Favourite Film

My favourite film is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, directed by Ken Hughes staring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes. It is my favourite film because it reminds me of my childhood and brings back good memories, aswell as it being a captivating story line that is both appealing to children and adults. It is also a family orientated film as it includes the theme of family with the children played by Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall. The screenplay was written by Roald Dahl which immediately gives the audience an understanding that the plot will not be any ordinary story, it will have a more fictional side to it which is great if you feel the need to escape from reality for a couple of hours. Considering the fact that the first time I watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I was very young, I found that there was a lot of variety in the plot in the sense that there were happy moments, nerve wracking moments aswell as scary moments that brought the film and storyline alive. It is also a musical, composed by the Sherman Brothers which gives the film a happier and uplifting tone.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed and released in 1968, when special effects were very new to the world of cinematography, thus making it one of the first films to manage to incorporate a flying car and the use of a green screen. Although the special effects are not as impressive as current films that make it difficult to tell whether or not they are actually using any special effects it is fascinating to see how they have managed to make it as “realistic” as possible, such effects were supervised by John Stears.

This film was released at a time when all other films were not geared towards children, because of its incorporation of candy and a magical outside world, it became very popular very fast and managed to sell out viewings and receive outstanding reviews from newspapers like the New York Times saying “in spite of the dreadful title, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a fast, dense, friendly children's musical, with something of the joys of singing together on a team bus on the way to a game”. Aswell as receiveing reviews from renounded critics from The Chicago Sun Times saying “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang contains about the best two-hour children's movie you could hope for, with a marvelous magical auto and lots of adventure and a nutty old grandpa and a mean Baron and some funny dances and a couple of scary moments”.

In conclusion, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is my favourite film because it conveys several important messages for children to learn from and also marks a time in which film has now evolved into.