BREAKING DAWN PART I - MY VERY PERSONAL NOT - A REVIEW

My son stares at me, amazed. "What is it that you saw?!?" And "Why?" , he plies me with. 

What does he mean "why"? Why should I have a "why" to watch a film? Well, not any film. He meant "Breaking Dawn", the latest instalment of the teenage romantic saga "Twilight". 

 Fact is, he knows me quite well. Though he's quite wrong when he thinks I can't see anything different from  Shakespeare or Jane Austen adaptations. Moreover, I've actually seen the previous movies in this saga just with him, on TV. He can't have forgotten the experience,  I asked him so many questions about who was who the first time! 

But he was there, waiting for an answer to his "Why?"  Why does his not-any-longer-a-teenager  mother show so much interest in those YA romances?

I didn't actually answer him, if not mumbling briefly  "I was curious, that's all".

But he's right. There is a "why". There is always a reason when I decide to see or read something meant for teenagers. Especially if that something is particularly successful among them.

My "why" is my job, teaching teenagers. While watching things like Twilight, I'm studying the targets of my didactic action, my students. It's not the first time, nor it'll be the last. I watch their favourite TV programmes, films, series, shows and try to leaf through their favourite books from time to time. Do you remember me watching "A Walk to Remember"?

So, is  Bella and Edward's dark romance what most of my female students like daydreaming about? I feel the need to discover more. And, honestly, I don't approach their stuff , cults and idols with the aim to destroy them, nor with a snobbish smirk, but with some respect and in order to understand these young people more deeply. That can make my job easier  because, in fact,  it is not always easy to get to them or to create a bond with them.

So here I am, in front of a screen watching Bella and Edward's fairy-tale marriage in the first part suddenly turned into a nightmarish drama in the second one: their own creature, their own baby is going to kill Bella. She's bravely and stubbornly ready to self - sacrifice in order to give it life. Edward is ready to get himself killed by Jack, Bella's loyal friend, in order to pay for the evil and suffering  he caused to her. There's only one way to save Bella's life. They all know. But,  will there be enough time for Edward to save both his baby and his beloved?

Each time I've seen one of the episodes in this love story between Bella and Edward, I've wondered how it could be possible that contemporary young people could like reactionary, old-fashioned, ultra-conservative stuff like that. They often turn their noses up at reading Shakespeare or Jane Austen in my classes (why always that old stuff?) but do they realize how old the story they like reading or watching is? 

Bella Swan the human loving Edward Cullen the vampire is not so distant from Juliet Capulet loving Romeo, her enemy, a Montague. Forbidden love is not at all a new theme in literature nor in movies. Neither is  the vogue of  vampires, werewolves or ghosts, which  comes from ancient times: the first Gothic tales were written centuries ago. Love, family, friendship, loyalty, chastity, bravery: aren't they the main features of many literary classics?

So, what charm is there in Meyer's Twilight saga for our kids? 

Love beyond any barrier against  their world full of barriers, love above sex against the sex-maniac world they must live in, love ready to self-sacrifice against our tragically selfish world. Sound old values against the shallow vanity they are surrounded by. Is this really what many of our children dream of? Does this mean the grandchildren of "divorce" and "women's emancipation" would like to go back? Maybe they don't realize, but that seems what they most long for.

What? Did I like the movie? Do you really want me to answer that question? Not so important, since I didn't mean to write a review. However, it was not a total waste of time, if not a great movie.