17 March, 2007

It's just a day full of birthdays!

So, this is a shout-out to all my beloveds who have a birthday on today, the best holiday ever.

Kristi, Rachel, and Uncle.
I LOVE YOU ALL!
You are so amazing, and mean so much to me.
Thank you for putting up with me, and letting me be in your lives for as long as I have. Have the best birthday ever! <3sex and violence in film.
Basically, the topic all started out in my office one day, as we were discussing "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated". (Good film by the way, I really enjoyed it.) Anyway, back to the point. One of the main topics in the film (toward the end particularly) is sex and viloence in American film vs. sex and violence in Europian film.

Let me take a moment, and really quickly break it down for you. (This is kind of how the MPAA sees it . . .):
American film: sex = worse than volience, who cares if kids see bullets just making blood holes in people and no consequenses/reality of those guns?
vilolence = who cares! it's not like the films/games kids play have any effect on their thoughts! (hmm, so Columbine and other events like it weren't fed by any of that even in the least bit?)

And this is kind of how the Europians see it:
Europian film: violence = has consequenses, and influences kids. let's not show it that much. and if we do, let's show it realistically so they can see the horrors of it all.
sex = it is a real part of life, and as long as the kids aren't going out and having sex with just everyone they meet, and they aren't blowing people's heads off for no reason. why not show sex over viloence?

So, that's basically that. Now, on to my opinion . . .
Alright, before I start I would like to put out the disclaimer that I am not saying "ohh, no worries about sex, just go sleep around!" nor am I saying "shooting people is fine!" No, just, no. But I am comparing the two, so, yeah.

Alright, to keep that poor bush from being beat around again, I'll just get right to the point. If I had to choose which of the two was the lesser of two evils in American film, I think I would have to say that I think sex is.

Like I said, I'm not saying that I agree with who on-screen characters sleep with, (ie: not being married and carrying on) or even that I enjoy to watch scenes with sex in them (I don't, I hit FF and scurry scurry on by) but that's not my point. The main point to me is, Europe has more sex and less violence in their films. They also have less kids shooting kids over there, and just more happy people. America has more violence and less sex, (violence without showing the true consequences of the actual violence by the way. ie: just a couple holes in the body, where it really would like, rip a person up being shot.) we also have more kids shooting kids. Just you go look up the stats on how many deaths by shooting there were last year in Canada even, versus here. (And if you don't want to, I'll tell you. Canada: 1 (and it was a guy who came over from Detroit that killed the person) and America: 11,some-odd-thousand.

Crazy, no? We have about the same amount of guns. (If the whole shootings in America/with youth interests you, I would suggest "Bowling For Columbine" by Michael Moore as an informative watch as well. If you're not farmiliar with Moore's work though, just know that he's very Liberal and opinionated, still good though. ;])

Anyway, it's really hard, because I don't believe in sex outside of marrige at all. It's out of God's perfect plan for the sacredness of marrige, and I don't really love to watch it on the screen. At the same time I'm also a sucker for action films with some violence, (like "Braveheart", "Gladiator", and etc.) but if I absolutely HAD to choose one or the other, based on negative impacts on society as a whole? My guess is that the whole "make love not war" saying just about says it all for the film industry.

First, let's quote "Legally Blonde": “Exercise gives you endorphins--endorphins make people happy and happy people just don't shoot their husbands... they just don't.” Kind of a good point, right?

Second, and more importantly, let's quote the Bible:
Deuteronomy 5: 17&18
17 "You shall not murder. 18 You shall not commit adultery."

So let's sum up the opinion of the blatherer shall we?
Basically, God is a forgiving God, and will forgive either sin. Right? (Not to say you can just go kill someone and come say "Oh, sorry God! Please forgive me?" then go do that again . . . ) But when the consequences are another human life being taken, and kids around now seem to think that it's "no big" to just get a gun and shoot it, I tend to lean toward the sex as the better option. (Besides, is having sex really going to send you to hell? Not really . . . )

Like I said before, it's not like either are my favourite, and I think moderation is better in both cases than all one or all the other. Showing consequences for both would prolly be the better option.

Silly/poor film industry, how I love you, but how you leave me scratching my head with your choices at times.

< /end pointless rant>

2 comments:

Steven van Doorn said...

1 death by shooting in Canada? I just looked it up, and according to Wikipedia there are "approximately 650 homicides per year." They didn't say how many of those were shootings though, I just think it's a bit of a far fetched statistic.

"Europe has...more happy people," I know a couple of Europeans and I would have to say they are about the same as far as I can tell. They might not have as many kids shooting people, but they have there own issues. For example, euthanasia is legal there, (at least is Holland) and is being used
every day.

Sorry about being so critical, anyway, I kinda agree, but I think "sex" and "violence" are a bit too vague. Yeah, murder is worse than premarital sex. But child molestation is worse than a fight on the hockey field. So I guess what I'm saying is that there is just to much variance within the categories for me to take a stand either way.

What I think the movie industry should do is make more movies like, for example "Amazing Grace" which we went to see today. Have you seen that Mal?

Anyway, you did some serious work here, nice job!

S'ven

Rachel Lynch said...

so you're saying that American movies show violence with no repercussions. but how many American movies do you know show sex with repercussions. especially on tv. you see teens on tv going around and sleeping with everyone they please. tv's version of a consequence is that their boyfriend finds out that they've cheated. no STDs none of the horrible emotional consequences. you also hear about all of the violent consequences of teens shooting other teens because that's in the news. you dont hear about 13 year old bobby's 30th sex parter because that stuff doesn't make it into the news. i can almost guarantee that sex happens 75%more than teen murders because the kids honestly dont think about sex having consequences, most think about killing someone as having consequences though. im not saying you're wrong. im just continuing the argument. i dont think you would have posted about this topic if you didnt want ppl arguing back. :)