What is your standard for movies?

It depends on the rating, nothing over PG, not even that if its PG for language.

 

I will be seeing Pirates tomorrow. Going to the theatre is not anti biblical. Theres a lot in life that isn't biblical, yet it isn't anti biblical either. If I want to watch reality I'd turn on the evening news.

 

Yes.

Never.

No.

"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." - 1 Corinthians 15:33
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I see them as an essential tool of the adversary to manipulate the worldviews of humanity against God.

 

Personally, I do not attend movie theaters.

I have very few video tapes or DVD's, and most of the ones I do have tend to be documentaries. And even then I seldom watch them simply because most of the time I've got other things to do (like visit BB!).

There were some people who wanted me to go with them to watch "The Passion of the Christ" when it was running, but I chose not to. While I'm not usually going to condemn someone else for watching that film (or others if they think it's OK for them), it's my preference to refrain from going to movie theaters.

Since I have no children, I'm also not going to go around telling others who do have children what movies or shows they should or should not watch either at home or other places. That's something that's between them and the Lord.

As others have noted, even some PG rated films are questionable, and, as a whole, I don't expect the world's standards to get much better. If anything, they seem to be getting worse.

 

I will be seeing Pirates. As for kids, if I am taking my neices and nephews it has to be PG and then I ask their parents' permission. I am very careful about the movies that I take the kids to and careful about the ones that I go watch by myself.
:godisgood:

 

This is a good question, and one I struggle with.

I know that the most violent, gory, and sexually explicit book I have ever read is the Bible.

I believe that if someone had been at each and every moment mentioned in the Bible with a camera, and had been able to shoot everything, start to finish, the movie would be rated NC-17, or, more likely, banned in America because of the real scenes of death. An accurate recreation of the Bible, with actors, would be NC-17.

But the Bible doesn't glorify violence or gore or sex for the pure pleasure of reading/watching it, and that is the difference, imo. God has a purpose for every word in the Bible, I believe. The challenge to me is deciding which films are most likely to have a worthwhile purpose for showing violence, etc.

 

uh, I'll probably get laid out for this but I clearly just don't care anymore...kidding...well, not really...

I don't movies are evil, I actually think they're okay. I do have standards for movies.

One thing I do is I go to a site called Movies with Kids in Mind which doesn't pull any punches. The MPAA rating system is horrible and ridiculous. Movies with Kids in Mind rates each movies (1 to 10) on violence, language, and sexuality.

Some movies like, The Green Mile received an R rating but has no sex or excessive voilence. I love that movie. Of course I really only draw the line on the sex thing.

I draw the line at nudity and sex. If there is any nudity I don't see the movie. If there is no nudity but simulated sex scenes I don't go and see the movie.

Violence doesn't bother me, nor does langauge. Excessive violence usually doesn't bother me. Pervasive langauge usually means a poor story line, but sometimes not.

What does bother me is poor script writing. Too many movies lately have absolutely stunk. I've gotten up and walked out of movies because of poor scripts. The storylines anymore just aren't awfully good.

Some of favorite movies get a poor rating (in some people's eyes) from the MPAA. No reason for it really. I always check my movies over before I go see them. I've never seen Titanic b/c of the painting scene. Just an example.

Do I plan on seeing Pirates 3 but completely in protest since seeing Pirates 2 obligated me to see 3 and I need closure.

 

What is your motivation for setting a standard on nudity/sex and not on violence or strong language?

 

phrase god's bucket

WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT THE PHRASE, god's bucket means in the pirate's of the carribean movie?

 

I was thinking yesterday as I was watching Pirates, if anyone can't tell the difference between pirates and reality, movies are not their problem.

 

The just shall live by faith.

HankD

 

Yes we have a standard for movies. That standard changes depending upon who is seeing the movie, my wife and I might see a movie we wouldn't allow the children to see, or I m might take just my 12 yr old son to a movie I wouldn't take his 7 yr old sister to see.

We really try to avoid movies with sex, nudity, and language. Violence is the one area that is usually harder to gage, was it part of the story, is too gory, is it just to plain too much.

What really bothers me is when a movie is promoted a a kid or family oriented movie and it is not. The perfect example of that is the Shrek movies. We purchased the first on on DVD and found that there was some offensive language and the sound track contained some really inappropriate songs. We go rid of the DVD the next day. I found the movie very funny but did not feel it was appropriate for my family. Because of that experience we have not seen Shrek 2 nor will we see Shrek the Third.

Christians who say you shouldn't go to the movies at all (or who say certain movies are inappropriate) and then rent/buy the DVD to watch in their own home are hypocrites. If y you shouldn't watch it at the local movie theater you shouldn't watch it in your own home.

And yes I have seen Pirates 3. My wife HAD to see it on opening day.

Bill

 

Here are some movies our kids were never allowed to see:
1. Wizard of Oz (violence, fire and the scarecrow)
2. Sound of Music (too much Catholicism)
3. Gone with the Wind (oppression and inappropriate language, frankly my dear...)
4. Herby the Love Bug (promotes wreckless driving)
5. Mary Poppins (gives delusional ideas about flying with an umberella)
6. Animated version of Alice in Wonderland (depicts playing cards, promotes gambling)
7. Charlotte's Web (political agenda, elevates animals to human status)
8. The Santa Clause (promotes myths about Christmas)

Well, I could go on, but its movie time for the family. We are going to see that divinely inspired movie "Left Behind."

 

Left Behind promotes false teachings about Salvation during the Tribulation period.

 

Wow, what an insight. Did you figure that out with your advanced degree? :laugh:

 

I'm all for "wreck-less" driving.

 

voilence and language don't cause me to stumble. I don't curse nor am I a brawler.

I live in a cultural setting where the people whom I get to minister to use coarse langauge and it no longer bothers me. If you're cursing just to curse in order to make up for a lacking storyline than you're movie probably shouldn't be watched by anybody.

Violence doesn't bother me either. Reading the pages of the biblical narrative I find more violence than in most movies. Just go through Judges and you've got Jabba the Hut, the end of Shawshank Redemption, the removal of a king like Gladiator, a rallying speech right out of Braveheart, an assasination like Mission Impossible, and outright deception all in chapter 3 vereses 12 through 31. That passage is more descriptive and more violent than most movies out there. Crazy.

Besides, cursing and violence are cultural issues. What is excessive in some people's eyes in our contemporary culture is mild compared to 15th or 16th century culture. Cursing has the same issues. What is cursing in one culture isn't in another.

The nudity/sex is a pretty standard barometer. The rest, not so much.

 

This is certainly an interminable topic, so I'll just add my $.02 for any who are interested.

In literature, sometimes it's not so much what you say, but the way you say it. You can say "Joe killed Jim" or you can create ghastly and disgusting paragraphs describing the event. Trying to excuse modern movies by appealing to the Bible's example is illegitimate.

Viewing sexual content of an ordinary modern movie is completely unacceptable within the biblical standards of holiness. No Christian in 1959 would have been so deceived as to accept it. Todays' toleration of it (i.e., the viewing of it) does not testify to better powers of discernment or more mature attitudes toward the topic, it testifies to corruption and a seared conscience.

Fools make a mock at sin (Pr. 14:9).