Ice Castles

There are a lot of undertones in this film that normal, relatively innocent hearted people in the '70s might not have picked up on or even things that would be so egregious that the thought would be a nightmare scenero their cognitive dissonance would overlook. First, the relationship with the father looks very, inappropriate. The initial coach, comes off as being very "butch" and unladylike, they go out of their way to demonstrate this. Then the second "coach" from the very moment she is initially shown, is leering at the girl like a predator. The woman repeated traumatizes the girl, she mentioned how much all the training is costing her, then the scene fades, just like in the beginning before something happened with the boyfriend. It literally appeared as though the father and the first coach sold her to this very suspect older woman. It might seem like a stretch. The first thing another young girl says the her when she arrives at the training facility, is a conversation about lesbianism. Knowing what we know about Hollywood now, this is definitely something they would "hide" in their film for people like themselves. I know that to people in a previous time, this movie would just be seen through straight eyes. Sadly it's loaded with the abuse if a minor.

This incredibly dated movie was one of my favorites growing up, so I shared it with my kids. We were all absolutely mortified by the language - most of it seemingly just gratutitious swearing to 'make' a main character seem harsh. The smoking and drinking, too, is typical for the time - it's everywhere. This is NOT the feel-good movie I remember. It is an incredibly labored movie that drags on and on, until it finally reaches its feel-good conclusion. Meanwhile, your kids are exposed to major profanity, boring character development and a bunch of puppy-love schmaltz. My kids hated it and my fond recollections were tossed right out the window.