In case you worry about the morality of movies

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Jay74

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If you’re anything like me, you worry about whether a movie is worth your time and money, or if it is fit for children. Even movies that portray themselves as wholesome often end up with an immoral message (I’ve been deeply saddened by Mandy Moore’s latest films :crying: ).

When my nephew comes to stay with me, I hesitate to take him to a movie, because sometimes even childrens movies have immoral content. My Dad made the mistake of taking him to see Scooby Doo, not knowing how many sexual comments were in it.

Well, there is a section of ChristianAnswers.net called “Spotlight on Entertainment” that has a moral rating and review of virtually every movie around. I don’t know of any Catholic sites, but this one is very exhaustive and useful. It’s nice to get a moral rating from someone who upholds Biblical morality.
christiananswers.net/spotlight/home.html

Hope this helps you out. May even save you from taking your whole family to a movie and then wishing you had your money back. 🙂

Blessings to all.
 
Here are two good sites for movie content:

www.screenit.com

This site actually counts the swear words in movies. It lets ya know if any sex scenes, how many, what they are…the same with violence, etc…

www.kidsinmind.com

Gives ratings for the movies content as well

Both sites are very informative.
 
The United States Conference of Catholic bishops also has a movie review site. Overall, I’ve found the reviews to be pretty accurate, both in terms of entertainment quality and moral values.

usccb.org/movies/index.htm
 
In addition to the ones previously mentioned, here are two recourses I use:

Decent Films has reviewed most on the current and is a fantastic site to remind us of some ‘classic cinema’
decentfilms.com/

I really trust Michael Medved’s reviews. Mr. Medved has posted some of his work on his website. Look under the “Resources Button”
michaelmedved.com/

Enjoy. 👍
 
SeekerJen is absolutly right. The USCCB website is very good at pointing out movies that would be good to watch. Additionally they have an easy system of identifying what is in a movie and what someone is likely to get out of it. The best part, though, may be the excellent reviews that they post, ripping the movies to shreds or heaping high accolades on the movies depending on whether they deserve it or not.
 
If you’re going to the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops website, be sure to type in .org and not .com, otherwise you’ll get the U.S. Construction Crane Bureau.
 
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Aurelia:
If you’re going to the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops website, be sure to type in .org and not .com, otherwise you’ll get the U.S. Construction Crane Bureau.
Click to expand...
Been there, done that! :o
 
Thanks Jay. I saw that the doctor who reviewed “Mulholland Drive” rated it “extremely offensive”. I think the bishops site gave it a similar rating. This is the confusing thing for me, as I consider MD to be the incarnation of God/Christ into the world of cinema.

The review of “The Straight Story” was good though.
 
Focus on the Family’s web site has Plugged In that reviews all movies and DVD/VHS as well as music.
They list all things related to violence, swearing, negative points, positive points, spirituality, alcohol and drugs, and overall content. I ALWAYS check that site before I consider a movie in the theater or buying a newly released DVD. Very helpful without being preachy.
I can make an informed decision.

pluggedinonline.com/

It’s always nice to have backup when I have to say “No.”
 
I think that the movie industry has accomplished something with the rating system, in that they have gotten pretty much everyone onboard with the idea of some movies being OK for adults that may not be OK for younger kids.

In general, I think this concept is not correct. It appears to me that the influence, the “push” a movie has on adults and children is in the same direction. An adult, being more formed, more set in their ways, might be influenced less than a child, but still the push on the adult is in the same direction and would have at least some small effect. For the same reason that we don’t want impressionable kids being influenced in a certain direction by films, an adult {impressionable also, just less so) should not want to be influenced in that direction. The adult might feel that they are solidly formed enough that the film won’t affect them at all, but this seems to me to be a little bit haughty. Seeing the things you would not want your child to see will not be good for you either; you will at least be desensitizing yourself to yourself to unwholesome things.

There may be some exceptions to this, such as in Mel Gibson’s Passion film. This might be a different situation, where the influence is actually good, just maybe too intense for some children. Mostly though, I think that the movie ratings idea is based on adults being able to “handle” more sexual content than children. However, I would think that most of the time, the film that you wouldn’t want a child to see is something that you shouldn’t expose yourself to either. I think it was something of a coup for the movie industry to get this concept firmly put in place in American society without too much trouble, even having it be thought of as a good thing.

I’d be interested in hearing what others think of this.
 
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