It’s not just airplane food that’s making some passengers queasy these days. It’s the in-flight movies. According to this New York Times article, passengers with kids are complaining more often that overhead video fare has too much sex and violence for their little ones to watch. For me, the article raises three issues:
1) Normally, I don’t place much stock in parents’ complaints about what their kids see on TV or at the multiplex, but they’re entitled to complain about in-flight fare, which they can’t choose, shut off, or have their kids look away from. Even without sound, there’s no reason little kids should be captive audiences for such explicitly violent recent films as Shooter (with Mark Wahlberg, pictured) or Fracture.
2) It’s news to me that the studios don’t provide the airlines with the edited films; rather, the Times says, the airlines hire outside contractors to make the edits, though the studios offer the airlines lists of suggested cuts to their R-rated films. This reminded me of all the hoo-ha a few years ago when some Utah video stores started renting their own cleaned-up versions of movies, prompting a successful copyright infringement lawsuit from the studios. Why are the airlines allowed to recut films and charge you to watch them, but no one else is?
3) The airlines and their editors suggest that the problem lies with the studios, who just aren’t releasing enough family-friendly fare these days. That sounds dubious to me, but even if it’s true, why does that matter if the airlines are permitted to do their own edits? And who says they have to show recent films? They’re already showing reruns of long-gone TV shows like Cheers, so why not show classic movies as well? I bet a lot more passengers would pay to watch a Jimmy Stewart or Katharine Hepburn classic than some hacky, disposable new action flick that’s going to disturb their kids.
I found that ridiculous and completely agree with you! I have recently watched Casino Royale in flight and it had been edited at quite a few places (good parts of course were missing!)!!! If they don’t want there kids to watch it, then the parents need to act as I think the airline companies already do their parts in it. (and I have taken planes quite often this year, more then 20 times…)
Am I the only one who thought that was a picture of Mike Delfino before reading the caption saying that it was Mark Wahlberg?
OK Catherine, how exactly are parents supposed to “act”, as you put it? When the guy in the seat in front of your kid is watching one of the movies, what recourse does a parent have at that point?
You CHOSE to put your kid on a plane. You know that’s a possibility. Why should fellow passengers who pay just as much for their seat as you have to watch a PG movie just because they’re seated next to a kid? I, like most adults, can’t stand PG movies. So, no, I won’t watch PG movies just because a kid is next to me. That’s a risk parents take by putting their kids on planes and one PG-13 movie won’t kill them.
Great suggestion about the old movies, Gary!
I am SOooooo tired of people with kids whining about how movies/music/etc. is ruining their kids. I am not sure, but statistically, don’t their HAVE to be more people without small children (i.e. under 10) than those WITH small children??? Since when does what I watch get dictacted by a minority who MIGHT be offended. GAH. Get your kids a $100 DVD player that they can watch during the flight, or a PSP – I guarantee they will watch their stuff, not MINE.
rant over.
If airlines want to show the latest movies and TV but still keep their flights family-friendly, then they should all offer individual TV monitors at seats (a la Jet Blue) and several channels so that people can actually choose their entertainment. Of course, this costs money so isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, I applaud Gary’s old movie suggestion…if airlines want to offer more recent fare, surely they can keep it to the family-friendly stuff? Catherine, I’m with bbc – how exactly are parents supposed to “act” when the violent program is playing on 8 TV’s overhead? And snarky, I’m going to ignore your comment for the useless, trolling piffle that it is.
To bbc: If I child does not have the sound of a movie, he will most probably lose interest really quickly. And if you know you are taking a long flight (anything more than 30 minutes is long for a child!), you should be prepared as a parent with diffrenent activities such as a color book, book, games, etc. It really is not that complicated to do! I am not syaing it won’t happen ever but there are ways to prevent it!
How about this as a solution: American airlines upgrade their dirty, smelly, clanking old planes (the way that European airlines have) to have personal small-screens in front of you rather than an overhead TV with horrible picture quality? BA, for example, has a kid-friendly movies, shows, games, etc, in addition to entertainment for adults. Parents have control over what their kids watch, and the rest of us don’t have to crane our necks over other passengers, hope that the screen isn’t yellow, or watch edited films.
p.s. I see Martha posted the same comment as I was posting mine. As for expense, how about the fat-cat CEOs of the airlines take a small paycut? How can they be making that much money while the airline business is supposedly in dire straits?
Don’t you parents have more important things to worry about reguarding your kids? Global warming? The war in Iraq and Bush’s planned war with Iran? These hings are gonna affect your kids far greater than seeing a boob or some blood on an airplane movie.
How many children & families are in one air flight? When I travel there are maybe 2-4 families. On larger jets I’m not sure maybe more. But there should be a way for the airlines to give choices.
Any action movie I’ve watched on an airplane will have been edited beyond recognition, so I don’t know what these people are talking about. If anything, I would complain that they should just not show movies they’re going to edit so heavily. What’s the point of an action movie without the action?
And that’s why we end up flying Jet Blue if we have a choice with the 35 tv channels and 4 movies. My 8 year old can watch Discovery, Nick or Cartoon Network and I can watch a movie or BBCAmerica.
what we need is an Adults only airline, where we can watch whatever movies we like….and no screaming kids!
While we are at it, we can limit the age to less then 50. So an airline for 21-50 year olds only.
I would pay an extra $100 per flight for that!
I’m with Todd and Sally on this one. How many kids/families are really on any given flight? I never really noticed this was such a huge problem.
Martha, who peed in your cornflakes? if snarky wants to be an a** that is his/her business.