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Parental discretion (or: When can a 10 year old watch Alien?)

Started by The Enigmatic Dr X, 17 November, 2015, 08:17:52 AM

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Mardroid

Quote from: Spaceghost on 17 November, 2015, 11:06:44 AM
Quote from: Tordelback on 17 November, 2015, 10:42:34 AM
Cheers, Pyroxian. But there's no chanceof my showing the lad American Werewolf - can't have a third generation of this family blighted by Agutter worship. Also, demon Nazis behind the curtain are a scare too far.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that bit. Perhaps I won't let my son watch it just yet after all...

That dream scene in the woods freaked me out too. Not the running naked, but the bit straight after when he opens his eyes, and there's that sound effect.

The werewolf stuff itself is fine. No problem. But that.... yikes...

I really like American Werewolf in London, yet I'm still reluctant to watch it because of that scene. I'm a big wuss i know. Yet I know it's mainly just the memory of being scared, blowing things out of proportion. If I watched it now I'd probably cope okay... yet I'm reluctant still...

Amusingly with the nazi scene those masks aren't particularly realistic, are they? Could be something you'd get from a costume shot... yet the way it's shot with that jump scare...

shaolin_monkey

I watched Alien when I was about 10.  I turned out fine. 

TordelBack


IndigoPrime

Quote from: M.I.K. on 17 November, 2015, 05:06:13 PMTake any group of mammals and you'll see them knocking the hell out of/pretending to slaughter each other from a very early age, (probably because the quicker they learn to defend themselves in the wild, the better), but they don't need to know how to reproduce until they're old enough.
For me, it depends on how I parse that sentence... If you meant "old enough to want to know", I might agree, but if you meant "old enough to actually reproduce", I'd argue otherwise. We as a modern society would do far better at being upfront about reproduction and sex with kids at a younger age, rather than them blundering into it. (It's interesting that the more prudish societies in this regard have the highest instances of underage pregnancies.) And that for me extends to media.

Mind you, I recall asking my mother when I was about five what "gay" meant. I've no idea where I'd heard the term. She rather frankly told me it was when two men or women love each other like mummy and daddy do. I told my friends, and other parents were horrified, and practically ostracised my mum. I then had to endure bullying as other parents tried to suck the information out of their children's heads and inject that gay meant "colourful and bright". I'm not sure how that benefitted anyone. (Teachers didn't help. They were just as furious.)

Not that the same frankness needs to be the case when it comes to media. I'm certainly not suggesting every ten-year-old sit down and watch something stuffed with sex scenes and the like. But, as I said earlier, I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable with the unthinking nature of death and body counts on show in cinema and telly, because that's somehow normal, and yet intimate contact is to be hidden away with a cough and a harrumph. (On a similar line of thinking, it's strange to think how many people criticised Dredd as being gory and horrible and disgusting, when it was, broadly speaking, merely realistic. It showed what happened when people get shot, rather than people just falling over. Again, I'm not suggesting that all shows should be like this, but it showcases and interesting disconnect regarding death and empathy. Shooting someone's OK, but not if you see the gore. I'm sure vegetarians and vegans might have some interesting comparisons to make about the food industry there, too!)

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 17 November, 2015, 11:59:53 PMOn balance, we've decided to let small boys be small boys and not push this on him. When he asks, he's ready for it. It's selfish of me to want to watch Alien with him.
It'll be interesting to see what mini-Prime wants to watch and read when she's older. Her parents are both geeks, so, presumably, she'll be resolutely into non-fiction and want to only watch documentaries about farming or something. (Currently, she's not really into the telly at all. Vague interest in Finding Nemo, but that's about it. But stick a tablet in front of her...)

auxlen

Alien was on the TV first when i was 12 and i wasn't allowed to watch it. i blagged my way in school the next day by having read the Alan dean foster novel (in secret)...but the film did scare me significantly at 14, more so than the novel.


IMHO it was because of the natural performances of the actors..the banter at the meal scene made the events so much realistic than some crazy overacting or horror intent.

Spikes

Quote from: auxlen on 18 November, 2015, 07:04:29 PM
Alien was on the TV first when i was 12 and i wasn't allowed to watch it.

Oh, that premiere has stuck in my mind. All the way back to 1982

I was 13, or 14 then, so was 'old' enough to be allowed to watch Alien. With my sister, on a little black and white portable

Back in '79, I was desperate to see Alien, and thanks to the wealth of lavishly illustrated tie-in books, I pretty much did.

auxlen

Black and white portable...such love turning the big knob to get a clean signal. awesome!!!!

TordelBack

Yes indeed!  My first viewing of Logan's Run (and the divine Jenny in adult form), emerging from the snow as I sat in the kitchen twiddling the giant dial on the tiny red portable. Some years later I would be allowed to take it up to my room, and as a consequence became addicted to Hill Street Blues.

Spikes

IIRC, I was forever 'adjusting' the aerial on our first (second hand) portable telly in a futile attempt to get a decent picture.
Much like how Radio Luxemburg was forever fading in, and out.

Kids nowadays.... etc....etc...

HdE

This thread makes for really fascinating reading!

Alien ranks as one of my most favourite things ever. But I dont think I saw it until I was 18. By that point some of its visual effects were starting to look a little bit wobbly (like the flat bottoms of the creature's feet when you see them.) But it still properly terrifies me. Even now.

To be honest, I'm really glad I never saw it at an earlier age, like some of my old school pals did. Some of the ideas in the movie are keep-you-awake-at-night scary. 
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Jim_Campbell

Quote from: HdE on 19 November, 2015, 10:47:08 AM
But it still properly terrifies me. Even now.

There's something fundamentally, primally scary in Giger's design. I was at the Bristol con a few years ago, and there was a guy in a really good Alien costume* — the first time I saw it was in my peripheral vision, coming up a corridor from behind me. All the hairs on my neck stood up and I felt a clench in my stomach before I even properly registered what the costume was.

Cheers

Jim

*Clever design. I'm pretty sure he** was wearing its head like a hat, and the tail was articulated and (I think) the tip was attached to the shoulder 'fins' with fishing line, so that it snaked out horizontally behind him.

**Or she, now that I think about it.
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Hawkmumbler

Not an awful lot I can add other than, despite what the BBFC tell you, it is not against the law to allow people under the age of what ever to view certain films, only for retailers to sell them to people under what ever age.

From personal experience, me and dad decided to let the siblings (10 and 8) watch the Mad Max movies. And you know what? How Mad Max and The Road Warrior still retain their 18 ratings I do not know, as they're positively innocent compared to some more commercially viable titles given 12A's right now (Spectre was particularly unpleasant). Thunderdome could get a PG, I bet! Even Fury Road is fairly tame.

shaolin_monkey

Quote from: Spikes on 18 November, 2015, 07:34:43 PM
Quote from: auxlen on 18 November, 2015, 07:04:29 PM
Alien was on the TV first when i was 12 and i wasn't allowed to watch it.

Oh, that premiere has stuck in my mind. All the way back to 1982

I was 13, or 14 then, so was 'old' enough to be allowed to watch Alien. With my sister, on a little black and white portable

That's exactly when I saw it, as a 10 yr old, also on a b&w portable! 

My mum let me stay up to watch it with her as a special treat.  It didn't scare me in the slightest, but I loved the film from that moment onwards!

Pyroxian

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 19 November, 2015, 11:35:36 AM
And you know what? How Mad Max and The Road Warrior still retain their 18 ratings I do not know, as they're positively innocent compared to some more commercially viable titles given 12A's right now (Spectre was particularly unpleasant). Thunderdome could get a PG, I bet! Even Fury Road is fairly tame.

MM 1, 2 & FR do have sexual violence in them, which tends to attract the higher ratings.

Thunderdome I have no idea - I thought it was a 15 at the time it was released and was surprised to find it was an 18... It's crap after the first half-hour though :(

Hawkmumbler

The sexual violance is mearly implied (albeit somewhat heavy handidly) in MM, and the same act is pretty obscured in TRW. I'd say we've seen worse in 12A's from the last several years.