Kids. - movie reviews

Christian Century, August 2, 1995 by James M. Wall

Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times, a cohost of a popular television movie review program, emerged as a major supporter of Kids after interviewing director Larry Clark at Cannes. Before the film opened in Chicago, Ebert wrote that Kids is "a blunt warning for kids engaging in risky behavior, and a wake-up call for their parents ... Watching Kids is fascinating, yet depressing. The movie has an unstudied authenticity that convinces you it knows exactly what it's talking about."

True, it is a well-made film. But what responsibility does the community have to prevent this graphic film from being available to children? Ebert quotes Clark: "It's not for all kids under 17, but it's for some kids under 17. I want people to see the movie. I want parents to go with their kids. But the kids have to be able to get in. Because this movie shows things that are a reality in this world." To which I must respond, "Get real, Larry." A rating doesn't distinguish between "some" and "all" kids. Ebert made no effort to challenge Clark's notion that "some" kids will see his movie with their understanding parents who will then take them down the street for a milkshake and a heart-to-heart chat about AIDS.

Ebert and Clark seem to feel that Kids is a training film for kids--that it will discourage them from misconduct. I haven't heard that argument used for movies since the early days of pornography when hard-core pictures were preceded by a warning from a man wearing a doctor's smock about the terrrible things viewers were about to witness.

Miramax made a final effort to move Kids out of the NC-17 category through a screening before the appeals board (made up of industry representatives and two religious advisers). High-priced defense attorney Alan Dershowitz was brought in to argue that children would benefit from seeing Kids, but the appeals board upheld the original rating.

In defiance of the system under which Miramax had sought the R rating, the Weinstein brothers have refused to accept the NC-17 rating, and have released the film through a company they formed for the sole purpose of distributing Kids. The company is called Excalibur (to evoke King Arthur, a longtime Disney favorite?). Then, in a final bit of cynicism, ads for the film carry the line: "Warning: No one under 18 will be admitted without a parent or legal guardian." To the casual observer this may look like corporate concern for the young, especially with that ominous use of "warning," but it is in fact the same limitation (with a year's difference in age) the MPAA provides for the Restricted rating which the MPAA refused to give to Miramax.

In England the government runs the rating system, which has specific age levels as to suitability and is backed up by local police enforcement. The U.S. system of industry self-regulation is preferable to the English system, but a voluntary regulation system can survive only if its participants act in a responsible manner and abide by the rules they set for themselves.