Once we get into a conversation about which movies are bad and which are good, we’ve entered a free for all where we alone get to decide what is spiritually harmful…would the same sentiment let you decide what is kosher without being a trained Mashgiach? Would you investigate a company and decide to eat it without a hashgocha? I doubt it. I definitely wouldn’t, despite learning yoreh deah. When we watch a movie, are we in investigative mode, where we’re on the lookout for shmutz or bad influences, or are we in relaxation mode, where we want to be entertained and aren’t really paying attention to subtle apikorsus, inappropriate jokes, etc?
Discussing content misses the “big picture” points of what movies do to us. It’s a red line that the gedolei yisroel drew way back when movies weren’t as bad. They knew what it was and of course what it would become, but not just because of the future…it undoes all chinuch with children. You can spend weeks teaching about lashon hora, and it’s all undone if a disney character says something bad about his counterpart. You can teach how bad jealousy is, but one look at snow white will change that. Speaking of, while we might say to ourselves that children won’t notice, what do you think a story of a woman living with 7 adult men does to their mind? Is it a surprise that we are living in a time when “polyamory” is accepted?
People don’t look beyond the surface…of course the examples I’m giving aren’t even beyond the surface, they’re just things people miss because they’ve been indoctrination in the “mindless television cult(quote from rav avigdor miller’s ‘awake my glory’). How many people have let their impressionable children watch the egregious “fiddler on the roof” because of its featuring “frum” themes? A quick synopsis would be that a frum man has several daughters, each one deviating more from torah than the previous one. The first daughter marries a supposedly observant jew without Shidduchim. They violate negiah in their courtship. The next daughter marries a non-observant communist who twists the story of yaakov and lavan to his ends. He also breaks the (very minimal) separation of men and women at his wedding after the senile “rabbi” says thar it’s not really forbidden for men and women to dance together. Jewish men get drunk with polish goyim. The last daughter marries a non-jew. The play/movie ends with them leaving their town, implying even more “progress” in the form of assimilation. The main character tevya opposed all changes, sayinf “above all, tradition!”, While accepting them each as they come, saying “our ways were new once too”, implying that Torah was merely a custom cv”s.
The movie sets up the scenario of the old school “traditionalist” who wants to stay frum merely because of tradition, against the modernist who wants to join enlightened society. This is a straw man in its highest form, because they’re grossly misrepresenting the orthodox perspective, then knocking it down by saying that things change.
Are you aware that there are jewish day schools that perform this toe’vah in school?