posted
I have been talking to some of my fellow mothers about Revenge of the Sith, and I feel like the odd one out. The consensus seems to be that the PG-13 rating should be taken as gospel because NO kid 13 or under should see it. Too dark, too violent, and any kid would have nightmares.
I took my 6 and 8 year old, and it didn't phase them. They liked it quite a bit. Not a single nightmare.
From the comments of others, I almost wonder if I should be disturbed that they weren't disturbed. But really, I think not. I wouldn't presume to tell a friend they should take their kids to see SW. And these friends have stopped short of specifically saying I have warped my kids.
Eh. Maybe I am.
(not even sure what my point in posting is, except that it's almost midnight)
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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It's not too dark or violent by any means. So Anakin turns on a saber in a room full of kids, so what? He gets his legs cut off and opts for extra crispy over original recipe, SO...WHAT?
I think it barily registers that PG-13 rating IMHO.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
One of my goals of parenting is to warp my children. Isn't that why I had to wait till I was older?
Posts: 494 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Now see, my more sensitive friends had touted the younglings scene as a prime reason not to take kids...and I had envisioned it as being much more graphic as it actually was.
I think it's a GOOD for kids to have a concept of evil in the universe, and how people can get drawn into it. We actually had some interesting discussions about that. (With the 8 year old at least, the six year old was twirling around in her red and black dress, clutching her Darth Maul action figure, singing her "Happy Sith Song")
Oh wait, maybe I should worry about that....
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by romanylass: the six year old was twirling around in her red and black dress, clutching her Darth Maul action figure, singing her "Happy Sith Song"
My oldest is only 2 and a half... it'll be a while before I see her really grasp at the budding fruits of insanity.
Posts: 494 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
She is truly Darth Maul obsessed. She has several action figures, and she carries them around in a doll sling,(the 12 inch figure works well for this) and she makes them little blankets. She is asking for a Darth Maul leotard. I have a friend who does embroidery, who is going to make her one.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Sweet. So far, my daughter's favorite movie character is Bob. That would be Mr. Incredible. Why Bob, you ask? No clue. The Wizard of Oz is her 2nd choice.
Posts: 494 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by romanylass: The consensus seems to be that the PG-13 rating should be taken as gospel because NO kid 13 or under should see it. Too dark, too violent, and any kid would have nightmares.
PG-13 = Some Material MAY BE Inappropriate For Children Under 13 [emphasis added]
The rating does not say that a PG-13 movie is inappropriate, just that it may be. The rating was never intended to state as gospel that "NO kid 13 or under should see it." That is something to be left to the individual judgment of parents.
[edit: changed "unsuitable" to "inappropriate" to match MPAA wording]
posted
I was discussing this with my husband after we saw it. Our kids are 12, 10 and 3. We are not going to let the 3 yo see it just yet. He watches enough movies that I think are too violent and we do see a correlation between what he is watching and how he is acting. But with our 12 and 10 we think it maybe too much on a large screen but on a smaller screen at home it would be fine. It is a great movie to open the discussion on how people make choices and what those consequences are. The movie shows how easy it is to loose sight of the truth as we make small decisions that only partly lead to the "dark side" but those small decisions add up. Anyway, it really opens up a lot of discussion and we will let them see it when it comes out. But for our kids we know at least one of them is too sensitive to watch it in large screen with loud sound.....
Each parent has to determine what is best for their child. That is the point of the rating. To let a parent know that there may or may not be material that they should be aware of....
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
Well, I wouldn't be so quick to say that no one under 13 should see it, but I do think it deserves the PS-13 rating, and you should definitely make the decision based on how mature your own kids are. Anakin getting his flesh burned off is pretty gruesome, and the entire movie gets darker and darker, and in the end evil wins almost completely. If your kids can handle it then great, it will provide some great discussion material and I think it has the potential to be a great tool for teaching your kids something. But I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for thinking it is inappropriate for their kids. If my son were even old enough to consider letting him watch it (he's 8 months old, so it's not an issue) I'd think very hard about how he would take it, it certainly wouldn't be an automatic trip to the theatre like other Star Wars movies might be.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by romanylass: I took my 6 and 8 year old, and it didn't phase them. They liked it quite a bit. Not a single nightmare.
From the comments of others, I almost wonder if I should be disturbed that they weren't disturbed. But really, I think not. I wouldn't presume to tell a friend they should take their kids to see SW. And these friends have stopped short of specifically saying I have warped my kids.
Eh, that's nothing. I saw White Men Can't Jump when I was eight.
posted
I agree with Kamisaki and will add this. I talked about it with a few friends and they said that even at 23 the movie gave them nightmares. It all depends on the person (or their parents) and what they think they can handle.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
My three boys are 8yrs, 5yrs, and 3yrs. They did just fine at the movie but the 5 year old was sad that his hero Anakin was fighting with Obi-wan. My 3 year old fell asleep after five minutes. No nightmares. Of course I also let my kids play Halo and Halo 2. I'm proud to say that my 5 year old conquered Halo 2! Wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't be proud...
Posts: 29 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I have no clue about Halo. But my 8 year old loves Rome: Total War, which is a rated M game. I complained at first, but when it inspired him to read "The Gallic Wars" I had to stop complaining.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I was alittle worried about bringing my daughter (she's 11) but she's a Star Wars fan and really wanted to see it. I didn't think it was too bad, to be honest. Although the overall movie was more dark and serious than the others, it wasn't horrifically gruesome. My daughter didn't even flinch during the Anakin burning scene. But she has seen plenty of sci-fi type PG-13 movies so maybe she is used to it. If she were younger, or a more sensitive type, I probably would not have let her see it, or would have waited to rent it... the samll screen does lessen the impact sometimes.
I'm a big believer that parents know what their kids can handle.
Posts: 239 | Registered: May 2004
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quote: My daughter didn't even flinch during the Anakin burning scene.
I am not a parent yet, but this scene was hard for me to watch. Yeesh.
Coincidentally, romanylass, how does the Happy Sith Song go? Rob's sister's getting married and I think it should on the playlist.
Posts: 516 | Registered: Aug 2004
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My wife always says that the kids will end up in therapy for something, so we had just better go with our instinct!
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I took my 7-year-old to see it (not seeing it wasn't an option, he's obsessed) and he was fine. It led to some very good discussions, as others have mentioned.
I am sad, however, that he is now warped into believing that George Lucas is a decent scriptwriter. *le sigh* (I'm still mad at GL for his very very very bad dialogue writing)
I need to know the Happy Sith Song! It will crack Christopher UP!
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I wouldn't bring a child under 10 to see it myself, but I wasn't appalled to see children under 10 in the theater when I saw it (though I was a bit disturbed that their parents had pulled them out of school to see it). I agree that all children are different and that every parent should make the decision based on their knowledge of their children.
Andrew's cousin couldn't watch The Mummy when he was 11, but his 5-year-old sister watched RotK without a problem. My idiot uncle let me watch The Shining when I was 8 and I didn't sleep for months, but Freddy and Jason never really scared me.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
The Shining didn't bother me, but I had nightmares about 'Salem's Lot for years. For my kids, it's the original Time Machine , which we can't figure out.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
The movie RotS frankly pertubed me. Dialogue notwithstanding . . . I did NOT like the extra-crispy scene at all. (Although, I did laugh when a colleague's 13-year old daughter was reported telling her mom that Anakin was hot - I immediately had to say to her, "Tell your daughter he couldn't be anything else as he burnt to crisp." )
Nathan will get to see it when he is older on our 13-inch TV/VCR player, not in the theater. He would not do well with it -
But then, this is my child that cries with Heidi when she is crying for Grampa to save her as she is being carried away by the evil Frau. Of course, it didn't help that we watched Heidi the first time not six months after his favorite grampa died. (Wonder if he thinks of me as the evil Frau . . . ?)
Come to think of it, he may not get to watch RotS at all - he made me take back to the library the video of Steinbeck's "The Red Pony" (I think that was the name) because he was so upset by the scene where the vulture and the boy were fighting over who got the pony.
I love my sensitive boy. I do. He is going to wonderful works of healing in the world with his kindness and gentle strength.
Of course, I was appalled when he laughed at the cave troll flinging hobbits and dwarves off of him in FOTR. Which precipitated the conversation that violence is never funny - period. Except in Bugs Bunny cartoons, of course . . . Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Which precipitated the conversation that violence is never funny - period. Except in Bugs Bunny cartoons, of course . . . ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
