Amazon has a sale on "kids and family" DVDs. I'm busily digitizing the massive collection I already have (minus a huge stack of my favorites that was stolen) so I'm not in the market for any more at the moment.
But I browse.
Victor/Victoria? OK, I guess so. It's sort of harmless in its decadence. Grumpier Older Men? Didn't they reprise the whole "driving the pigskin bus to tuna town" bit from the first one in that? I really wouldn't want to have to explain that to The Flower. Pleasantville? I love that movie! But there's a whole lot about sex in that movie. I mean, Joan Allen masturbates in the tub, very conspicuously.
It's not like there wasn't sex in movies when I was a kid. In fact, there was pretty much sex in all of them (unless they were G-rated, and even Ken Berry and Karen Valentine were mackin' in those Disney flicks). But they were sort of extensions of the usual "mushy parts". People kissed, then they got nakedish, then they rubbed up against each other aaaand--cut to the next scene that actually advanced the story.
I've often said that people who claim there's more sex in PG movies now just don't remember the '70s (and early '80s, since the sex scene requirement seems to have stopped with Top Gun). But there is a difference today. There's a lot of detail in the sex scenes, even when they're not shown.
I wouldn't argue that this is a bad thing, by itself. The '70s and '80s approach to sex scenes was sort of juvenille. Fleeting emotion, no communication, no protection and no consequences (except for the early '80s spate of abortion movies). Everyone was supposed to know about sex but nobody was ever supposed to talk about it.
But the sex scenes of the era (at least in retrospect) seem sort of innocent, easier to see as that extension of the kissing then the messy (if more realistic) approach of today. Less appropriate for children, I would say.
But maybe I'm out of touch. Maybe parents would show their k--
Wait.
Caddyshack? Really?
OK, it's Amazon, not me.
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Kids see so much on cable these days that it is hard to keep them away from it no matter how hard you monitor them.
ReplyDeleteThey might not see it at your house but they will at their friends house if they go over and the parents plop them in front of the TV instead of playing with them.
When we had the communion at our house a few weeks ago the kids that were there couldn't stay out in the yard and play for more than ten minutes. They wanted to go inside and watch TV. I was to busy cooking and serving or otherwise I would have got them to stay outside and toss a ball around or something. Or maybe hit the speed bag. That is always a big hit with kids.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you get a lot of John Ford Westerns for them.
ReplyDeleteAnd Follow Me Boys, Yours Mine and Ours (the original), the Parent Trap (the original), Little Woman (the original),anything by Frank Capra and all the cool old Errol Flynn movies like the Adventures of Robin Hood. Oh and Ivanhoe so you can see what Elizabeth Taylor really looked like.
Wait what I telling you for.
ReplyDeleteYou know all these people.
Nevermind.
The kids pretty much always are up for swimming, so it's not so hard to get them out of the house.
ReplyDeleteThough they don't swim as much as we did. We'd spend the whole day in the pool.
I've got too big a spread for most of those movies yet. But they'll be there when the kids are ready.
Everytime I had seen "European Vacation" movie it had been on TV. We found the DVD in the bargain bin at WalMart and brought it home for family movie night.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the nudity in the beginning caught us off guard and quickly led to a change on the marquee for family movie night.
I guess I was out of touch.