Warning: Faith-Based Movie Given R- Rating. Hide Your Children!
For all of you out there that are just now getting over the “shock and awe” and pornographic display by Miley Cyrus on the Video Music Awards, I have something else to warn you about. (Oh, actually you never were warned about Cyrus’ performance were you?)
There’s a new movie coming to town. Well, it probably won’t come to your town because it is a low- budget film, but if it does- watch out! The movie called “My Son” is about a story of a couple who loses custody of their child and ultimately get into a life or death situation in order to get him back. Sounds interesting enough, right? Here’s the kicker. It was filmed by Retta Baptist Church in Burleson, Texas and it has a faith-based message. (Gasp!)
The Motion Picture Association of America has given the movie an R-rating. There is no cursing, nudity or sex scenes but somehow MPAA felt compelled to warn viewers of the graphic nature of this movie due to “some violence and drug use”. (Cue the long list of PG-13 movies who also have “some violence and drug use” and nudity, cursing, sexual content…)
The producers do not feel that the movie warrants this R-rating and feel they are being targeted for the faith message that the movie entails. The director, Jarod O’Flaherty, commented on Fox News, “I don’t know that they set out to do something bad towards our little movie. I think it’s more of a reflection of how Hollywood views Jesus in general… I mean the evidence speaks for itself.” (What evidence? Oh, you mean the lack of anything with Godly value and substance that rarely comes out of Hollywood anymore.)
So what’s the big deal with an R-rating? The small budget film is counting on churches and pastors to advertise their film. An R-rating will make it problematic for promotion among church-goers. (You know how prudish those religious folks can be.)
Do we have here another case of religious speech being threatened or at least jeopardized? The name Jesus and God is offensive, especially to Christians, when used as a curse word. Most big budget Hollywood movies use God’s name in vain on a regular basis. (Hmmm, My Son does not.)
Is this much to do about nothing? I guess we will just have to watch the movie for ourselves and find out. Perhaps writing this will pass the word around and this low-budget movie will not have to depend on church advertising. Then we can judge for ourselves whether or not our kids should be shielded from the potential dangers of a little movie with a faith message. After all, we don’t want to expose our kids to movies about how we can find faith in God in real life circumstances. Now would we? (That was a little sarcasm for the faith crowd. Can I get an Amen?)
Movie Trailer:
