Good Clean Fun
| By: Dr. Ted Baehr; ©2000 |
| This month Dr. Baehr shares with us an article about his MovieGuide ® magazine and website, and the impact they can have on families who what information on the content and worldview of movies and books. |
Contents
GOOD, CLEAN FUN MOVIE REVIEW SERVICE HELPS FAMILIES FIND MOVIES PROMOTing CHRISTIAN VALUES
By Duane Schuman
MovieGuide ® Editor’s Note: This is a wonderful article about MOVIEGUIDE® published in The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel on Friday, June 9, 2000. It is reprinted with permission.
Donna Guldbeck has a 3-year-old toddler to chase, twin first-graders and an 11-year-old entering sixth grade.
But, parenting really becomes tough when the Fort Wayne woman has to tell her 15 year-old daughter she can’t see a certain movie.
”I feel like a salmon swimming up a waterfall,’’ she said. “It takes so much strength not to cave in.’’
Guldbeck and her husband Per are like many parents: What their children view matters to them. Finding movies without objectionable scenes or language can seem like searching for a gourmet meal in a garbage can.
A movie’s rating helps. But, Guldbeck said PG doesn’t mean what it once did, and pre-screening PG-13 films means shelling out significant bucks for a baby sitter and tickets.
An online movie review service called Movieguide® can make the decision much clearer for parents. Movieguide®—at www.movieguide.org—lists traditional objectionable elements such as language, nudity and violence, but it does so with precise detailing. It also lists a movie’s worldview, from Christian to pagan, occult to humanist. An eight-tiered moral scale ranks the film from “abhorrent’’ to “exemplary.’’
The site contains about a dozen free movie reviews. Reviews appear before a movie’s weekend release and remain available for a few weeks. Searching for archived reviews requires subscribing to the site—$5 for a month or $20 for a year.
The weekly Movieguide® magazine is mailed to the home for $40 per year. It contains additional movie reviews, plus occasional TV and book critiques.
“Movieguide® helps parents make wise and discerning decisions, especially for their teenagers,’’ said publisher Ted Baehr. “We’re not thumbs up or thumbs down.’’
While the online service doesn’t issue a go or no-go verdict, it’s likely there won’t be many unsettling surprises if you watch.
Bryan Lemberg of Fort Wayne has three children. He says it’s tough deciding which movies to go to, even when they have PG ratings. “We’re really pretty careful, but we’ve gotten up and left a movie.’’
Lemberg avoids all R-rated movies, both for himself and his children. But he has been disappointed in the sexual references found in some PG films. And, even G-rated movies sometimes carry themes inappropriate for younger children or contrary to his family’s Christian values.
Peggy Wilcher of Fort Wayne is the mother of 16-year-old son Lee and 14-year-old daughter Angie. She said battles with her children over movie choices are infrequent because of “a lot of groundwork we did when they were younger.’’
The Wilchers listen to their children’s desired choices and pre-screen anything PG-13 or above. Many films are not even considered by the family.
“In my opinion, Hollywood is marketing its value system to a younger crowd,’’ Wilcher said. “A lot of teen comedies make it look like it’s fun to be disrespectful. They’re promoting a lot of things that we as parents would like to steer our kids away from.’’
Movieguide®’s Baehr said Hollywood does cater to its largest ticket-buying customer— hormone-driven 14-year-old boys. But, it also must contend with financial facts that clearly show family films are more likely to make money.
Baehr said Americans are making generally good choices regarding entertainment. Six of the top-10 grossing films of 1999 had overt Christian content, Baehr said. But, he is concerned that occult films did better than they ever have.
Besides publishing MOVIEGUIDE®, Baehr is also chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission. He uses praise rather than protests to nudge Hollywood toward making more films with a Christian worldview.
Movie studios are paying $3,500 a table to attend the Christian Film and Television Commission’s annual awards night. For 1999, the commission honored Toy Story 2, The Straight Story, and The Winslow Boy with its top three movie awards.
Besides receiving praise for their movies, film executives value the annual report Baehr issues at the event. It shows how 1999 films fared—based on a Christian worldview, language, sexual activity, and alcohol and drug use. His analysis shows that films respecting moral values are more likely to make more money.
Having more good movies to choose from would be welcome for Guldbeck. She said children from her neighborhood, as well as from her husband’s church, often praise R-rated films. That makes it harder for her to stand firm against the tide of popular culture.
“It gets tiring setting boundaries all the time,’’ said Guldbeck. “I want (my children) to know what good literature is and what good movies are. I keep thinking sometime they’ll get it.’’
