Anyway, after that movie had ended (Princess Diaries) they didn't seem to want to leave. So I took the daughter aside and asked if they would want to watch Shrek which was PG. She said, "It depends on what makes it PG!" Well, I told her if she had to ask that, then I wouldn't play it.
The rating system in this country is moronic and has changed significantly over the decades. There used to be reasons a movie was rated PG (or whatever) but now it seems PG is the default rating they start at, totally skipping over G. A movie can be rated PG for 'thematic elements' (wow, thats specific) or simply at request of the studio. In most cases, todays PG is less offensive than the Gs of yesteryear.
One sister openly asked a room of us whether she should see "Lord of the Rings", and she appreciated my advice that the small amount of magic in the movie would not bother her, although the level of violence would (I seriously have no idea how all 3 films slipped by with a PG-13). Another sister was fond of pointing out that the R rating could be undeserved at times and therefore not an obstacle to seeing a movie.
The color of the blood seen on screen is often a deciding factor in whether a film gets an R. Also, if most of the violence/deaths are of non-human creatures. Star Trek VI avoided an R by changing the color of Klingon blood (according to producers.) Lord of the Rings films are a prime example of this.
Then we had a CO come through who informed us that having a strong conscience did not mean that you automatically could watch more objectionable material, and that "weak ones" were not the Witnesses who insisted on G/PG only. He then brought out "Titanic" as an example of a movie that had clearly unacceptable material. Well, let me tell you, our PO was not happy about this. I guess you could say he was POed. At a gathering later, he made a loud point of disagreeing with the recently-departed CO's opinion of the movie, saying it was really a conscience issue and we did not believe in a decreed "movie blacklist". He was open about having seen the movie himself.
This had to have been a standard CO talk (weak vs. strong conscience), as I remember it too, although it sounds like this CO went off script mentioning a specific movie. A PO with some thinking ability (and cajones to openly challenge the CO like that.)
I don't ever remember walking out of a movie theater. Parents were usually very selective on theater-going early on (although I am recalling a couple films that pushed it...a Pink Panther movie...that may have spurred the 'parents screen the film before allowing kids to see it' phase...then in the early 80s a number of films with F-bombs...although by the time you already heard it uttered, what's the point of walking out?)
