Movie Reviews and My Thoughts On Them

I was reading the movie review of "North Country" at Focus On The Family's movie review site for teens. Normally I just read the reviews and move on. This time something struck me about what the reviewer said. As it happens when something strikes me, I let my opinions be known. So I sent off an email to the editors of the magazine. Here's what I wrote:

I have been reading your online movie reviews for many years now because they serve as a valuable guide to the *content* of the movies I am potentially interested in seeing. This is one aspect of your reviews that I value highly. This morning I was reading the review of North Country when I was struck by something. In the closing paragraph, Tom Neven summarizes about the movie with this: "My only wish is that she could have found a way to convince us that life is precious and that respect is essential without simultaneously forcing us to witness such graphic scenes of rape, assault, obscene abuse and grotesque harassment."

This is the first time that I have had the thought of actually questioning the motive, and targeted audience for your reviews. Sin is rampant in this world, and injustice is to be found at every corner. How can a movie that is dealing with the basic corrupt nature of the human heart deal with its matter without showing the reality of how things are? I mean, most Christians don't need to see a movie like North Country to realize that left to themselves, humans are capable of indescribable acts of cruelty, evil and so on. But when a director is confronting head-on the base nature of humans, how can he or she forcible demonstrate the falsity of "people are basically good at heart" philosophy by downplaying the very real issues of 'rape, assault, obscene abuse and grotesque harassment' that happen in our everyday life. It's like saying that Schindlers List would have been a great movie but for all those Jews that got murdered.

I recognize that Plugged In is a service aimed towards teens. And thus, your reviews are targeted towards that audience (and for their parents). But there are several important philosophical issues that arise here. The most fundamental one is whether anyone should be watching a movie like North Country with the content that it has? Can adults watch this movie (and should they be watching such material)? If so, then is this a movie that older teens can watch? These questions are important because in my view, a movie like North Country cannot serve to faithfully convey its message without "forcing" the viewer to confront the issues. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that this movie is the best thing since the Ten Commandments. I'm merely pointing out the inherent flaw in your reviewer's summary. Either no one should be watching this movie because of its content, or if they watch it, they should be ready to witness some very graphic material. Subjective summaries regarding directorial decisions should probably be avoided in reviews.