It seems the theme of the night is questionable parenting.
I went out to the movies tonight. The theater that I usually go to is right in downtown Salem; three screens, small, local, very community-driven. To get into the seasonal frenzy that is going on currently they have been dedicating most of their shows to old horror movies -- Hitchcock, Kubrick, Carpenter, and the ilk. I was going to see A Clockwork Orange cuz I've never seen it, but Evan gave Gone Baby Gone a glowing review the other day so I decided to see it instead.
I get to the ticket counter and this old couple -- with the wife taking point -- is giving the girl behind the counter a hard time. Turns out some mope brought his young children, 7 or 8-abouts in age from the hearsay, with him as he took in some filmic literature for the evening. Apparently there is a graphic rape scene in the movie so this parenting decision is clearly one of the great affronts to the decency of Western civ. The woman is a school principal -- who better for a strong moral compass? -- so of course she should be encouraged and allowed to berate the man in front of the audience and his children. Make of big show of getting your money back and walking out in a huff and listen as the queued-up masses applaud your virtue and demand you be pinned with ribbons.
She says how dare he? I say how dare her? It's his kids; he can raise them as he sees fit. I would imagine I would be a bit more selective in children's viewing fare, but it's not my problem. Mind your own business and don't get self-righteous about a film that you probably praised as "ground-breaking" when you were the age Malcolm McDowell was when he filmed it.
All of this dove-tailed nicely into Ben Affleck's directorial debut. The movie turned to the audience and asked, "who better to guide a young innocent into adulthood: some caring, well-meaning strangers with some skewed perspective or a coked-up, abusive single mother from Dorchester Heights? The movie was good, Casey Affleck was a badass, Michelle Monaghan was cute, and the ending did not take the typical route down Mulholland Drive. In the end I identified with Patrick and sided with his decision and walked home thinking concerned strangers need to keep their thoughts on parenting to themselves.
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2 comments:
I disagree. Not only is the movie too long for a child's short attention span, but the complicated language would be so far over their heads they wouldn't have a clue what was happening. Just on that fact alone, I assume the parents have never seen the movie and I am quite sure, 20 minutes into the movie, they left dragging the kids behind them.
Add to that the fact that it is very graphic (endless nudity) and very disturbing. Those parents had no clue.
Clockwork is on my top ten list of favorite books, but my own father won't read it because he cannot get through the rape scene.
It boils down to say something or not say something. Rights of adults vs. rights of the innocent.
What is acceptable and what isn't.
actually, he cannot raise them as he sees fit. as lada touched upon, society has an obligation to protect the innocent even if the parents of the innocent do not.
a rape scene, nudity, graphic violence...none is appropriate for young children to see.
why would a parent take a young child to an r-rated movie?
i hope this father promptly removed his children from the theatre...if not, then i fear what other things he is exposing his children to. where do you draw the line, dcm?
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