Sunday, August 12, 2007

In-Flight Movie

Anyone been flying with kids lately? We just flew with our three boys (6,3, and 2). It was challenging at times but the boys did really well. On our last flight (which was close to 4 hours), there was an in-flight movie. I was a bit shocked and surprised at the selection. The movie shown was "Fracture." It features Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Here's the summary from Netflix: "Anthony Hopkins stars in this legal thriller as Ted Crawford, a man who allegedly attempted to murder his wife and is now locked in a battle of wits with an assistant district attorney, Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling). The D.A.'s convinced Crawford has blood on his hands, but Crawford is freed on a technicality, sending Beachum on an obsessive mission to prove Crawford's guilt -- even if he has to bend the law to make his case."
The movie is rated R. Now, I am not for censorship. I understand the airline has a right to show what they want to show. I know that many parents let their kids watch movies that I wouldn't let mine watch. All that said, this was a terrible choice for an in-flight movie. I imagine 80 percent of the movie was uninteresting to kids. However, in one of the first scenes of the movie, the main character (Ted) shoots his wife at pretty close range in the back of the head. The next image is her laying on the floor with blood all around her head. This really bothered me. You don't have to have the airline supplied headphones to understand and process that image. I believe my kids were engrossed in their own activites. But, I was stunned. What a poor choice for a movie! I just cannot believe how insensitive it is to the fact that families are flying and not just adults.

4 comments:

Carmom said...

I have to agree. The most I think they should be allowed to do would be PG-13. Then at least it wouldn't be the graffic stuff that the kids see. In PG-13 for the most part it would be language.

Kimberly said...

That is awful! And I would agree that they should not be allowed to show anything rated over PG-13. My girls would not have been so easily distracted and I would have been dealing with screaming and crying in the middle of the night from their nightmares. So what airlines did you fly?

leigh ann said...

I was in Best Buy last year shopping with my kids. The movie they had playing on all the TVs in the back was Unfaithful, with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. There are VERY graphic sex scenes going on right there in living color and full volume. I was STUNNED. I still regret that I didn't ask to speak to the manager. That was completely cowardly of me. Mind-numbing disregard for anyone's values, but especially the eyes of children!

Jane Anne said...

We flew continental. I suppose it would be worth a complaint. I keep finding myself thinking with a big airline like that it wouldn't make a difference or would get reported to the right people to matter.