Viewer Discretion is Advised

     As an avid watcher of many movies, I can definitely say that there is one very prevalent theme in film, and that theme is the usage unnecessary violence, language, and sexual content in movies. MF suggested I talk about this subject, and her ideas are always great, so here it goes.
     Okay, yes, it is impossible to deny that things such as scandalous sex, inappropriate language, and gory violence happen in real life. Still, movies are not and never have been "real life". Sure they are interpretations of reality, and therefore you're going to have plenty of realistic topics in movies, but at the same time, movies are supposed to be a universal medium used to entertain people of all ages, backgrounds, and intelligence levels, and oftentimes movies contain way too many unnecessary and completely unneeded things.

Violence
     When we step out our doors every morning, we are all acutely aware that violence is just around the corner, in our country, in the big cities, and even in our own communities. So when we come home from a hard day of Staying Alive, and we decide to sit down and watch a movie or TV show to calm down, and the film is just a cutting board full of very explicit and graphic violence, it certainly doesn't help us relax. I mean, can't movies get their points across without making us watch every single moment of a person's death? An example of extreme movie violence is the movie Django Unchained. While I still think this movie is really good, the shooting scenes were just unbelievably grotesque, and took away from some of the really important topics that the movie is supposed to address.
     I'm only including this clip so that, if you want to, you can see the magnitude of violence that this movie portrays. It's highly extraneous to the plot of the movie.


Language
     One of my biggest pet peeves--in general, not just in movies-- is cuss words. People try to defend profanity by saying that it's just a form of self expression, but there are plenty of better ways to express yourself that don't make you sound like an uneducated idiot.
     When I watch a movie, I want it to be entertaining and enriching, and quite frankly, something that I would be willing to share with my parents. However, because of tons of totally pointless cuss words that could have been substituted for any number of other words, plenty of great movies have been totally tainted in my opinion because of superfluous cussing.
      There's this great scene in the movie Little Miss Sunshine, where Steve Carell's character tells Paul Dano's character that he's colorblind, and that if you're colorblind, you can't fly jets, and Dano's character is really really upset, because it's been his biggest dream to fly jets, so obviously he'd freaking out. It would be a really touching and sad scene if he didn't yell the f-word two times at the top of his lungs. Like I understand that anyone in his situation would be really angry and upset, but there are ways of portraying those feelings without dropping the f-bomb.

Sex
     Sex in movies is my least favorite thing. Maybe I'm just a prude, but I really don't see the need for sex in movies at all. I mean, I don't understand the thrill in watching it--it's never romantic and it's rarely between two happily married people, which, in my opinion, is the only acceptable format. I know I don't have the popular opinion here, but I don't care. Sexual innuendo, discussion of sexual content, and the act of sex itself are NEVER important to the plot of any film, except in the occasional case of the frank discussion of rape, ie documentaries and expose type films.
     My favorite romantic films are my favorites because they contain no sex. They show love in it's truest and most romantic form, and that does not include consummation. I mean, everyone in the world knows about sex, and we know that it happens every day, and most of the people in the world today are sexually active anyway, so why do we have to watch it on the big screen when pretty much everyone is doing it for real anyway? I just don't get it.
     An example of unnecessary sex in a movie that MF and I were discussing is a scene from the movie Mansfield Park. This movie was kind of weird in general, but still pretty interesting and enjoyable until this completely random and totally uncalled for graphic sex scene popped up on the screen. That wasn't the only weird sexual thing in the movie either. The most annoying thing about this is that Mansfield Park is the movie version of a novel by Jane Austen (!!!) but in the actual novel, there's not actually any sex! Sure there's a scandal, but no sex is mentioned, if anything, it's merely implied in a rather vague tone. So basically, the filmers tacked on this random sex stuff to a story that in it's true form did not contain any such content!



I'm sorry if I sound like the cynical and prudish type, it's just that my love for movies means that I want to share films--all types of films, with people everywhere and of all ages, but because of unnecessary content, I can't actually do that. Movies that would otherwise be suitable and enjoyable for a wide range of audiences are often considered unsuitable for younger age groups simply because they needlessly include sex, violence, and language! It's ridiculous, and annoying. Yes, I do watch plenty of movies that contain these things, and I usually quite enjoy the movies as a whole, but I can honestly say they'd all be even better if those things were excluded. I would love it immensely if we could get back to the early days of film when all movies were rated G and could be enjoyed by literally everyone.

Movie Recommendation: Monster's Inc. Here's a nice, clean, cutesie movie that people from one to one-hundred can enjoy. Would you believe me if I said that I saw this in theaters? Yep, I was 3.

                                                   -VaughnDL