It is very hard to measure the moral health of a society. All the key indicators are based on values that change with time. What was sinful years ago, today, is seen as perfectly acceptable behavior. Because the movie industry is well documented, it’s probably the best way observe moral decay.
Any refresher pointing out the decline in the moral code of movies will mention Clark Gable’s famous closing remark in the movie, Gone with the Wind. What is lost to us are objections that don’t even register today. When the film Casablanca came out many people refused to see it because it was set in a bar.
The original 1932 movie, Scarface was considered wildly inappropriate in its day. Movie goers from that era would have fainted at Brian De Palma’s 1983 coke-laced remake. Lowell Sherman’s, She Done Him Wrong, also didn’t sit well with conservative audiences of the early silver screen—with the bawdy Mae West saying, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” (Today that kind of line is only the invitation to what usually follows.)
In recent years, the level of debauchery in films has been on an exponential climb. According to Box Offices Mojo’s ranking of the top money making movies, 2013 only had one movie with a G-rating. For 2006, eight G-rated movies made the list. In the category of R-rated movies, last year had 12 movies making the ranking. In 2006, only four R-rated movies made the list.
The increased use of profanity in movies has been one of the most persistent trends. According to a Wikipedia list of the usage of the f-word in films, 94 percent of the movies ranked as most profane were produced since 2000. In 2013, Martin Scorsese’s, The Wolf of Wall Street set a record for the number of times the f-word was used in a movie. The word was used 506 times over the films 180-minute running time. The Oscar-winning director likes to use profanity in his movies. Two of his other projects are in the f-word top 20, including Casino (422) and Goodfellas (300).
Some of the movies made today are so filthy they even shock their own makers. Seth Rogen has produced a series of R-rated movies. A couple of months ago he was doing a radio interview, and he talked about a project set to be released in 2015 that will break all the rules for animation. The movie called Sausage Party will have sex, violence, blasphemy, and tons of profanity. This is how Rogen describes it:
“We thought it would be funny to do an R-rated Pixar-style movie,” said Rogen. “It’s really really really dirty, but it looks like a Pixar movie. There’s violence, it gets very sexual… there is a food orgy in the movie—one of the most filthy things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Rogen screened the rough-draft version of the film to his friend Sacha Baron Cohen, who himself is a coinsure of profane movie making. Rogen related how Cohen had the same reaction as he:
“Sausage Party appalled him. We brought him to a screening where we watched the hand drawn version of the movie and he could not believe it — ‘that is the single craziest **** thing I’ve seen in my whole life.’ He said, ‘Just know you’ve gotten successful enough to make the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’”
The studios are not being pressured by the market to make raunchy movies. The films with the highest box offices have long been in the family-friendly classification. Amazingly, not a single NC-17 movie has ever been a major money-making success. On the opposite end of the scale, a movie targeted to Christian audiences is guaranteed to earn a profit. Hollywood producers keep churning out filth because they want to create films that reflect their wicked nature.
The leadership of the church is doing almost nothing to counteract the moral decay of movies. The preachers of today have adopted a practice of shying away from condemning sin in all, but the most general terms. Because there is no real moral watchdogs to protect the flock, when it comes to movies, each Christian needs to be his own guardian.
It is ironic that a major movie about Noah was recently produced. We are living in the days of Noah, where everyone does what’s right in their own eyes. The nearness of the Rapture comes down to the question of, “How much more wicked can Man get from here?” From what I see passing as entertainment today, the answer is, “Not much.”
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39).
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