Watchmen and watch your children

Last week I went to see the movie Watchmen in Atlantic City on a big freakin IMAX screen. I had previously read the book, which I liked a lot. I liked the movie, too, but did not love it. There is one thing about my movie experience that gave me a moment of thought. There was one thing that I found almost as troubling as Dr. Manhattan’s blue genitalia (not kidding). The thing that troubled me was the amount of 8-12 year old kids who were at this movie with their parents.

(I am not going to mention the plot, but I am going to reference scenes. If you haven’t seen the movie, skip this paragraph)

The first thing I would like to mention is that this was an R rated movie and this movie deserved it. There is a person getting their hands cut off with a chain saw, a person getting his face burned off with French fry grease, several broken bones, and an attempted rape scene. There is also a small love scene and the afore mentioned blue genitalia.

If parents think that their child can handle these images then I have no argument with them. I am not a parent and I don’t know the maturity level of each child in the audience. What I cannot accept is the excuse that parents were not sufficiently warned about the movie's content. In this age of information there is no excuse that parents shouldn’t know what is coming. They could read the book. If they don’t read the book, they can go to the net and get any one of 4 bazillion reviews. It would take literally 10 minutes to inform yourself.

A child is supposed to be the most important thing in a parent’s life. How could they not take 10 minutes out of their busy day to Google “Watchmen”? It is one thing if the kids saw the movie without the parent’s knowledge ,or if they saw it with a friend. That is not the case. I saw parents with their kids. If their motives were to engage their children on their level then that is one thing. If the idea was to use Watchmen as a catalyst for a discussion about rape, the role of good and evil, or the criminal justice system, then I applaud these parents. I tend not to believe this is the case because too often I hear about parents complaining about inadequate censorship. I hear people complaining that video games are too violent, music it is too raunchy and a whole other list of complaints. You can’t blame censorship for this one. This movie was rated “R”. You can’t blame Hollywood or the media or our violent society, or Bevis and Butthead or Jackass or Southpark or anyone else. If you take your child to a rated R movie and are not informed about its content then YOU HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF.

I truly do sympathize with parents. I think they have the hardest job in the world. They have to raise children in this cesspool of pop culture to be decent people, self-reliant people of conscience. That cannot be an easy job. I understand that we live in a world that is changing faster then ever. I understand that parents must work and may not always have time to know about every new fad that comes around the corner. I am so grateful for my parents and how they raised me. I was pissed when I was little because I couldn’t see The Terminator when all my friends saw it because my parents thought it was too violent. I am grateful that my parents (who didn’t have the internet) took the time to inform themselves about what I was interested in and then made a decision that they thought was in my best long term interests. There is so much that children are exposed to that are completely out of the hands of the parents. I just feel saddened that so many parents dropped the ball last Saturday. I am not a parent so I may be over reacting. I’d love to hear from parents about what they think of this issue.