One scene that had me scared to death early in the movie is when Gregory leaves his house to go to school and outside are about fifty little kids playing and no adults were anywhere around supervising them. That's all.
shareI remember that scene even without re-watching it. Maybe it's a British thing. That's how Madeline McCann got kidnapped from Portugal. I remember the scene for another reason. As Gregory was leaving home and trying not to step on any of them, a squeaky little voice said, "Hello Gregory." It sounded like an adult trying to imitate a child.
shareI'd attribute this to being a sign of the times.
When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s growing up in a large industrial city, all the school-aged, neighbourhood kids played outside, rarely, if ever, with any adult supervision. Back in those days, mom was generally at home; the six o'clock news was about Vietnam or the Middle East, the drug crisis, and the debate over the failure of government services; and occasionally bad things happened to good people.
Nowadays, most families require double incomes to survive economically; the 24-hour news media constantly spreads FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt); and society has a zero tolerance approach to anything bad happening to anyone. Instead of playing road hockey or running around in a park, it's game consoles and the Internet.
Our world, society, and families have changed and stayed the same. Perhaps the greatest change has been our perception of security. In order to keep our children safe, our society believes that children cannot play without supervision. Perhaps the greatest challenge we face as a society is balancing security with freedom. Perhaps the greatest dilemma parents face is deciding the best balance for their children.
From my perspective, nothing appears unusual or strange, once put into context. That is all.
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Was normal. Kids used to go off all day and have adventures on their own. We used to go down by the river, swim in quarries, cross bust dual carriageways, play on the railway tracks and fight the kids from the next neighbourhood. Was fantastic and so much freedom and fun. How we lived to tell the tale, I'll never know.
shareI didn't think you were being serious to start off with. That still seems normal to me.
When I was a kid you were told a time you had to be back by and that was it. Off you went. I used to regularly walk on my own to the high street to buy comics when I was 8.
I don't think there are any more paedophiles around now than there were back then, but it does seem completely different now.
Aside from the brief appearance of Gregory's dad and a few teachers excluding Mr.Menzies, there was really no adult presence in this film. It was like watching a live action "Peanuts" movie.
shareI just watched this and I thought this scene was some sort of joke about Scottish people having a lot of kids (also the remark by the camera kid about a story about a student who just had triplets.) All those kids Gregory was walking by seemed to be 4 years old and younger...
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