Helpful Resources: Films & TV Shows – Reviews, Classification Information, Plot Summaries
Sometimes as a parent or teacher you may want to find out more about a film or TV show. What is it about? What genre is it? What are the key themes? Is there any violence, sex & nudity, profanity, or other adult themes?
In this blog we suggest three resources that we hope you might find helpful as a starting point for your research. One is nominally Christian, the other two are secular – do use them all with discretion!
1 – MovieGuide
This is a Christian website, and although may not be totally aligned with CViE from a theological perspective offers a huge range of film reviews and summaries from a broadly Christian worldview. All films and TV shows are given a rating on a ‘+4’ to ‘-4’ scale (see summary below) along with quite extensive descriptive analysis.
|
+4 |
EXEMPLARY |
Biblical, usually Christian, worldview, with no questionable elements whatsoever. |
|
+3 |
MORAL |
Some minor questionable elements (media-wisdom is suggested to discuss). |
|
+2 |
GOOD |
Moderately questionable elements – discernment required for young children. |
|
+1 |
WORTHWHILE |
Caution advised for young children. |
|
-1 |
CAUTION |
Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults. |
|
-2 |
EXTREME CAUTION |
Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults. |
|
-3 |
EXCESSIVE |
Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies such as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but usually these are movies to avoid.) |
|
-4 |
ABHORRENT |
Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided) |
It is definitely worth reading the explanation for the rating given to a film as you may find you have a different viewpoint or that the context is important. As an example, the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ which graphically portrays Jesus’s sufferings is given a ‘-2’ rating because of the content, but is also recommended given its Biblical narrative, whereas many would consider it to be blasphemous and worthy of a ‘-4’ rating.
2 – IMDb
IMDb was launched in 1990 and now claims to be ‘the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content, designed to help fans explore the world of movies and shows and decide what to watch‘. It is owned by Amazon.
IMDb has a wealth of useful information about films and TV shows. The home page for each film provides general information about the plot, cast, classification, genre, running time etc. and greater detail can be found as required by clicking on the ‘All Topics’ button and following the relevant links.
However, what is especially helpful is that each film or TV show has a ‘Parents Guide‘ which provides details under a number of categories:
- Sex & Nudity
- Violence & Gore
- Profanity
- Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
- Frightening & Intense Scenes
It should be noted that (in a similar fashion to Wikipedia below) the information on IMDb can be added by anyone, so whilst information is vetted and validated by the wider community, it is not guaranteed to be completely accurate. IMDb is also an entirely secular resource.
3 – Wikipedia
For general information about a film or TV show, its entry on Wikipedia can be a good starting point, especially for plot summaries. It is also often possible to find out information about a specific series or even a specific episodes of a TV show. It is important to note that as it is open to all to edit, Wikipedia generally only represents the views of society as a whole and does not always present the truth, so should be treated with appropriate caution.
