My bigtime movie goof
-
- March
- 24
Sure, I should’ve paid more attention. But I didn’t.
So, here I was taking my 11-year-old son to see Watchmen at the theater, not having done enough legwork to know that there was heavily graphic violence, sex and nudity. Whoops.
Well, he knows enough to cover his eyes during certain moments (aided by me, of course). But I did stay the course and we sat through the whole movie. Yes, I considered walking out, but I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong: This wasn’t Last Tango in Paris, nor was it Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was just a tad over the top.
In hindsight, I wouldn’t take him to see it had I known the extent of it all. But I also reason with myself that you can’t shelter a kid from everything. My philosophy on cursing, for instance, is that he is in no way allowed to use foul language. However, I know he hears it in the course of his day and has to simply censor himself.
I see this movie experience similarly. Of course, now he figures if we saw that he can go see Slumdog Millionaire and it would be okay. Not sure I’m ready to make that leap.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pm by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
I took my son to see the opening of the second Harry Potter film, Chamber of Secrets. It scared him to death in the theater. Since then I always check the movies out ahead of time. Somethings I will not let him see in the theater, where senses can be overwhelmed, but instead wait for it to come out on DVD. Somethings he doesn’t watch at all. Fortunately his mom follows most of my rules when he is with her and we usually talk about the movies coming out over the summer before hand.
Thanks, CCDad;
And that’s an interesting distinction: Movie theater versus DVD at home. There’s clearly more of an “all-senses-involved” experience at the theater that can be nullified at home in some cases. It makes sense.
Almost forgot: Check out Crazy Computer Dad’s site also:
http://crazycomputerdad.blogspot.com/
i wouldnt worry too much. My issue is the sex more so than the violence. language, we hear worse in the street. However with my 13+ year old. I have been allowing him to see a little more and more. As for a erverse double standard. if there is a female nude scene and my daughter happens to be watching or walks by , she’s 9+, I dont think anything of it. yeah she closes her eyes and says disgusting. But i see it this way, a female seeing a nude female isnt the same as a male seeing a female.
So your son seeing Dr. Manhattan in is blue glory isnt much. the rape scene etc well thats another matter. I knew about watchmen so i didnt bring the kids. because if i bring one i have to bring em all. Its in the rulebook
Dont sweat it, we all make mistakes. its called being human.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Jorge. He’s going to see this stuff sooner or later, and he’s probably old enough to get an introduction. It probably wouldn’t work to keep him hopelessly naive, and it wouldn’t be a good thing even if it did.
You can even argue that it’s good for him to be introduced to some of this stuff by his dad, so that you can put your own explanation on it, and explain your philosphy of life within the context of what the two of you saw together. Sometimes, there is a subliminal message in movies that comes through in the way that certain subjects are presented, and you may or may not agree with that message, and may want to either reinforce it or counteract it in some way. That is probably better in the long run than avoidance and silence.