Unfolding a Movie

While I wait for my work computer to boot up again after crashing on me, I thought I'd post about a movie John and I watched recently..."127 Hours."  The idea of someone being trapped in a chasm for 127 hours and amputating his own arm to get free was intriguing to me, simply because it was based on a true story.  I love movies that are based on true stories.  They are usually very inspiring - emphasis on usually.

"127 Hours" is rated R and for very good reason.  I didn't count the number of times the actor portraying the main character used the F word, but it was a good thing most of the movie didn't include any conversation because then I could turn the volume down as low as it could go without muting it.  I didn't have to worry then that my kids were trying to sleep in the room right above where our television sits in the living room.

There were also things he did while he was stuck that would fall under the area of TMI (too much information).  Do we really have to know that he almost peed his pants?  Do we really have to know that he "relieved himself," while he was by himself (if you catch my drift)?

How about when he cut his arm off?  Did we need to see him ripping out his nerves?  I don't usually have a problem with blood.  I even thought about going to med school while I was in college.  I've seen animal guts in my grandfather's garage, as he was a taxidermist, but why does it make for good TV to have so much blood and swearing?

Right before watching "127 Hours," we sat through "Secretariat" with the kids.  There wasn't one single swear word that I can recall.  There was no indecent exposure of one person in the movie.  Nobody was cutting anything off in this movie either.  It also was based on a true story.  This movie was so incredibly inspiring I almost cried at the end.  It was inspiring to watch the story unfold of this woman who believed so much that she could turn around her father's horse farm that she didn't let the negative attitudes or the practical solutions deter her from a seemingly impossible outcome, and she did it all with dignity and class.  Maybe she did swear in real life, but it wouldn't have made the movie better if they had shown that.  Maybe there were some inappropriate relationships or things done that happened with other people involved, but it wouldn't have made the movie better to tell us that.  What is this Hollywood philosophy that says people will only really enjoy a movie if it has swearing and s_ _ and gore in it?  I can tell you that it doesn't make me enjoy a movie more.  It detracts from the impact the movie might otherwise have had.