By Staff
Our View
In today's world of mass media, it has become increasingly difficult to supervise everything that our children see and hear. Whether it is TV, radio or the Internet, these forms of media must be monitored to ensure that they do not provide entertainment to children that is meant for the older generation. It was refreshing to see that the local theatre, with it's showing of Mel Gibson's newest film, "The Passion of the Christ," advertised on it's marquee that the film was rated "R" and those under the age of 18 must have adult supervision.
The movie currently showing is based on the life and death of Jesus Christ. Basically it portrays the last twelve hours of his life with flashbacks scattered throughout the movie. Because his death is a significant portion of the movie, reports from film critics say that it is very graphic in nature. The story of the crucifixion is one that shows how inhuman, humans can be at times.
Our managing editor had the opportunity to speak to Wayne Kelly, owner of the Strand theatre, about the marquee and its message. Wayne told him that the distributor is very strict about the ratings guidelines and it is what prompted him to do it. We would like to commend Wayne and the Strand for not only complying with the ratings guidelines but also promoting it.
We also appreciate Wayne's warning that parents should see "The passion" before bringing young children. While inspiring and touching, "The passion" may be too graphic in its depiction of some scenes for young children.
A movie theatre is one of the few institutions that provide entertainment that is very controllable in terms of children being supervised. This is a place that a person has to pay to enter. Parents know about the ratings of the movies and why they are given a certain rating. And parents can easily see what rating the movie has when bringing children to the theater. Theaters only show movies, so the aspect of "live or real-time" viewing is not an issue. This eliminates any potential problems such as the Janet Jackson incident that occurred at this year's Super Bowl.
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