Tuesday, November 11, 2008

R FOR RAUNCHY

R rated movies have finally taken a toll on Gramps and me. The R rating passed us by on its downward stroll to the gutter. Several months ago we went to a movie at our Dollar Movie Theater that we thought was rated PG-13. We liked the actors and the movie had gotten a three star review rating, meaning it was only one star off of the highest rating. In the first five minutes of the movie I saw more nude male genitalia than I did in the first fifteen years of our marriage. It was full frontal nudity. Now, you know that there are two kinds of sexual scenes in movies. There are dirty scenes and there are shocking scenes in movies. The dirty scenes are truly offensive and aimed at the minds of twelve year old boys or dirty old men who are consumed with sex. The shocking scenes, even though there is nudity, are merely there to shock us and they don’t seem to be offensive to me because there‘s no depravity, just some nudity. During the first two minutes when the frontal nudity appeared on the screen I thought, “Well, I’m old enough to handle a little nudity since there are no sexual acts performed on the screen.” That lasted about another five minutes until there were scenes with people “doing it” on the desk, on the bed, on the kitchen cabinet and every other place in the house, plus at the office of the characters. The only redeeming thing about that movie was that there wasn’t any really offensive language, just slang words that young boys love to use for shock value. Gramps and I stayed and saw the whole movie, too shocked to make a spectacle of ourselves by leaving. The story was a precious love story and had redeeming qualities, but the nudity and sexual scenes ruined the good story. How did we get there to see something so offensive? Gramps must not have had his reading glasses on, because it was actually rated R, not PG-13 like he erroneously had relayed to me. Last Sunday on our way to the movie theater I remarked that I would like to see a certain movie which had a real R rating but it had gotten raving reviews as a comedy, another three star rating. I, in my naivete, believed that the R rating, because the movie is a comedy and the cast was made up of many, many well known actors, would only have violent scenes and crude and rude humor like it was reported in the reviews, but nothing to embarrass and offend Gramps and Me. Wrong! This movie was so filled with vile language that Gramps and I only lasted about ten minutes before we left and went to what is referred to as a “chick” movie which was sweet and loving and had great morals about friendship and good relationships. That’s the great thing about going to the Dollar Movie Theater, if you don’t like a movie showing on one screen, you can leave one and go to another one. I finally figured out something about the R rated movie that we left. I think the director assembled a group of talented comics, dressed them up in combat gear, gave them a weak plot, and told them to have a contest to see which one of the ten men could use the most vile cuss words and sexual descriptions in the hour and half time it took to film the movie. It couldn’t have taken more time than that to film the debacle. I really think that’s what happened. Those poor guys, they reverted back to immature little boys and let their mouths loose without restraint. I am really disappointed in the actors because I know some of them are fathers. Their kids must be used to that kind of language around their houses because if their fathers have no filtering on their mouths in front of a camera, then you know they don’t filter their words at home. There were parents with young children in the R rated movie who remained there until the end. I know that because, being curious, after our sweet movie ended I waited to see who exited the R rated one. Yes, the families came out of it. I’m hoping that the parents of those children used the movie for a learning experience, teaching their kids that simple minded grown men make fools of themselves by acting like mentally deranged potty mouths. Somehow I think I’ve being naïve about that, too. Those offensive words will erupt from the mouths of their children at some inconvenient moment, probably in front of a grandparent or a teacher, and the parents will be embarrassed and probably whack the child across the mouth for saying it. Hey, the child was programmed by that R rated movie to think that cool people talk like that. The children and their parents would have loved the “chick” movie that Gramps and I ended up seeing. They would have all left with a clean feeling in their minds instead of a dirty, polluted one. Gramps and I have been very lucky in our viewing of movies at the Dollar Movie Theater. We’ve seen some wonderful ones. However, Hollywood has spiraled downward in movie dialogue and actions. Now that I’ve gotten my mind out of the clouds and seen what’s happening in the gutter, I think I’ll just write some letters. How about you?