<p>I’m 16 and a half (today is actually my half birthday), and I have never seen an R-rated movie.</p>
<p>From a very early age, I’ve been an avid reader. My parents have never censored what I’ve read, and I’ve been grateful for that. But, to be fair, I’ve never sought out books with depictions of violence and until recently I didn’t like ones dealing with romance/sex, so there was never really any harm in that.</p>
<p>And, in general, my parents have not been strict about my movie watching; they just have never had the time to moniter everything I do. So it’s not their rule that I can’t watch R-rated movies, it’s mine.</p>
<p>I still don’t like violence. I’ve seen a fair number of PG-13 movies where I close my eyes during fight scenes because usually, they’re just there for the gore; they serve no meaningful purpose. For ones where the gore is justified and is there for a real reason, whether historical or to send a message, I understand and commend the choice to use it.
And before you ask, sex scenes don’t bother me. Never really have; I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s natural and, like with violence and language, if it’s used well and for a reason it’s a good thing.</p>
<p>So I choose not to watch R-rated movies just because I want to wait. There’s really no reason besides that. And I’d like to think that by not seeing a lot of the movies my friends have seen but nevertheless hearing their reviews, I know which movies I’ll enjoy, and I’m looking forward to watching those once I turn 17.
(The movies on my to-see list include Once, Brokeback Mountain, Little Miss Sunshine, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.)</p>
<p>Not really. But depends on the kid. My D no I don’t. My nephew who is living with me is 12 and he watches way too much TV, video games, youtube garbage and my sister had allowed it, but now I am trying to weed out what he is watching. He watches Family Guy, Stick Figures on Crack and some other things. It is hard to disallow what has been ok. Difficult.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a funny story from when I was a kid. We lived on a military base overseas and I had an older sister, who was probably 15 or 16 at the time. She asked our dad if she could go see M<em>A</em>S*H at the theater. He asked her what it was rated and she told him “R”. He said no. She whined and said all her friends were going, but he did not give in. She then said “Can I go to the teen club?”. He said “Yes, you can go to the teen club”. After she left, he called the manager of the movie theater and asked him to call him when his daughter showed up. The manager asked did he want him to prevent her from going in and my dad so no, let her in. So the manager called back and let him know when my sister was there. My dad went down to the theater and went in after the movie had started and called my sister out in front of her friends. She learned her lesson and all of us younger kids did too. I miss my dad, I don’t know anyone who ever pulled one over on him.</p>
<p>“Have you ever let your child view a movie that you later regretted?”</p>
<p>Yes. My youngest was a huge old movie buff from the ages of about ten to twelve. He loved all the old classic black and white films and had a library of books about old films. Then he discovered Hitchcock. For the longest time he begged me to let him see Psycho and I said no and finally I caved. He survived it but he was afraid to go upstairs alone for a little while. My mistake was that it had been too long since I’d seen it and I was thinking of the shower scene and forgot the really scary parts come later. </p>
<p>On another note, last night we watched “There Will be Blood Together” and I scoured reviews to see why it had the R rating (we watched on DVD so I knew I could get him to leave the room if it got too violent). I cannot for the life of me understand a) why the movie was nominated for best picture and b) why it was rated R. I guess it was for the one shooting scene but my kid was so bored by the movie he had his face in a book at that moment. But there was much less violence than most R rated movies, no bad language and no sex or nudity.</p>
<p>The most offensive movies I’ve seen have been movies targeted at children. It often seems like they have an agenda, and even if I agree with said agenda, I’d prefer it not to be in a Disney cartoon.</p>
<p>I don’t the rating system needs to be changed. I think that there is plenty of information available to parents concerning the content of movies–if the parents are concerned enough to look for it. I prefer to judge for myself what is ok for my son to watch.</p>
<p>I saw How to Lose Friends and Alienate People this past weekend and I thought that it could have been PG 13 if they took out the F words and one scene with the transexual.</p>
<p>I let my 14 year old son see an R rated movie this week – The Graduate. I think the only thing that garnered it the R rating (retroactively) is the brief scene in a strip club where Dustin Hoffman takes Katherine Ross – there is a dancer who is topless. All the scenes between Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft are really left to the imagination – it is so much tamer than any episode of Grey’s Anatomy or most of what is on prime time television and it is much, much tamer than the PG-13 rated Vicky Christina Barcelona. My son, who loves classic films, has wanted to see this movie for years because it is, after all, The Graduate. It’s a great movie with a fantastic sound track and I don’t regret letting him see it.</p>