violence
It's true, I watch R-rated movies. I don't hold to the If It's Rated R Then It Is Automatically Bad mantra. To me, R simply means that the movie has an excess of some element or elements deemed inappropriate for polite company.
Just because I watch R-rated movies doesn't mean that I'm not selective. I don't mind language or sex and nudity. But I do mind violence. I don't deal well with violence.
Unfortunately, last night I watched violence. See, the one time I come into conflict with my no violence policy is when they announce the best picture nominees for the Oscar. I have a policy to see all the movie nominated for best picture. Then, if I still have time, I try to catch all the best directors, then best actor and actress.
When I went to Munich last night, I knew it was about violence. I didn't realize it was going to contain so much graphic violence. I spent much of the movie curled in a little ball in my seat.
However, some good did come of this experience. I've decided that I have to get a feel for what's in a movie before I see it if I think there's going to be violence. So, I came home and found Kids in Mind. They tell you all about the content of the movie. They rate the sex & nudity, violence & gore, and profanity as well as give you a brief description of substance use, discussion topics (which they should call themes instead), and message. They don't judge the elements, but they say, "A woman wearing a negligee stands on a balcony, her husband joins her, they kiss, he caresses her hip and buttock, and another man says that he will not sleep because the couple will be having sex all night." For another movie I've recently seen, it says, "A man shoots an elk, it recoils when it is hit, it stumbles and falls to the ground, and we then see two men cooking and eating its meat and there are other pieces of meat hanging to dry. A man finds a dead and bloody sheep with its chest and abdominal cavity open and bones and organs visible." So you get a pretty good picture of what's in a movie. Should you choose to use it, I do recommend checking out the listings of some movies you've already seen so that you can get a feel for how they talk about and list things.
And because of Kids in Mind, I'm not going to see Crash. Nobody's claiming it's actually a contender for Best Picture anyway.
5 comments:
I am also a violence wussy (or if you prefer, I also have moral objections to violence). I have embarrassing, audible, visceral reactions to graphic violence. Screenit.com is a similar site with a similar approach.
Do I get points for recognizing the elk description as Brokeback Mountain? I don't recognize the buttock-rubbing balcony couple, but then I don't watch movies that have such explicit sexual content. I'm offended, in fact, that you included such a graphic description on your blog.
There are a lot of really good movies (so I've heard) that I haven't seen, precisely because reading their descriptions turns me off. But I'd rather be turned off before paying to see it in the theater than while I'm watching it (I really don't ever walk out of movies, but we did turn off The Ring because we were too freaked out). I still feel a little bad about this, since I love film and I'm writing my thesis on film adaptations, but I also don't want to watch two hours of graphic violence or hear 200 F-words during that time. Violence and profanity are the things I have the hardest time with, but graphic sex isn't always that great either. I have seen quite a few really good R movies, and lots of crappy ones with lesser ratings. I really don't go by ratings at all, but I hate to be an uninformed consumer. I think that's also why I tend to gravitate more towards older movies. The Hayes code was stupid, but it's kind of fun to watch totally serious subject matter without the violence and profanity.
Oh, and I hadn't really planned to see Munich because I'd heard about the violence and stuff. I generally like Spielberg, but I haven't seen Saving Private Ryan for that same reason. I guess I'm just too squeamish to really be cultured.
I wanted to see Munich, really, alot. But, now I won't. Sigh.
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Oh, but they are (say Crash has a chance). It's the dark horse.
Oh Man, Munich was a crazy movie. I'll agree on how violent is was, it was also much too long.
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