R movies aren't for kids! (possible Watchmen spoilers)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Kids need to learn about ultraviolence and rape? Really?

That's what A Clockwork Orange is for.

/tongue permanently implanted inside cheek

[Pagan]

violent movie when Escape to Witch Mountain is playing one theater down and

Glad I'm not the only one who keeps calling it that!

Because that movie is a remake and remakes are a travesty unto Nuggan.

I don't know. It's got Dwayne Johnson and Stormtroopers, can't be all bad.

[Bella_Vixen]

That's what A Clockwork Orange is for.

/tongue permanently implanted inside cheek

:twitch:


I hated that movie. I somehow managed to watch maybe half of it.

Returned it to my at-work-big-brother, and tried to forget I ever saw it.


:twitch:

[Buglady]

That's what A Clockwork Orange is for.

/tongue permanently implanted inside cheek

Again, just reading the original novel was MORE than enough for me. Yeek.

(Yeah, my parents didn't realize I was reading all of their SF books. I'd finished all my library books and hey, Mom and Dad have this huge shelf full of stuff with neat pictures on the covers! Six to eight year olds probably shouldn't read Burgess, Wyndham, Orwell... heh. However, as soon as they realized, they sat me down and talked to me about the books. Was there anything I was scared by? Confused? Etc. Then they made sure I had a bigger stack of advanced but more appropriate books - so I was reading le Guin, Norton, and so on).

[Ironclad Alibi]

And how many posts have there been in this forum of parents buying R-rated or worst videos for their kids, only to be warned by the clerk of the adult nature of the content, yet buying it anyway, then returning later to complain about said adult content?

And I suspect the same parents taking their kids to the R-rated movies would deny their kids seeing the Harry Potter movies because they're "evil."

[Amethyst Hunter]

sure save a few bucks and don't hire a baby sitter for your scary r rated film
and pay the price in being woken up in the middle of the night when your kid has nightmares

Or when their kid turns into the next serial killer.

I frequent a few CF (childfree, fyi) communities and you wouldn't believe the number of posts made by people who saw kids watching stuff like My Bloody Valentine or the Saw movies (stuff I personally refuse to watch because I'm very iffy on violence - there are things I can tolerate, and things I will *not* sit through even one second of. Needless to say, Watchmen ain't on my to-view list. I'd never even heard of the damn thing till all the publicity crap came out). For those that don't know, the Saw franchise is reputed to be one of the nastiest, goriest set of films in recent existence, with plentiful torture and murder. Ditto MBV.

Personally, I *will* judge the parents that are letting their kids** see this crap. It doesn't do the kid any good, that's for damn sure, whether they have bad nightmares or take an unnatural interest in death and destruction.





** = We're talking kids too young to understand what's going on (besides the obvious, that some poor slob is getting hacked into bits). Teenagers...well, that's questionable. But no way IMO should little kids see this stuff that is *designed* to be as horrible and scary as possible. Shit, when I was a kid I thought friggin' Secret of NIMH was scary - and that was a *cartoon*.

[Buglady]

stuff like My Bloody Valentine or the Saw movies (stuff I personally refuse to watch because I'm very iffy on violence - there are things I can tolerate, and things I will *not* sit through even one second of.

I have never seen, and will never see, any of the Saw, Hostel, and related movies, and I was horrified when some of my Pathfinders (12 year olds) were talking about having seen these... I won't watch anything that involves torture, and when the entire plot of a movie revolves around people being pointlessly and incredibly painfully butchered - no. (I majored in Classics. I know a "bread and circuses" setup when I see one. And that didn't really go so well for the Romans in the long run.)

Sure, go ahead and watch whatever you want if you're over 18, but *don't* put kids through that, even if they whine and complain that they want to see that movie. They don't have any real capacity to understand and make that decision; you never know what effects it may have down the road.

(Heck, in my opinion it's healthier to watch porn than ultra gory quasi-snuff movies - just about everyone has sex at some point in their lives, doesn't it make sense to let that be a part of our movies and popular culture? Why is sex censored and violence seen as normal? This troubles me. Yes, I am a pinko commie hippie slut, thank you very much).

Amethyst Hunter, the graphic novel of The Watchmen is very good, although definitely not pretty. It deals with a lot of questions about morality, individual accountability, and social control. What would it really mean to have superheroes in our midst? What if they had the same failings as any other human being? One of the Watchmen is not human and that causes different problems. The novel/series was never meant as a standard "superhero comic" - it challenges and questions the entire genre, with a subplot involving a fictional comic book of its own. Don't know if that made it into the movie. I'm actually not a comic book fan of any kind but I was impressed by this one. Glad I could spread it out over several sessions though to take the intensity down).

[Amethyst Hunter]

I have never seen, and will never see, any of the Saw, Hostel, and related movies

Me neither. That stuff is a big DO NOT WANT for me.

You know what did it for me? I used to be a big fan of movies like Die Hard and Under Siege and the like. But after 9/11, I found that I just couldn't watch that kind of thing anymore. It's a helluva lot different when it happens *for real* and you see it going down right in your face. Really made me do some thinking.

In fact, I can't watch anything that's based on modern-day death and destruction. I was *horrified* by the ending of Terminator 3 (which I didn't want to see in the first place, but my brother and my then to-be-SIL and her brother all wanted to see it, so I got outvoted - still wish I'd never seen that one because I had nightmares about it for *months*). I WILL NOT watch anything that debases women and/or features them in gratuitous rape/abuse scenarios, and I find it very bothering that that sort of thing seems to have *increased* in movies in recent years.

Why is sex censored and violence seen as normal? This troubles me.

Total Fratch question (for further discussion), but I agree with you on that one.

Yes, I am a pinko commie hippie slut, thank you very much

You and I would probably get along pretty well.

[bunnyboy]

I have never seen, and will never see, any of the Saw, Hostel, and related movies

Of course the original Saw as gory as it may be actually had something of a skewed moral, basically everyone gets theirs in the end (always saw it as Jigsaw being Satan in his punisher role, and the basement being hell... then again I've contemplated beefing up an English major with some sort of major that allows analysis of film...)

(Heck, in my opinion it's healthier to watch porn than ultra gory quasi-snuff movies - just about everyone has sex at some point in their lives, doesn't it make sense to let that be a part of our movies and popular culture? Why is sex censored and violence seen as normal? This troubles me. Yes, I am a pinko commie hippie slut, thank you very much).

Eh I've asked this since what was it 2004... Janet.... why are we blowing our tops over blink and you miss pastie covered nipple, when the other 3 hours are guys doing bloodless gladiatorial combat? Though I think it's quite obvious, get them on that young and they wont have compunctions when you put a gun in their hand and tell them to fire... nothing wrong with the military, but you gotta wonder...

yeah you can tell I hate the FCC huh?

Amethyst Hunter, the graphic novel of The Watchmen is very good, although definitely not pretty. It deals with a lot of questions about morality, individual accountability, and social control. What would it really mean to have superheroes in our midst? What if they had the same failings as any other human being? One of the Watchmen is not human and that causes different problems. The novel/series was never meant as a standard "superhero comic" - it challenges and questions the entire genre, with a subplot involving a fictional comic book of its own. Don't know if that made it into the movie. I'm actually not a comic book fan of any kind but I was impressed by this one. Glad I could spread it out over several sessions though to take the intensity down).

Lets not forget, the watchmen is a superhero comic... just an extremely realistic one, and it's what gave us the term Graphic Novel for a reason, it works best in it's medium, and if you understand said medium it also works as a brilliant deconstruction of myth and the human animal.


ugh... why do I sound like a person who can only enjoy the American Pie type comedies?

[chrisfabo]

I had to throw two cents in about Watchmen's origin, from a discussion on it I remember having with a mega-Alan Moore fan.

Apparently, his original intent had been to use the DC superheroes for the story.

Picture Ozymandias's POLAR lair, and replace him with Superman.

You'll find you can quickly sub for each of the 'heroes' in the story.

Really makes you kinda glad he hadn't pulled off that original concept. Imagine the confusion with parents THEN.

[Kiarna]

I don't get why people do this!!!

I had children when I went to see V for Vendetta and I thought that was bad.

Granted in Australia these movies are only rated MA 15+ (R is left for porn and films such as Pulp Fiction).

I mean here they have an age indication in the rating!! GRRRR *grumbles*

[Aramika]

Shit, when I was a kid I thought friggin' Secret of NIMH was scary - and that was a *cartoon*.

And I thought I was the only one who was terrified of that movie when I was little. Glad to know I'm not alone.

[Amethyst Hunter]

And I thought I was the only one who was terrified of that movie when I was little. Glad to know I'm not alone.

Was it the same parts for you as it is for me? Hmm, let's see...

...the plow scene where OMG PLOW OF DOOM IS COMING FOR YOUUUU...

...or the fight scene showdown between the Good Guy Rat and the Bad Guy Rat with *actual blood*?

For me the worst part was always the sequence showing how the rats became intelligent. I CAN NOT, to this day, watch that bit without cringing. When I was a kid, I would either run out of the room as it was showing, or I would fast-forward through that part, because WOAH FREAKY TRIPPY DNA-ALTERING SCENE was too much for me.

[Yurimaru]

I was babysitting a 6-year old girl quite a few years back, and took her to see a Disney film. A woman came in with her daughter, and I could hear her telling the little girl, "Okay, you just sit here, and when the movie's over, come and find me." I turned around, but the mother was already booking it up the aisle. This beautiful little girl was sitting there with her drink and popcorn, looking absolutely terrified.
I asked her if she wanted to come up and sit with us, so she did. The two girls had a blast and after the movie was over, she said, "I have to find my Mom." I said, "Which movie did she go to see?"
"Braveheart".
WTF???
The kid could not read the titles to the movies, either, but I was able to find her Mom and get her there safely. All I could think about was the gore and the torture scene at the end of Braveheart... That poor little girl. Scared when her Mom left her and scared again watching a super-violent movie.

[Broomjockey]

We had already removed one Fratching-style debate, and less than a page later, we've got another one going, only it's intertwined with other posts, so we can't lift this one out. That means it's time for The Warning. Two strikes used people, try to not use the third, and leave Fratching for Fratching.