I was looking at a Christian movie review site and I found a review of Freddy vs. Jason written by a 19-year-old. Keep in mind this is written by a visitor to the site, not a regular reviewer. He said:
Now, this raises a few questions. Is this person such an innocent Christian lamb that he has no idea that Freddy and Jason are slashers who kill people? Maybe, but I’m sure he’s not too innocent to know what the “R” rating means. And even if he had no idea what the movie was about when he went in, it should have been obvious after about 2 minutes when the first girl strips naked and is slaughtered. Yet, for some reason, he seems to have stayed for the entire movie! If it was so traumatic that it made him cry out in horror, WHY DIDN’T HE LEAVE?
Now, these folks actually did walk out of the movie before it was over. But consider this. The movie is called “The Devil’s Advocate” and is rated “R”. Why are these people surprised that the movie is “satanic in nature”? If the movie is about Satan, it kinda has to be, right? So why did these “good Christians” go there in the first place?!
The only logical conclusion is that fundamentalists enjoy being offended. They deliberately seek out movies filled with violence, sex, and evil just so they can complain to their friends about how much violence, sex, and evil there was! Now, of course, it makes sense for the people who run movie review sites to see these movies, but I thought the point was to let their fellow fundamentalists know about all the bad stuff beforehand so they didn’t GO to offensive films. Despite this, every single film on that site has tons of viewer commentary by fundamentalists who apparently didn’t believe the reviewers and just had to see all this “filth” for themselves, then wrote reviews saying how immoral it is for anyone ELSE to watch it. That, of course, prompts dozens of other fundamentalists to say, “I totally agree. I saw that movie 5 times this week and it was worse every time!”
In conclusion: If R-rated movies offend them, why do they go to R-rated movies?
I’m not offended at the reviews themselves. After all, if I go to a fundie review site, I know what I’ll see there. What I’m saying is that these folks go to these movies and act surprised, like they had no idea that an R-rated movie would contain sex and violence.
Hey! I happen to be a masochist and I refuse to have that good name besmirched but assocition with fundumentalist!
They go to those movies because they enjoy disapproving of things. Which is, in fact a rather perverse pleasure, much as many of mine are…but, no, no no! I adamently refuse to believe i have anything in common with those perverts :).
They go because they want their world view confirmed.
It seems to be a fundie philosophy; if you’re not getting oppressed in some way or another, you’re not a true believer. I found this line most interesting:
I wasn’t aware people were being dragged to the theater and strapped into their seats.
Still, going to a fundie review site and pulling stuff to get outraged about is like going to a grocery store to shoot a turkey. It’s too easy and there’s not much fun in it.
This works both ways, you know. (Not that I am disagreeing with the premise that it is absurd for easily offended Christians to be so shocked and appalled when they sit through an entire R-rated movie and find gasp!sex and violence in them! Please.)
Anyway, a few years ago there was a movie in the theatres about something Christian-related and I didn’t want to see it because it seemed pretty obvious (from the ads anyway) that it was going to express a religious point of view that I would personally find offensive. (I am a Christian, BTW.) Not that I was trashing the movie, or saying anything bad about it; I just didn’t want to sit through the damned thing. One of my friends (an atheist) could not let this go. “Why won’t you see it? It’s not that bad! Why are you judging it before you see it? I liked it! I didn’t see any reason why you’d be offended by it! Why won’t you see it and at least give it a chance? I don’t understand! Why won’t you see it?” Over and over again he pestered me about seeing this damned movie.
Give me a break! I didn’t want to see it because I didn’t want to come out of it bitching and complaining about it. I didn’t want to sit through the thing because I decided that the odds that it would offend my religious sensibilities were pretty high. So, I think with some people you are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Had I saw the film and been “terribly offended by it,” I have a feeling that my friend would have argued with me about that too. You can’t win with some people.
Considering how much sex and violence there is in the Bible, one wonders why the fundies get their panties in a wad over it in real and cinematic life.
Fundies go to R-rated movies for the same reason everyone else goes to R-rated movies, because they like the sex and violence and want to see it. Their reviews are written as they do because that’s the only sort of opinion they allow themselves to have. Instead of, “Did you check out the rack on the babe in that opening scene? Whatta beauty?” they have to say, “This is an example of the sick culture we live in today.” But it means pretty much the same thing.
