Irresponsible

I saw Watchmen this afternoon. I liked it more than I thought I would. I was dreading the 2 hour and 45 minutes length but felt it was a pop cultural thing that I just had to get under my belt. I went with a friend who knows the filmmakers and many on the crew because she went to school with them. She also happens to be a burn survivor. She was once burned over 25% of her body. Needless to say she is not fond of seeing people burn on screen. She was annoyed that none of her friends warned her that there were countless people on fire in the film.

But that fact only annoyed her. What outraged her, and me too for that matter, was the fact that some moron brought his son who could not have been over the age of four to see Watchmen! It was so disturbing to watch that movie, a hard R rated movie, knowing there was a very small child just a few rows in front of us.

When we walked into the theater I heard my friend say to somebody "You know this really might be a but much for him." I turned to see her talking to a girl around 13 years old about the 4 year old. The girl just shrugged as we took our seats. A few minutes later her youngish dad arrived and she hopped up to sit elsewhere with her friend.

Later my friend and I were talking about this disturbing occurrence. She wondered what would possess a father to bring such a young kid to that movie. I told her I knew exactly what it was. Divorced daddy wants to finally see his favorite graphic novel on the big screen. It's his weekend to have the kids so he brings them and really doesn't care how inappropriate it is for his little boy because it's all about what daddy wants. I felt like walking up to him to say "Guess what? You're now a grown up. You now have responsibilities. You don't get to just do whatever you want. You have kids and that means sacrifice. If you weren't prepared to make those sacrifices then you shouldn't have had those poor kids." Ugh! I get so mad at people like that. That kid doesn't stand a chance. I think back on the violence in that film and cringe. I don't think he fully understood it all but still, what an assault. No wonder kids are so messed up these days!