flavia18 Review of Where Are My Children?

Where Are My Children? (1916)

Remarkable presentation of subject matter, both emotional and logical.

[9/10 · 7 February 2006]

I was amazed at both the subject matter of the movie, and how it was handled. This movie was incredibly even-handed; I can't understand how so many people insist that this is strictly an anti-abortion movie! Abortion is shown as both horrible and not: also condemned is the fact of women being forced to have children when they are not equipped to do so. The trial scene makes this very clear - not only is a reputable doctor shown as testifying for the benefits of abortion, but his views are fully aired in the movie. The rest of the film does show the prevailing society view - most notably the touching use of angels to represent children coming into the womb, as well as going back to Heaven. Of course, it is also quite possible that this might be a device of equivocation: that if the souls return to Heaven the same way they originally came down to earth, surely they can just come back down again...? But even more poignant than this depiction is the ghostly adult images of the children referenced in the title: the phantoms of what might have been not only surrounding the father, but quite firmly between him and his wife.