Tom

living out life
2008-02-04 15:38:28 (UTC)

Movies

Every member of my family loves to watch movies.
Unfortunately, most of the movies out there are
not "family friendly". Rated R moves are out of the
question and most PG-13 movies are just as bad. It is
getting increasingly harder to find something that we can
sit down and watch together. There are a lot of movies
that would be great if they weren't full of bad language.
Why does Hollywood think that a movie can't be good
without a long list of obscenities? I just don't
understand it. We watched "Master and Commander" with
Russell Crowe this past weekend and, even though it was
violent, it had hardly any foul language in it, but there
was one scene where they threw in the "F' word. Why? Did
they even use the "F" word in that time period?

My son hates to ask if he can go to the movies because he
knows I will always ask what they are going to see and
what it's rated. More than once he has been upset with me
because I wouldn't let him see a certain movie with his
friends. I did let him see a movie this past Saturday,
however, that was rated R. Actually, it started over a
week ago when I heard a review for "Rambo". I heard it was
written about the genocide that is taking place in the
country of Burma and that Stallone was trying to raise
awareness about the atrocities that have been taking place
there for the past sixty years. This got me thinking about
his other Rambo movies. I guess the fact that I am a
military veteran and that I was a kid growing up through
the Viet Nam war kind of makes me sympathize with the
struggles that the men and women who went through that war
have to deal with.

To make it short, I rented First Blood (despite its R
rating) and watched it with him. I made sure to explain
what happened at the airports when the soldiers came back
and how our country was divided over the Viet Nam War.
Then, we rented the second one and watched it together. If
you don't remember, in that one he is sent back to find
POWs that were still in Viet Nam. We talked about that
too. Then, this past weekend, we went to see "Rambo". I
almost backed out because I went to a web site that rates
movies for family values. They actually count curse words
and give detailed descriptions of sex and violence scenes
so parents can decide if they want their kids watching it
or not. I found out that it was going to be the bloodiest,
goriest Rambo film yet and that the language was by far
the worst in the movie franchise’s history. The web site
counted 29 "F" words. Like I said, I almost backed out
because, quite frankly, I didn't want to see gore and I
can definitely do without hearing the language. I hear it
every day at work, but at least I don't pay to sit and
listen to it.

After a lengthy discussion with my wife, we both agreed
that I would take him to the movie. She had originally
wanted to go, but after telling her some of the things
that were in it, she decided against it. And I was glad
that she did.

The web site did not lie. It was without a doubt the
goriest move that I have ever seen (now, I do not watch
bloody, gory movies all the time, so there are probably
worse ones out there). I have never been in a war zone and
I have never seen anything like what was shown on the
screen. Stallone went through a lot of trouble to portray
the violence and atrocities of that region. It was, in one
word, sickening. The language was definitely there too. I
didn’t count them, but I think the count of 29 "F" words
was close, if not right on.


I wasn't sure how to feel about taking my son to see this
movie, but we talked about it on the way home and some
good conversation came out of it. It bothered him to see
people mercilessly beaten, killed and mutilated at the
hands of military tyrants. In one scene, villagers are
forced to run through a rice patty field that has land
mines all in it. The soldiers then take bets on which
villager will get blown up first. He was really bothered
by that. I was able to tell him about how blessed we are
to live in America and how important it is that we stand
up for our beliefs and defend our country. I let him know
that if our leadership fails, we could end up with
something similar in our own country and that was one of
the reasons that I take the upcoming election so
seriously. We talked a lot about freedom and the United
States of America and even though I was bothered by what
we saw and heard on the movie screen, I was grateful that
we were able to share our thoughts about the country.

You may agree or disagree with my choice to take him to
the movie and that is OK. I have learned that, as a
parent, the decisions that I make when it comes to my kids
are not always the same decisions that others would make.
For example, there was a young couple in the movie theatre
that brought along their two children who were both under
the age of 5. Personally, I would never, ever take a young
child to watch something like that. They have no clue as
to what is going on and, to them, it is reality. I don't
believe that their minds should be filled with the
violence, gore and language that was in that movie, but
these parents thought it was alright. I strongly disagree
with their decision to bring their small children, but I
really don't have a say so over what other parents do.

I’m not really sure what point I am trying to make with
this entry or if I’m even trying to make a point at all. I
guess I just needed to share my thoughts.




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