Movie Memories VS Movie Maladies

Lee Ellis

Looking at the Weekender in my local newspaper for this week's entertainment list, I find the following ratings for all the new movies. I won't name them, but here are the five new movies available in my neighborhood theaters as described in my newspaper:

1. "PG-13 for violent and sexual content, and teenage drinking."

2. "R for bone-crunching violence"

3. "R for sex, nudity, drug use, racism, violence and language,:

4. "R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexuality, nudity and drug use."

5. "PG-13 for disturbing images and violence, language and thematic issues."

Plot-wise, there is not much difference between these and the old movies I watch on Turner Classic Movies, Hallmark or even Lifetime, but the new juvenile directors have simply taken these old plots and added their personal concepts of reality to them in the form of unnecessary close-ups. We now are forced to see close-ups of people having sex, similar to the college porno films of the 40s and 50s, close-ups of the bullets entering bodies or similar close-ups of autopsy scenes and of course, adding as many F words and other forms of profanity or vulgarisms as possible. I guess these junior directors still get titillated by all of this and want to impress their other college-age movie people with their ability to get away with it. They masquerade it all by referring to it as their "artistic ability"!

They apparently never had the opportunities to enjoy radio dramas and thus appreciate the advantages we had of using our imaginations. They have also forgotten that young people watch these new movies and then go out into the real word thinking that all of society behaves this way. Thus, these young adults are amazed when they offend older adults when using vulgarities and profanities in a polite mixed society or at a business gathering. Some young people have even lost good business promotions due to their lack of class, courtesy or good manners.

Yes, Junior Directors (You may be old, but if you act emotionally immature, I have the right to call you "Junior"), we really do have the ability to use our imaginations. We were never confused when we saw a scene of a man kissing a woman followed by the camera rising up to a window to show a raging storm outside or to hear thunder crashes with lightning flashes. Perhaps we saw thundering surf or a train roaring into a tunnel. Believe me, we understood the meanings conveyed by these graphics, we were never as stupid as you think we are. We did not need to see the minute details to understand what was happening. We would have appreciated your acknowledgment of our abilities to enjoy the use of our imaginations!

And when we saw a "cops and crooks" movie with them shooting at each other, we understood immediately what had happened when either a crook or a cop grabbed his chest with a look of pain and horror on his face and fell down. This may be hard for you to understand, Junior, but we did not need a follow up animation of the bullet speeding through his or her body and finally exploding in the heart for us to know what had just happened!

Another thing that Hollywood seems to have forgotten is that now-a-days, many of us watch these movies in our living room or bedroom. Most of us keep our home clean and fresh, so we don't like to lean back in our easy chairs, turn on TV or a DVD and suddenly have verbal or pictorial garbage, sewage or grossness sprayed out of our TV windows all over us!

My wife and I have Time-Warner cable with free movie channels from HBO, but we can seldom take advantage of these new movies because of the verbal and video trash hurled at us constantly. As a result, we now look for other movies carried by TCM, Hallmark or Lifetime that are of the old school of TV direction and production.

We have not gone into a movie theater for over a year for the same reasons. No wonder Hollywood is complaining about lower theater turn out. Between obscenities and anti-American patriotism, why should most people want to waste their hard-earned dollars for that? We'll stick to the movie memories and leave the movie maladies to be finally cured by some talented directors and producers of the future.

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com