`````On my days off, I decided to watch a couple of movies on Youtube. One of them was a French feature called "Les Amants du Flore." I had watched it previously, but I thought that my French, always dismal, could use some improving. The movie is based on the relationship of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre, although the names of some of the other parties had been changed. Much to my amazement, somebody had decided to flag one of the segments. If anybody is unfamiliar with Youtube, it has a policy of not allowing nudity in the first place, but people may "flag" items which they find troublesome.
`````This feature had been shown years ago on mainstream French television without a problem during prime viewing hours. There had not been all that many viewers of the movie since it had been posted, and it could probably be considered a "high brow" taste. My guess would be that it was flagged by somebody in North America. I suspect it was probably an individual assigned a term paper on either Ms. de Beauvoir or Sartre who was too lazy to do the research. Quite frankly, it's no wonder that the Europeans laugh at us. There was nothing in this movie that could offend anybody; especially in how it had already been cut to fit the viewing regulations of Youtube.
`````On another night I opted to watch "The Devil's Arithmetic" and was astounded and shocked to find that some deluded individual had actually flagged that film as well. This is a movie based on a book about the Holocaust. It is written in such a way that it is enjoyed and understood by kids. It has been incorporated into many a reading program, along with "The Diary of Anne Frank." The fact that it gets children talking about such a significant event is admirable.
`````I cannot say that the movie was all that good, but it was okay, and there were touching scenes in it. One could tell that it did not have a huge budget. However, the point that I want to make is that somebody took offence with the scene involving the gas chamber. It did not involve any nudity, bad language, drugs, etc. Yet, because the actions of some idiot, nobody can watch this entire segment unless they are over the age of eighteen. How idiotic.
`````How can these morons manage to deal with life? What do they do when bad things happen? How can they watch the news or documentaries? Don't they know that this really and truly happened? It's no wonder that we have to have grief counsellors for every insignificant event now. I certainly hope that these sorts of people never leave the house, and that if they do, they choose their occupations very carefully. Please stay clear of anything where their interference will only do more harm then good. I'd recommend watching Disney movies, but "Old Yeller" was pretty traumatic, as I recall. There could be some PTSD after viewing the end of the film.
`````I guess this is where the nanny state has led us. My father, as a boy, had a Jewish family staying with them until they found safe passage to Sweden. I have blogged about this. This was reality and it wasn't a movie that somebody could "flag" because they didn't like the scary bits. In the scope of things, it didn't happen that long ago.
`````Why aren't these people complaining about the violent and ridiculous music videos that add nothing at all to our society? That's the real question that I want to ask. Or, if they don't like it, why don't they just turn it off? I suspect that some people actually feel so insignificant that they only garner any sense of importance when they hit that little button.
No comments:
Post a Comment