My contributions to the general conversation sometimes require explaining ... like last week at lunch when I ventured that I’d been watching a wonderful movie,
“Forever Amber”. Dead silence. “What?” Well, of course, no one knows much about the movie, made in about 1940, I’d guess. It is a great movie about a wretched-but-beautiful abandoned orphan who, through a series of fortunate relationship with well-to-do men, achieves status and success in long ago England. I was struck by what was missing from the film and consequently how pleasant the movie was to watch.
There were no four-letter words and no cursing. Not because those words were unknown during that period but because other words to express anger, rage, surprise and disappointment were used. The characters thus seemed more realistic, more like actors than just “grown-larger” children-with-dirty-mouths we so often see in films now. Also missing was the display of the sexual activities that are a part of any relationship such as Amber entered. I mean, obviously the girl got on in the world somehow, but the movie assumes intelligent viewer will understand just what that means and we don’t have to see it to believe it! Movie makers assumed not only our intelligence (we do know about the birds and the bees) but also our ability to use imagination, to apply our own understanding at an individual level. “Forever Amber” wasn’t rated, either. In the forties and fifties, most movies could be watched by a variety of ages and hardly needed ratings ... their purpose was to entertain not to titillate. Multi-age family groups could attend the same movie with each taking from the movie information related to their experience and background. Young adults watching “Forever Amber” could learn history, some folks might have liked the adventure, sword fights, etc., while others may have watched for the course of true love to prevail. No one population had to be screened out because of unsuitable viewing materials or language. Also missing and not missed was all the blood, guts and gore that seem requisite to movies recently made. Although duels, wounds, gun shots, fights, wrecked carriages plus fires were part of the movie, viewers were not splattered with gore and sickened with fountains of blood or by dismembered boy parts. Realism just needs to go so far ... and in current movies it has gone too far,
I think.
Adventure, romance, comedy, suspense and thrillers have always been with us ... written, acted, dramatized, filmed and televised. The very best of these utilize our imaginations, making us partners in the drama. That’s entertainment! The worst are mere “how-to-manuals” for sadism, porno, terror, sick jokes and pointless violence. That’s madness! Not only for our kids but also for the sake of our society, we need to learn the difference between entertainment and madness.
