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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR2010.010  (2009), PG-13 [Hard R-13*] (1hr 39min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1200 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database • Production (US): New Line Cinema, Nick Wechsler Productions, Plan B Entertainment • Distribution (US): New Line Home Entertainment • Director(s): Robert Schwentke • Producer(s): Richard Brener, Dede Gardner, Justis Greene, Brad Pitt, Nick Wechsler, Michele Weiss • Screenlay by: Bruce Joel Rubin • Novel by: Audrey Niffenegger • Cinematography/Camera: Florian Ballhaus • Music: Mychael Danna • Film Editing: Thom Noble • Casting: Deborah Aquila, Robin D. Cook, Jennifer L. Smith, Mary Tricia Wood • Production Design: Jon Hutman • Art Direction: Peter Grundy • Viewed on New Line Home Entertainment DVD  The Time Traveler's Wife is hailed by Shelli Sonstein of Clear Channel as "The most romantic movie since Notebook, at least the DVD cover says so. "Most romantic movie?" That claim must be evidence of how Hollywood has convinced the world that romance must equal sex. "The most romantic movie" seems to have again fooled the public that "romance" must somehow include immoral sexual behaviors. Indeed Hollywood seems to have the world convinced that love is sex and sex is love when that could not be farther from the truth. In spite of the MPAA's implicit approval of this movie for 13 year old children, I hope you will look deeply into the findings about it we reveal herein with an open mind. Love is not sex. And sex is not love. Sex is a tool of love, a servant of love, not the master of love. Love can be quite enduring and richly gratifying without sex at all. As God admonishes us, we must be masters of our drives not slaves to them. [Col. 3:5, Eph. 5:3 - 5] God has warned us about premarital sex in so many ways that to try to share even most of them herein would make this report much too long. So, let me summarize his word about premarital sex: any sexual contact (including visual), conduct or activity outside a monogamous heterosexual marriage is sinful. Sex is a beautiful adjunct(a) and even a welcome duty of marriage but nothing more. Marriage is a whole lot more than just sex. Granted, Henry (Eric Bana) and Clare (Rachel McAdams) eventually got married but Bana and McAdams did not. Even if Bana and McAdams were married does not excuse the display of marital sexual relations for 200,000,000 viewers. (a) adjunct |'adj ng kt| - a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part [Dictionary Version 1.0.2]. Now don't shoot the messenger. I did not write the Rules, folks. He who spent three days in Hell so you and I would not have to spend one moment there did. From 6 years old Henry DeTamble (Alex Ferris at 6 then Eric Bana) was plagued with a "condition" that sent him to parts ... and times ... unknown. At 6 years old Henry witnessed the Christmas time death of his mother, Annette (Michelle Nolden) in a motor vehicle collision on icy Chicago highways. But just before the collision Henry's mother watched Henry fade out of existence. Henry reappeared in his home - nude - as his parents were reading a story to him. In one of the scenes of the young boy nude the camera dipped low enough to remove any doubt, just short of the gender-specific parts. Then, in another instant, Henry was back at the collision site but outside the car on the highway - nude. Then an adult Henry appeared to the 6 year old Henry to let him know that things would be all right: that he had just time traveled as the adult Henry did to get to the young Henry. Next the adult Henry appears - nude - in the library where he works and where he had conveniently stashed come clothes. Henry appears next in a diner and pours some libation into his coffee as a device to introduce his trouble with alcohol. The timeline moves to spring as Henry partakes in an early morning jog along the Chicago waterfront before he reports to work at the library as the Special Collections Librarian. People muddle about their business in the library as a device to introduce adult Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams) and to make it convenient for Clare to meet Henry whom she claims to have known for years. Clare invites Henry to dinner so she can explain why she knows him -- a dinner she claims the pair have been planning for a long time. Henry reluctantly agrees to have dinner with Clare though he has no idea who she is. Clare tells Henry to meet her at the Beau Thai (pronounced "bow tie") restaurant. Clare relates that the Beau Thai is Henry's favorite which he admits but does not understand how she knows it is. This is another example of many plot devices the filmmakers use in an attempt to weave the plot and subplot parts into an understandable story fabric. This cinematic fabric may escape the viewer if s/he does not pay close attention to each of the strategically placed tiny devices used. Another device is Clare displaying a giddy school girl chirping as she anticipates the dinner with the one she claims to know who has no idea whom she is. The "school girl" face Clare wears at the moment will make more sense as you wade through the thespian eddies and currents of the story. Hint: Clare met Henry when she as 6 years old. As Henry applies deodorant at his residence, ostensibly in preparation for the dinner with Clare, he evaporates to some dark and rainy street of Chicago where he breaks into a store and steals clothes to hide his nudity. The police arrest Henry and place him in the back of the squad car ... but just for a few moments. Soon he is gone and just the clothes he stole remain in the squad car. At the Beau Thai, Clare begins her explanation of how she has been in love with Henry all her life and ... This is confusing. So is the movie. I won't offer you any more about the story since 1) it is rather complex and intricate and to try to present it summarily would be fruitless and 2) for me it is disconnect at so many levels. So many story holes remain unfilled. One such hole is the children of Henry and Clare. Clare had a number of miscarriages, ostensibly because the offspring inherit the condition of the father: that they died due to time traveling, disappearing from the womb (that is an unusual and macabre device of the story I have never seen in any of the more than 1200 previous films we have analyzed). Then one of the children, Alba (Tatum McCann at 4 and 5 years old, Hailey McCann at 9 and 10), makes it to life outside the womb but nothing is offered about how she makes it to ten years old with her condition inherited from her father, Henry. That is all I will attempt to present about the plots and story. I have already spoiled more than I should. The rest of the story is for your discovery should you opt to watch the film after learning of its content. Let me get into that for which most of our visitors come -- the parental advisory content. While the following individual investigation area discussions, provided for those who don't like lists, expose some of the content, the listings in the Findings/Scoring section provide itemized accountings of the content. Wanton Violence/Crime (W)- 49 out of 100 All investigation areas except Murder/Suicide (M) found content to be R-equivalent (54 and below out of 100). With an area score of 49 the violence/crime content fell squarely in the upper part of the range of scores earned by R-rated movies (54 amd below out of 100) in the comparative baseline database, making the film's violence/crime content equivalent to a "hardcore" R. If the graphic motor vehicle collision and inherent death (and a repeat flashback of it), the police rough handling of Henry, a number of breaking and enterings with subsequent thefts and the somewhat graphic gunfire injury of Henry plus a fight, the violence/crime content would have been equivalent to the typical violence/crime content of G-rated films. Violence and likewise criminal behaviors onscreen are "catching." God said that long before the American Medical Association and three other professional health agencies jointly published that such content in and as entertainment indeed emboldens the viewer, especially the young, to become more aggressive, uncaring and fearful. If you want to know more about this, visit our Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children Congressional Public Health Summit page. What does God say about such influence? Since you've asked I'll tell you. :-) In Proverb 16:29 God warns us that the violent lead others down a path that is not good. First Corinthians 15:33 warns that such communication as is imparted by viewing the behaviors of the violent and criminal corrupts wholesome behavioral choices, just like the AMA and the other three agencies. Do tell! Well, God said it first. Indeed, if you look deep enough you'll find that most of the high-sounding emotional and behavioral "discoveries" made by scientists and researchers are rephrased, repackaged repeats of what God has already told us. Please do not try to fall back on the "The movie ain't real. It's all fantasy" excuse. A bad influence does not have to be real to influence badly. Impudence/Hate (I) - 12 out of 100 Sixteen times someone mutters some form of profanity. That behavior, too, is (as are all behaviors) "catching." It, too, emboldens the viewer, again especially the young, to use profanity. First Corinthians 15:33 just about covers the influence of all poor behavioral choices since all behavior is "communication" to the observer, but I'll add Col. 3:8 to 1 Cor. 15:33. And I'll add Eph. 4:29 to 1 Cor. 15:33. And Eph. 5:4. And 2 Tim. 2:16. And ... I could keep adding verse after verse by which God admonishes us to use clean and wholesome communication/speech and to avoid all profanity, but I won't. There are a number of other findings revealed by this investigation area, findings such as lies, cavalier presentation of behavior that would fall into "stranger danger", a father's emotional abuse of his adult son and cheating for gain, [Hab. 2:9] but please look to the listing in the Findings/Scoring section to be aware of them all. Sexual Immorality (S) - Zero out of 100 About the nudity in this film. There is no visible exposure of gender-specific anatomy, male or female, but all other parts are fully exposed, male and female. It is abundantly obvious that characters are clearly nude, fully nude though the gender-specific parts are hidden or at least mostly hidden by convenience objects. Display of nudity, "nakedness" in the Bible, is an undesirable behavior in God's Eyes. Let me share with you that whether you or I believe the Word in the Bible is immaterial to its Truth. What God says in the Bible is the Truth whether you or I believe it or not. His Word does not depend on our belief in it for it to be True. Whether we like it or not. Whether we care or not. God speaks darkly of the display of nakedness 47 times from Genesis to Revelation. [**] And it would be vain to try to argue which of the body parts are "unpresentable" and which are not. [1 Cor. 12:23] Unfortunately, nudity is not the only sexual content to this film. There is intercourse, making out, inappropriate touch, cohabitation, a homosexuality insult, several instances of a man and a woman in bed together and more. Again, please look to the listing in the Findings/Scoring section for a full accounting of the sexually immoral content of this film. Drugs/Alcohol (D) - Zero out of 100 A number of times either booze and/or drinking were presented. Drunkenness was presented in one scene of Bette Davis from an old film on a background TV. While simple drinking is not a sin, it is a sin to get drunk [Eph. 5:18] as is influencing others to do so. The American College of Physicians (ACP) prepared a report on a study they conducted of 4454 middle school students from grades 5 through 8 of fifteen Vermont and New Hampshire middle schools (90% were under fourteen years old -- the perfect PG-13 population). The study revealed that adolescent exposure to drinking in and as entertainment undeniably leads to abuse of alcohol among underage viewers. The ACP found that of the 4454 students only 16% had complete viewing restrictions, but of the population that had no viewing restrictions 46% had tried alcohol without parental knowledge. Only four percent of the population with complete viewing restrictions had tried alcohol without parental knowledge. What that says about the influence of booze and drinking in and as entertainment is ... er ... obvious. And the influence of the filmmakers on adolescents screams of violating Luke 17:2. Offense to God (O) - Zero out of 100 The three-syllable sentence with His name trailing it was amply provided in this film. In addition, His name with the four letter expletive was heard twice. God is not slack about abuse of His name. [Deut. 5:11] He warns that they who use His name in vain will be held guilty. Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 There were no murders or suicides noted. This area of the film is truly G-equivalent. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - 49 out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - 12 out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - Zero out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - Zero out of 100 Offense to God (O) - Zero out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 |
| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
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