Cautionary Movie Ratings

A very religious man once told me he stopped watching rated R movies. I thought, well that is interesting. Why deny yourself the fun and thrill of watching a scary movie or even a violent spy movie that happens to be rated R. It never occurred to me that a person, of age, might avoid watching a movie because of its rating.

At first I was resilient to this thought - personally, I wanted to reject anything someone with strong religious ties taught me. I may have been upset with the "church" and unwilling to accept this person's value because I thought it would be stuffed down my throat and I would be in trouble if I broke "the rule". Second, I didn’t understand the logic of limiting oneself. I am over the age of 18 - I make my own choices and I want FREEDOM!

After talking to this man, I went home and went on with my life… but I couldn’t stop thinking about this persons choice. I spent some time thinking about his idea and the meaning behind it. Why? How? What are the benefits?

 

 

I decided that his motivation was coming from a protective place. By choosing to avoid movies that the movie industry deemed as RESTRICTED, he was essentially protecting his psyche  - aka the soul, mind and spirit - from attack. Attack by whom? Well, attack by anything negative.

 

Lets think about this on a deeper level. Why are movies rated R? Nudity, use of the F word, hard drugs, and extreme graphic violence are the reasons a movie is given a rating of R.

Now, think of the impact the movie IT had on our society. It instilled fear in us - fear of IT which brought mass fear of clowns. What about the exorcist? FEAR… it taught us, omg…. Negative beings can take over our bodies and control us. WOW. Fear is BRED in horror films.

Think about movies that impacted you in a negative way. True, they may not be rated R but they had in impact on our MINDS- our most powerful tool as human. There are many other examples of movies that impact the way we think, act, talk and treat others. We are molded by the imagery we allow into our minds.

I began to truly understand how a movie rating is not only a "age limit rating" - it is a caution sign for adults. I now, choose to obey those caution signs because I know I have control over my psyche. I am the one who decides what I allow to infiltrate my brain. Is it going to be movies with shooting and violence? No thanks.