choral group of very elderly singers, with an average age of 80, who perform in the US and have toured Europe. Surprisingly, and sometimes comically, the music is contemporary and classic rock ’n roll including hits by the Clash, Sonic Youth and the Ramones. This film is a documentary by Stephen Walker, about Young@Heart as a group and as individuals, displaying their artistic talents which are brought together so well by director Bob Cilman. It is inspiring to see a diverse group of people overcoming the isolating effects of old age and coping with ill health and heartbreaking losses while embracing the joy that music and friendship provide them.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Ageing and dying

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 no violence in this movie.

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 are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including the following:

• Bob is shown in hospital with tubes in his nose
• Joe is also shown in hospital having a blood transfusion, with blood dripping through tubes
• Fred needs oxygen to breath and is shown with tubes in his nose attached to his portable supply

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.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes and by the fact that we hear of the deaths of two leading members of the group during the making of this film and see the distress of their colleagues.

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, like many adults, may be upset by the reported deaths of leading choir members

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There is some mild sexual innuendo in conversations between the interviewer and choir members, including

• a joking discussion about a comic “sexy beast” statuette owned by one man

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• some alcohol drinking

Coarse language

None of concern

The movie's message

Young@Heart was originally made as a BBC documentary aimed mainly at an adult audience. Its main messages are that you’re never too old to try something new and that you should live life to the full.