Lars von Trier

That sounds like the worst movie ever made - no matter what the rating!

Yes, I absolutely believe that parents would allow their children to watch an unrated bloody, violent movie. Many parents aren’t concerned about exposing their children to make-believe violence in movies.

I’ve seen kids at movies that were totally inappropriate for them. When The Sixth Sense came out, I remember two young boys (maybe 9-10 years old) were dropped off at the theatre by their parents. I heard them making arrangements for the boys to join the parents at the restaurant next door after the movie. I loved that movie, but it was pretty intense. I think many parents see that there’s a child in a movie so it must be ok for kids to see it. Fortunately, the boys didn’t find the movie very interesting and spent most of their time running in and out of the theatre to buy snacks - acting like kids!

And when I was in line to see Stand By Me years ago, the early movie was letting out and some people in our line asked them how it was. One man was quite angry and said “That is NOT a kids’ movie!” . Having read the Stephen King story, I knew that it wasn’t for kids.

After Saturday Night Fever was a huge success, they re-released it with a PG rating rather than R, so I was finally able to see it! They had cleaned up a lot of the language. I only noticed the changes when I eventually saw the original uncut version on tv many years later!

And I think I’ve mentioned before going to see American Gigolo when I was too young to see an R-rated movie. I waited until the very last minute to ask my mother if I could go, and she asked me to show her the ad in the paper to make sure it was ok for me. If my father had been home, he would have known it was restricted and would have said no, but he wasn’t home. So I showed my mother the ad, and she had no idea that I had erased the R from the newspaper. Did you know that newsprint could be erased? So off I went with my friend to see our first restricted movie! Other than the shock of seeing a naked Richard Gere, I learned that restricted movies could be just as boring as any other movies.

When I was little, there was a movie theatre in my city that showed Italian movies on Sundays. Apparently, movie ratings meant nothing to them because we went as a family to see lots of inappropriate movies! I remember us going by bus at first - which was exciting for me - so I must have been under the age of seven because my father didn’t buy our first car until I was seven. The theatre was always packed with families just like us. Many of the movies were silly comedies with frequent nudity - male and female! That’s where I first learned that a naked man looked different from a naked little boy (I had watched my aunt bathe my 2-year-old boy cousin). I was always surprised that my prudish mother, sitting beside me, found the nudity hilarious, as did the rest of the audience.

Our family also went to see The Godfather 2 in Italian! I was way too young to see it, and I just remember how incredibly boring it was.

I remember me and my siblings informing my parents when a naked lady was shown on the screen when renting a B (similar to PG-13) rated movie! LOL We were such good kids! We have completely banned to watch horror or violent movies when we were little. I have always thought that’s the reason I never feel scared with horror movies. I watched the first one (Neil Jordan’s In Company of Wolves, which it’s more fantasy than horror) on VHS when I was like 12 years old. By then I clearly understood that nothing on screen was real.

When I was a teenager everything changed, tho. I was thrown out from a lot of movie theaters for trying to watch C rated (similar as R but actually more restrictive) movies. The first one was Coppola’s Dracula, I was 15 then but probably looked like 10! I always looked much more younger and it was an extra problem when trying to watch the movies I wanted! Even when I was a young adult I had a few problems. I was 27 or 28 years old the last time I was asked for an id!!!

I also got in trouble for letting my little brother to watch violent or disturbing movies with me! They were art films but yes, disturbing!