CHILDREN IN PERIL

by
Gil Mansergh

This column started in one direction and then abruptly changed course.

I was originally going to write a review of “Shoot Em Up” and it still begins that way:
“A lone man named Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) is sitting on a bus stop bench, intently munching on a carrot. A whimpering, pregnant woman (Ramona Pringle) hurries past holding her belly and occasionally wincing in pain. She turns a corner and disappears from sight as a man carrying a handgun scurries after her. Mr. Smith sighs heavily, and walks around the corner, where the woman is laying down on the ground with the gunman pointing his weapon to her head. After dispatching the bad guy with the old carrot-through-the-eye trick, Mr. Smith temporarily rescues the woman from an army of bad guys so she can have her baby. A few “Push “harder,” moments later, he severs the umbilical cord with a bullet, just before the new mom is shot through the forehead. He escapes, and takes the baby to a brothel where Donna (Monica Bellucci), a lactating hooker, is wet nursing a grown man dressed in a diaper.”

Got it?

“Returning to the dead mom, we discover that the reason she was killed in such an unmessy manner is so her corpse can be arranged in a limousine tableau with her right breast exposed for groping by Hertz (Paul Giammati) the psychopathic genius behind all this frivolity.

Frivolity?

Director Michael Davis wants you to believe that his movie was inspired by John Woo’s action films and Bugs Bunny cartoons (hence the carrot), with Mr. Smith being Bugs and Hertz being Elmer Fudd.

Which brings us to the redirection of this column.

I saw “Shoot Em Up” at the 7:35 Wednesday night showing at Pacific Theaters in Rohnert Park. The auditorium was almost empty, but just before the lights dimmed, a popcorn laden family with two boys about nine years old settled down in the seats a couple rows ahead of mine.

It is important for you to know that in addition to being a film columnist, I am a psychological educator who has been studying and teaching visual literacy for forty years. I began as an undergraduate researcher at Stanford University where I recorded and charted the play activities of kindergarten-aged males immediately after they watched either violent or nonviolent television shows. Ten years later, at Indiana University, I investigated the effects of learning from televised program content on classrooms of children. The results were consistent with other psychological studies, and continue to this day “male children imitate the violent behaviors they see on screen (with girls, things are a little more complex).

The point is that parents really need to be educated regarding what happens when kids see behaviors such as those shown in “Shoot Em Up.” As I told my wife (who is a teacher) “Just think how those two boys are going to act in school tomorrow.”

Second, the current ratings system is worthless. When I asked the ticket taker about the theater’s policy regarding children seeing a movie with a hard “R” rating, like “Shoot Em Up,” she said, “They’re with their parents so we can’t do anything about it “besides, she works here.”

As if that made it OK.

Just for the record, the MPAA rating system includes the following in its description of an “R” rating:
“Parents must attend a rated “R” movie with ay child under the age of 17 and the film should be closely examined before taking teenagers to see it.”

Teenagers. What about preteens like these two boys?

Thursday morning I called the theater and talked with Angela, the manager. When asked if she thought it sent the right message to have an employee taking her children into a movie like “Shoot Em Up.” Angela replied, “She was on her day off. We can’t ban our employees from seeing a film.” When I pressed her to comment how this reflected on the corporation’s public image, she terminated the conversation.

Pacific Theaters was founded by the Forman family in 1946 and is still part of the family owned Decurion Group. Featured prominently in the corporation’s profile, is the “family friendly” nature of the business and especially how they support and manage a not-for-profit organization, “The Wonder of Reading,” which renovates and replenishes public elementary school libraries and trains adults to read with children.

I’m sending copies of this column to Board Chairman Michael Foreman, and President/CEO Chris Foreman, with the suggestion that expanding their nonprofit work to include educating parents on the impact that movies has on children is (considering their business), perhaps even more important than them providing books to libraries.

And what about you. Are you a parent, grandparent, teacher or volunteer who works with children? You might want to check this helpful website from the American Academy of Pediatrics about media’s impact on children:
http://www.aap.org/family/mediaimpact.htm

Questions? E-mail gilmansergh@comcast.net

Hear Gil’s “Cinema Toast” radio show 7:30 Thursday mornings on KRSH-FM 95.9