As my faithful readers already know, last night Leah and I went to a 9 p.m. showing of Marty Scorcese‘s The Departed.
I didn’t know before the end of the movie how long it was going to be (USA:152 min / UK:151 min). But I knew, knowing Scorcese, that at some point along the way there was going to be, in no particular order: gunplay, blood, and lots and lots of foul language. There was a lifetime’s worth of each in the first 15 minutes of the film.
But I digress, slightly. Leah and I had just come back from raiding the snack counter when a mother and father walked up the aisle toting their two kids, one of whom was about Ava’s age, and the other just older. Both younger than five, for sure.
I’m generally a live-and-let-live kinda guy. My dad took me to see The Jerk when I was far too young to have gone by myself. And I’d be lying if I said that film didn’t change the way I look at the world when I left the theater (for the worse, as anyone who’s ever been subjected to my sense of humor will tell you). But holy moly, when I saw those two little kids coming up the aisle, I immediately thought, “no.” “Can’t be.” Does “Martin Scorcese” sound anything like “Walt Disney?” HelLO?! Mean Streets? Gangs of New York? Taxi Driver? Goodfellas? Raging Bull?! I mean, please!
To be (a little) fair, in a 12-theater cineplex, there was only a single PG-rated film, and its last showing was 4:45. Everything else was PG-13 and R. Not many good options.
But after the first time you see Jack Nicholson kill a man and his girlfriend by blowing their brains all over the Boston shore, wouldn’t you look at your wife (or husband?) and say, “Damn, baby, this ain’t no Lilo & Stitch.”
Leah was positively squirming in her seat to go back and say something to them, but I didn’t think it was our place; those parents are free to take their kids wherever they like. I just wonder what that kind of violence — big and loud and visceral on the widescreen like that — does to a child that age. I only hope I don’t have to find out firsthand someday.
PS — The movie is quite good. 🙂