By BILL SHERMAN Staff Writer on Jan 31, 2013, at 1:14 PM Updated on 1/31 at 1:14 PM
BECAUSE I SAID SO
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Few things are more disconcerting than sitting down with a grandchild to watch what should be an innocent movie only to have some woman step out of the shower naked, or some guy drop a flurry of f-bombs.
I know Hollywood isn’t intentionally working to coarsen and degrade American society, but movie makers seem to be going out of their way to put gratuitous sex, violence and profanity into otherwise excellent stories.
And you can’t rely on the movie rating system, which is a blunt instrument at best. Objectionable material is turning up unexpectedly these days in movies with relatively tame ratings. On the other side of the coin, some of the best movies have (and deserve) R-ratings: Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, The Passion of the Christ.
What’s a responsible parent/grandparent supposed to do?
Fortunately, a host of websites provide accurate, detailed information about the content of movies that parents can check out before renting a movie for young eyes.
My personal favorite is www.kids-in-mind.com. The website contains detailed, specific descriptions of each instance of nudity, sexuality, violence and profanity.
When my granddaughter wanted me to take her to see Looper in the theater, I consulted the site, and determined that the film contains two topless women and 29 F-words, not exactly the kind of thing I want to watch with a 13-year-old.
The website also prevents another trap I’ve fallen into: seeing and loving a movie on television, only to rent it to watch with grandkids and discover it is laced with objectionable material that was edited out of the TV version.
Which brings up another thought: as long as someone has gone to all the expense to clean up movies for television, why don’t they make the cleaned-up version available for rent? I’d love to rent a movie I can relax and watch with kids without having my finger constantly poised above the fast-forward button. It could carry a family-friendly label, something like “edited for television.”
Netflix, Redbox, are you listening?
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