Movies then and now

So lately I got to thinking. I was thinking about movies and the way they have evolved and the way that people have changed over the years. I thought about the fact that the language and subject/s we consider “O.K.” for kids consumption has changed. I mean the first Star Trek movie that came out in the 70’s was rated R when it came out. Today that exact same movie would get a rating no worse than PG. @0 years before that when They were making the movie “It’s a wonderful life.” The film makers (and MPAA) were struggling to make a movie that would be suitable for kids… in order to achieve that goal they had to take out the word/s (SHUT UP? STUPID? LOOK IT UP). These words were considered tame in the 70’s and in today’s society they are largely considered childish themselves. It seems that There are a lot of people today (indeed even in the late 70’s and 80’s) who seem to think that any movie that is labeled G has to be “made for kids”. (say that sentence with disgust or scorn and you got the idea behind that sentence.) The thing is that they do not have to be that way. I watched the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory.” When I was a kid. As a kid I loved it. Watching it with my daughters does not bother me (certainly not the way the remake Charlie and the chocolate factory does.) but when I am watching Willy Wonka and seeing what Gene Wilder did as an adult I can tell you that this is definitely not a “kids only” movie. There is subtlety and context that completely goes over my kid’s heads. But it makes the movie even richer for me now than it did then. In order for me to appreciate those subtleties I had to mature and grow. In the 80’s an up and coming director included a rather risqué word in his new sci fi movie. He did this because he wanted to draw the kids who only wanted to see “cool grown up movies" who would have refused to see anything rated G. This attitude remains to this day. This is a shame because that movie was an excellent movie in it’s own right and has been an iconic movie for my generation. And still today the movie, E.T. has spawned references and toys and whole movie production companies that never would have existed otherwise… and, too where would Drew Barrymore be today without HER part in that movie? Too many movies have to kow-tow to that idea today. Only it is even worse for them. I am starting to thin that it would be much better if people stop seeing movies in order to “Look Cool” for the other kids instead of watching a movie just because it is a GOOD movie. We need to tell Hollywood that we want movies of substance that makes us better for having seen them. Movies like “Rudy”, “The Rookie”, “Fireproof”, “the Blind side” and so on. These are movies that have a message to them, they are mostly well made and they have a great theme to them. What’s more they are uplifting and encouraging and have a message to send. There ARE movies with harsher ratings that fit those criteria as well. I think that too many of them have had to do the same thing as Steven Spielberg, and so they add gratuitous words or violence that just try to capture a bigger audience, to me this is disappointing. These movies would be better served, I think, to have left the gratuity OUT. If they had then I would feel comfortable letting MY kids watch them, I might even sit down to watch them WITH my kids and then we would have an opportunity to bond. I think that is all I better say on the subject though it feels unfinished… maybe you can all help me finish this article by adding your thoughts on the subject and then we can have a dialog about it. In any event, Hope your day is a great one