It’s Been a Lewd, Crude and Rude Summer of Movies, Says Dr. Ted Baehr

By: Dan Wooding; ©1999

Have you ever watched a reporter critique a movie on the evening news and thought, “I could do that!”? Well, if you have, you need to read Dan Wooding’s interview with Dr. Ted Baehr about what is involved in understanding and reporting on movies.

 

“IT’S BEEN A LEWD, CRUDE AND RUDE SUMMER OF MOVIES,” SAYS DR. TED BAEHR

The Founder and Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE Issues an Appeal to Parents to “Wake Up to What Your Kids Are Seeing” …and Take Action Now!

Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE(r), the authoritative family guide to movies and entertainment, has described the current crop of movies on release as “lewd, crude and rude” and has appealed to parents to “wake up to what your children are seeing” and take action.

Dr. Baehr, in an interview, said, “When critic Roger Ebert, the same man who wrote Vixens 2 (one of the worst films in the history of filmmaking), complains that movies have lost all taste and virtue, and Kenneth Turan, renowned film critic of the Los Angeles Times, says that he is embarrassed watching husband and wife, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, performing sex in Eyes Wide Shut, we’ve hit a new low in the mass media of entertainment.

“If things have gotten so bad that even the most hardened, jaded and liberal critics in America are embarrassed, then the entertainment industry has, indeed, plummeted to a new low!”

A SERIES OF OFFENSIVE FILMS

Dr. Baehr rattled off a series of offensive movies that have slimed the movie screens of America and the rest of the world.

“One after another, we have had South Park, which I thought was the most offensive film ever made, followed by American Pie, which was another extremely distasteful, per­verse movie, followed by Stanley Kubrick’s voyeuristic, demonic, cabalistic film, Eyes Wide Shut, which is arguably the most offensive thing Mr. Kubrick has ever made. We are going from one cinematic atrocity to another!”

Dr. Baehr said that the latest Austin Powers film showed tremendous “bad taste” but he felt it had been “overshadowed by the horribly demonic material contained in SOUTH PARK, which arguably is the most vile film in motion picture history.”

Dr. Baehr said that when a report came out from the Dove Foundation saying that the G­rated films were making more money, he told the president of the foundation, “The success of G-rated movies is going to end. It’s all going to turn around, it’s not going to last for too long.”

He said the reason for his comments was simple demographics. “Thus, the 77 million baby kaboom generation children who made up the target audience for The Lion King five years ago, are now turning into teenagers and are being attracted to those movie genres that teenagers with raging hormones usually are attracted to: bloody horror, graphic sex and ex­treme violence,” said Baehr. “Regrettably, however, to capture this sought-after teen audience, filmmakers have pushed the envelope. For the baby boomers, Bonnie and Clyde was graphic; for the desensitized baby kaboomers, it’s Scream II.”

He went on, “We predicted this at MOVIEGUIDE(r). It’s not something we wanted, but we anticipated that this would happen to the entertainment industry. Regrettably, I believe it’s going to get worse as these 77 million kids get older, and irresponsible producers pander to the lowest common denominator to reach this audience. We have got a big problem here.”

WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

When asked what people need to do about this present situation, Baehr said, “We need to go back to the moral basics and re-inculcate sense and sensibility in our children and our society. We need to move away from this flood of tasteless neo-paganism. The parents, the schools and the churches must confront this collapse of our culture, but they are not dealing with it.

“As a Christian, I’m an eternal optimist, and I know that we have victory in Christ. But, the weekly release and box office success of more and more decadent movies shows that what we are doing now is not working. Perhaps this flood of crudity will get people to take action. ‘Evil only triumphs when good men do nothing,’ said Edmund Burke.

“Parents need to assume responsibility. After all, the evidence of where our media was taking us is seen in the Columbine killings.

“There is a collapse of culture, taste and morals. That doesn’t mean we need a return to neo-Victorianism. I am noticing a flood of counterfeit cures from psychologists and psychia­trists who just don’t get it. If psychiatrists just describe the problem, but do not tell parents what the solutions are, and how their children can be taught to want to make moral decisions, the situation will continue to get worse.

“I would appeal to parents to take serious interest in what their children are seeing and to understand that their only hope is returning to the moral virtues set forth in God’s word written, the Bible. In spite of the fact that the mass media of entertainment shuns responsibility and rails anger against morality and decency, true wisdom is understanding the nature of God and the truth of His commandments.

“It is important to note that the American Psychiatric Association met some years ago and announced that they have never cured anybody. Despite their admission of failure, people keep listening to these pompous priests of our age. So one of the keys to solving this problem is stop listening to them and start following the Truth.”

To paraphrase the great 19th Century observer, Alexis de Tocqueville, either we will practice self-discipline as informed by the moral precepts of God’s word, or we will suffer the whip of tyranny.