• Does It Matter Which Movies I See?
    Awake!—1990 | July 22

    • There has also been a marked increase in sexually explicit films. And according to one university professor, “the biggest consumers of sexually explicit videos in Canada are young people between 12 and 17 and it may be warping their attitudes about sexual behavior.”

      The movie industry does not seem to be too concerned, however. Variety magazine reports that films featuring graphic violence and sex are on the increase, while wholesome, family films are hardly being made at all. Is it possible, then, that viewing unsavory films might affect you negatively?

      The Assault on Your Eyes and Ears

      Movies amount to a powerful assault on the senses. Jesus said that “the lamp of the body is the eye.” (Matthew 6:22) And what you see can have a profound effect upon you. As one encyclopedia put it, “the mind follows the eyes.” Normally, your mind controls what your eyes choose to focus on and see. But when you focus on the larger-than-life images that move across the big screen, you can virtually surrender your mind to the will of the moviemaker. Some become so engrossed in a film that they may need a firm nudge in the side to break the spell cast by a movie.

      “The hearing ear” also strongly influences your thoughts and deeds. (Proverbs 20:12) The mesmerizing visual images and spoken words are reinforced by music that can stir the emotions, generating fear, excitement, anger, passion. As a result, films can convey such a sense of realism that some viewers have difficulty separating the real from the make-believe.

  • Does It Matter Which Movies I See?
    Awake!—1990 | July 22

    • And what of your Christian morals? Could exposure to graphic sex and nudity push into the back of your mind the wrongness and sad consequences of premarital sex? Could it erode your ‘hatred of what is bad’?​—Psalm 97:10.

      Writer Jane Burgess-Kohn tells of the experience of a girl named Jeanie. After “watching a very sexy movie” with her date, Jeanie admitted to becoming “turned on” to the point of engaging in heavy petting. However, she was not able to stop there. “I’m sorry to say,” confessed Jeanie, “that night I was easy to persuade to have sexual intercourse. I still don’t know what happened that I lost all sense of reason. I didn’t even particularly like the guy!”

      Unquestionably, then, movies have the power to influence your heart, your thoughts, and your behavior. Should you not therefore be selective about what you watch? A future article will discuss this.

      [Footnotes]

      a In the United States, no one under 17 is supposed to be admitted (unless accompanied by a parent or a guardian) to any film rated R, or restricted, by the Motion Picture Association of America. Such films generally contain graphic violence, foul language, or graphic sex and nudity. All too often, though, the restrictions are not enforced, and youths are allowed admittance.

  • Does It Matter Which Movies I See?
    Awake!—1990 | July 22

    • Young People Ask . . .

      Does It Matter Which Movies I See?

      ‘MOVIES don’t really influence me,’ claims one teenager named Karen, ‘because I go to movies to get shocked and scared, just to be entertained.’ Many youths make a similar claim of being immune to the influence of films. Young Georgia, however, disagrees. Having seen a number of R-rated movies, she says: “You never forget those scenes . . . The more you think about them, the more you find yourself wanting to do what you’ve seen.”a