Take my Money. Please.

I am angry with Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Micheal Mann, and all the other directors currently opposing The Family Movie Act and services like “ClearPlay” and “CleanFlix” It is clear to me that they have completely lost touch with what it’s like to be a normal guy on a budget who’s the father of young kids.

Michael Mann, in particular, said something like, “Parents need to parent. If you don’t want it in your house, don’t bring it in your house.”

I don’t, Michael. I “parent.” Thank you very much. I would just like some more options.

My son currently does not watch any movie with what we consider objectionable material. That shakes out to less that 5% of the movies out there – and that 5% is generally for infant-age children - much younger than him. This is well below his level of interest. He’s 13 and hasn’t seen Spiderman or Batman yet. For that, he often suffers ridicule and feels left out when talking to and playing with friends who are alternately viewing several simulated murders and hearing hundreds of cuss words each week during family movie time.

I have wasted hundreds of dollars and hours of my life going to or renting movies that I ended up having to walk out of or turn off because Hollywood’s version of PG-13 includes material that I find offensive and would certainly never let my son watch.

They have lost my trust, a lot of my business, and are now losing my respect. I can say that with the possible exception of Steven Spielberg, whose movies are just to good to totally avoid, that if I am prevented from having this technology available to me, that I will boycott each and every asinine Hollywood producer, director, and studio that I witness opposing it.

As for Speilberg: My son has seen Indiana Jones. I taped it off of network TV and then I additionally edited some portions that were too graphic for my family out. Sue me.

Michael Mann; I grew up watching Police Story and Starsky & Hutch. I enjoyed Thief, The Insider, Ali, and Last of the Mohicans. Too bad I will never knowlingly watch another movie that you were involved in simply because you've been such a jackass about this.

The bottom line for me is this: If I buy a book, I can tear out the pages and black out any word or paragraph I wish. If I buy a painting, I can reframe it and paint it orange it I want to. If I'm watching a movie, I can fast forward through the unnecessary scene in Jerry McGuire where they're having sex. Once I buy it, your artistic integrity matters not. If you don't want me messing with it, don't sell it to anyone.

If it's a money thing - let the market decide. Hollywood has been selling sex, violence, and vulgarity to us for years saying that's what we want. If there are so few of us out here that would like to remove it, then CleanFlicks and ClearPlay will go bankrupt and you can go on distributing your tripe.

OR you could come up with your own filtering product and regain/retain my segment of your market. Or maybe you could just start making movies that we can all watch. There's a novel approach.-

I sound like such a prude.