Benjamin Button Teaches Lessons
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette Star in Movie about Life and Death
Jan 2, 2009
Movies are a great tool to teach lessons to children, teenagers, and adults. Use movies as a parent, educator, friend, or curious individual to challenge yourself to learn and grow in new ways. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an interesting, fun, strange, and touching movie that gives an audience the chance to learn about life, death, and some of the harder parts of love.
What is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button About?
Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is born as a small, wrinkled, old man who ages backwards. He is raised by a loving stand-in mother who showers him with love despite his strange circumstance. He meets the love of his life (Cate Blanchette) when they are both “children” (he looks as if he’s on the doorstep of death), and they re-connect throughout different times in their lives. Benjamin learns about the excitements of life just like many other teenagers and young adults; only his appearance is old.
Lessons from the Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Whether sharing this movie with friends, family, young, or old, this movie provides a good opportunity to discuss the following life lessons.
Death is Inevitable
Benjamin is faced with the reality of death more than typical individuals, having been born at the age that is most usually associated with death. Death seems to always be on his mind, and as he encounters various characters throughout the movie who face death in their own ways, he learns subtle details about the experience of death that many people don’t consider.
Love is Tricky
Love is complicated and amazing. Benjamin doesn’t always make the best choices in love, but it’s up to the audience to decide which of those choices are right, and which ones might be wrong. The question of morality and love should be discussed. The answers aren’t easy in the movie, and Benjamin represents a character that is just as flawed as any typical person.
Family Can Come from Unexpected Places
Benjamin’s family may not be his biological family, but an adopted family can be just as great, if not better. Whether a family has step-parents or adopted children, this movie brings up the importance of family and the different roles people play.
Life Adventures are Possible
Anyone with a disability or other challenge in life should consider the possibilities of life adventures. If Benjamin Button can do it, why can’t you? How do challenges and disabilities stop people from living life to the fullest? What can people do to get past these challenges?
Just a Start
The above lessons are just the big, obvious ones. Audiences should challenge themselves to pick up on the smaller, equally important lessons. While watching the movie, keep some of these ideas in mind: tolerance, abandonment, commitment, parenthood, unconditional love, race, life disappointment, failed dreams, forgiveness, and human persistence.
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