Violent movies are okay as long as Jesus was involved

Cafe Society
1

This may be beating a dead horse, but I was amusing myself with reading outrageous reviews Capalert.com posted. What really that vein in my forehead throb, though is how desperately they try to pass themselves off as being ‘objective’. Well, if you have any doubt about how freakin biased they are (as if it wasn’t obvious enough) read their review of The Passion of Christ which they lauded despite having all the violence they so vehemently condemned. Their defense about this amounts to “This really happened, so it is constructive to watch”. I wonder if they will be as gracious in reviewing upcoming films like “Hotel Rawanda” or other films closely based off real events. But somehow I doubt it.

I gotta warn you about the website, though- it is rather disturbing. All the rotten-dot-coms of the internet pale in comparison to the disturbing mockery of fighting ignorance seen on capalert.

2

Um, you do realize that they gave it a Red Light rating just like they would any other film with that score, right?

3

I was referring to the commentary, not the rating system.

capalert’s mission statement states that a ‘sinful’ act is ‘sinful’, and does not put the act into context to try to justify it. Under this logic, “The Passion” would be really sinful. But the authors conveniently toss that notion aside with this movie. They’re being hypocrites about it.

4

To be fair, this is one of the reasons why I, as a Christian, am very leery of watching The Passion. Sins of the world, by His stripes we are healed, son of God, blah blah blah, I don’t want to watch what amounts to three hours of sadistic torture. (Don’t want to give my nightmares any more fodder, thankyouverymuch.)

5

I don’t see the supposed hypocrisy. To me (speaking as a Catholic), there’s a huge difference between saying “this movie is immoral” and saying “this movie is not for kids under any circumstances.”

A movie can show violence or sex in graphic ways and still be moral. It can show neither of those things and be utterly immoral.

That said, there’s definitely a place for reviewers who can tell parents what they can expect in a film. I don’t think it would be a “sin” for a 10 year old to see “Goodfellas” (an example of a violent but moral film), but I don’t think it would be healthy, either. I feel the same way about “Passion of the Christ.”

6

kids-in-mind.com is pretty objective. They give movies a three part rating, from 1 to 10 in Sex & Nudity, Violence & Gore, and Profanity. They make no judgement about whether you should take your child, but merely detail what caused the rating so you can make your own decision. For example, the V&G section of Phantom of the Opera (4.5.2) reads in part, “A man’s mask is removed to reveal a badly scarred and malformed face; he cuts a rope that holds a large chandelier, the fixture swings back and forth – over an audience that screams and rushes to get out of the way – and it crashes to the floor.”

The Sex & Nudity rating doesn’t just count nipples, but also kisses, caresses, and the like. It also mentions in passing any bare-chested men, although it doesn’t seem to affect the ratings. Also, there is a footnote at the end noting if any characters smoke, or use alcohol and/or drugs but this does not affect the ratings, either.

To top it off, there is a section of discussion topics that might be triggered by the movie. To use Phantom again: Love, death of a parent, death of a spouse, obsession, deformities, orphans, betrayal, rage, revenge, stardom, hearing voices, guidance from the spirits of dead relatives, pity, compassion, celebrity, divas, patrons of the arts, cruelty, scandals, love, fear, publicity.

If I had kids and I was worried about what they are being exposed to in movies, this site would be my prime source.

DD

7

I’m an atheist, but I think Jesus had a lot of good ideas. I wonder if a movie about the Sermon on the Mount would do as well?

8

Oh, yeah. Passion of the Christ got a rating of 1.10.1

9

Well, if you fast-forward all the sadism, it’s only twenty minutes long. Thank goodness it was a free rental.

10

Well, one of the things that Capalert repeatedly says is “we do not buy into hollywood’s trumped up messages to justify what happens. Bad stuff is bad, no matter the context”

11

Perhaps, but that’s a far cry from saying that all depictions of violence are automatically bad. That’s why one can issue warnings about the levels of violence in a movie without necessarily denouncing that movie as immoral.

12

“What did he say? Blessed are the Cheesemakers?”
“It just refers to the manufacturers of any Dairy product”