The general decline in standards today

[HoosierDaddy]

There's an excellent commentary in the Boston Globe this morning by their film critic, Ty Burr, pointing out how much of modern popular culture is fueled by and fixated upon adolescent revenge fantasies:



I think those are points well worth thinking about right now.

Absolutely.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Separate from the massacre, what about the issue of parents bringing their very young kids to watch a very violent PG-13 flick? And at midnight?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I went to see "The Dark Knight" when it came out a few years ago to see what all the fuss was about, and there was a father there with his little boy, must have been four or five years old. When Ledger came out doing his insane Joker schtick, the kid started screaming in terror. Instead of taking him outside and reassuring him, the father just told him "shut up, I wanna see this."

Yes, it bothers me very much.

 

[Feraud]

Separate from the massacre, what about the issue of parents bringing their very young kids to watch a very violent PG-13 flick? And at midnight?

I find this as disturbing as the shooting itself.

 

[John in Covina]

There's an excellent commentary in the Boston Globe this morning by their film critic, Ty Burr, pointing out how much of modern popular culture is fueled by and fixated upon adolescent revenge fantasies:



I think those are points well worth thinking about right now.

If you recall there were people that became depressed because they could not enter the blue people's world in Avatar. There is much to the shallowness of peoples lives today, as they abandon convention, connection to others, honor tradition, even religion. A meaningless life looking for meaning and value or looking for someone to blame?

 

[Flicka]

Separate from the massacre, what about the issue of parents bringing their very young kids to watch a very violent PG-13 flick? And at midnight?

Here it's illegal to let children younger than the age-limit into a movie. Doesn't matter if the parents are with them or not.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have the MPAA ratings system here -- it doesn't bear the force of law, but theoretically exhibitors are required to honor it as a condition of their contracts with distributors. We don't have a lot of trouble at our place, because we don't show teen/kid oriented movies, but if the multiplex up the street enforces the code, I'd be shocked.

The ratings code, as it stands now, is ridiculous. People can beat other people to a paste, blow up hospitals, set fire to little old ladies' homes, dunk babies in acid vats, and get a PG-13. But let one of them light up a cigarette while doing their violent deeds, or say the F-word more than once, and bang, it's an R, nobody under 17 admitted. Makes no sense at all, untill you realize the ratings board is nothing but a slave to various lobbying and special-interest groups.

 

[Flicka]

We have the MPAA ratings system here -- it doesn't bear the force of law, but theoretically exhibitors are required to honor it as a condition of their contracts with distributors. We don't have a lot of trouble at our place, because we don't show teen/kid oriented movies, but if the multiplex up the street enforces the code, I'd be shocked.

The ratings code, as it stands now, is ridiculous. People can beat other people to a paste, blow up hospitals, set fire to little old ladies' homes, dunk babies in acid vats, and get a PG-13. But let one of them light up a cigarette while doing their violent deeds, or say the F-word more than once, and bang, it's an R, nobody under 17 admitted. Makes no sense at all, untill you realize the ratings board is nothing but a slave to various lobbying and special-interest groups.

Our movies are rated by a government agency - the system was remade two years ago, but the government didn't dare take the final step and let the cinemas self-govern the ratings. It's based on what is supposedly harmful, and so, the ratings are pretty much determined by violence and scariness. Bad words don't even register and sex not very much either. And our limit is 15 years, same as the legal age for sex and when you can be prosecuted (under 15, you're supposedly a child and not fully responsible for your actions).

The decision of the agency that sets the age limit can be appealed. It's rare, but it happened last year when Breaking Dawn got a 15 y/o limit. The Court of Appeal actually changed it and teenage girls everywhere threw fits of joy.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And how many of the people at the theatre thought the gunman was part of the show?

 

[scottyrocks]

Or to borrow from another famous movie quote, people can't handle the truth.

Holy guacamole, ain't that the way it is.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Something that really shook me up tonight as I was tearing tickets at the door -- I realized I was giving every lone man who came in an extra look to see if he was carrying a firearm. Totally unconscious until I suddenly realized it, and I don't like that I was doing it.

We don't actually have a policy on concealed weapons, but I think one of the results of this incident is that very soon all theatres will be required to refuse admission to anyone who's carrying a weapon, even if they have a permit. And I'd have no problem with that at all -- a theatre is private property, not public, and you are there at the implied invitation of the management, an invitation which may be revoked at any time for any reason.

 

[sheeplady]

The ratings code, as it stands now, is ridiculous. People can beat other people to a paste, blow up hospitals, set fire to little old ladies' homes, dunk babies in acid vats, and get a PG-13. But let one of them light up a cigarette while doing their violent deeds, or say the F-word more than once, and bang, it's an R, nobody under 17 admitted. Makes no sense at all, untill you realize the ratings board is nothing but a slave to various lobbying and special-interest groups.

To be honest, there's some PG-13 films I'd bring a child to under the age of say, 7, and some I wouldn't. I don't think that this would be one of them; most action films are way too violent. There's just such a broad range of PG-13 that it's unbelieveable. And there's some rated-R movies, like Frost/Nixon I still have no clue why they are rated R- other than the f-word. Which, quite frankly, swearing when used appropriately is the least evil thing I'm worried about in movies.

But then this is a society that deemed the Sesame St. of my youth should be rated R because Cookie Monster has a pipe when he is Alistair Cookie. Because we all know that we were subverted into life-long pipe smokers as youth by Sesame Street.

 

[Wally_Hood]

In view of the horror of the mass murder in Colorado, it seems somewhat pathetic for me to gripe about the MPAA ratings system. Nonetheless, it seems that the PG-13 of today is the R of the recent years. Even a PG rating may indicate a film with profanity, violence, and sexual content or imagery. And yes, there are some R rated films that are a puzzle as to why they received that rating. For myself, I avoid any film with an R (Act of Valor excepted, in all honesty), carefully read up on films with a PG-13 or a PG before going to the theater, and generally wait for the dvd or stick with the golden era movies on TCM, and so on.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Something that really shook me up tonight as I was tearing tickets at the door -- I realized I was giving every lone man who came in an extra look to see if he was carrying a firearm. Totally unconscious until I suddenly realized it, and I don't like that I was doing it.

We don't actually have a policy on concealed weapons, but I think one of the results of this incident is that very soon all theatres will be required to refuse admission to anyone who's carrying a weapon, even if they have a permit. And I'd have no problem with that at all -- a theatre is private property, not public, and you are there at the implied invitation of the management, an invitation which may be revoked at any time for any reason.

...But how would theater employs know if that new 'carry' policy was being heeded? Frisk everyone at the door? Would the bad guy really care about that new policy...or would it more probably unarm me(good guy with permit) from protecting myself from that bad guy..who could care less about 'policies' with bad intentions as the more important goal.
HD

 

[TomS]

Something that really shook me up tonight as I was tearing tickets at the door -- I realized I was giving every lone man who came in an extra look to see if he was carrying a firearm. Totally unconscious until I suddenly realized it, and I don't like that I was doing it.

We don't actually have a policy on concealed weapons, but I think one of the results of this incident is that very soon all theatres will be required to refuse admission to anyone who's carrying a weapon, even if they have a permit. And I'd have no problem with that at all -- a theatre is private property, not public, and you are there at the implied invitation of the management, an invitation which may be revoked at any time for any reason.

I certainly understand your point, and it's well made. Although, as a policeman I have a slightly different view. I keep thinking if there had been one, just one, properly armed and competently trained citizen, this tragedy may well have been averted.

 

[LizzieMaine]

...But how would theater employs know if that new 'carry' policy was being heeded? Frisk everyone at the door? Would the bad guy really care about that new policy...or would it more probably unarm me(good guy with permit) from protecting myself from that bad guy..who could care less about 'policies' with bad intentions as the more important goal.
HD

To be honest, I don't think it'd work, for exactly these reasons. But the big corporate chains that control all the big theatres want protection from liability -- and I'll be surprised if you don't see lawsuits being filed against the corporation that owns the theatre in Colorado for negligent security. There should have been a staff member stationed at that back exit the gunman used, if only to prevent people from sneaking into the show, and that there wasn't seems to be a pretty good grounds for a legal claim.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

To be honest, I don't think it'd work, for exactly these reasons. But the big corporate chains that control all the big theatres want protection from liability -- and I'll be surprised if you don't see lawsuits being filed against the corporation that owns the theatre in Colorado for negligent security. There should have been a staff member stationed at that back exit the gunman used, if only to prevent people from sneaking into the show, and that there wasn't seems to be a pretty good grounds for a legal claim.

Somehow...I really don't think an unarmed stationed staff member would have stopped anything in Colorado this morning..coming in..or going out of the theater. Like the cop said above..it would have taken someone who was armed as well. The police generally arrive after the fact.
I suppose all theaters will need a theater Marshall in attendence for every movie now....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Probably not. But the fact that the theatre had no security at all in place for an event with three sold-out auditoriums makes me cringe. Not only it is it epically incompetent theatre management, it's an invitation for Sammy J. Shyster to jump in and file a mass lawsuit. And the corporate owners of the theatre will throw the local manager under the bus and make some statement about how committed they are to the safety of all customers, blah blah blah. And will then make it the responsibility of the kid in the clip-on bow tie to make sure nobody's coming in armed. It's all about satisfying the legal department, not anything that's expected to actually make any kind of a difference.

I'd bet cash money that within two weeks, there'll be a news story out of Colorado stating exactly what I've said will happen.

As far as midnight shows go, when our local multiplex does them there's always at least two cops on the scene, one at the main entrance and one at the exit door of the auditorium where the event is going on. And we're a town of 8000, so it's not like we have a lot of extra policemen hanging around with nothing to do.

 

[Feraud]

Very soon our theater going experience will be as pleasant as airport security.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's what worries me. Look how "willing" everybody was to allow that.