8 Messages
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276 Points
Suggestion: Consider blacklisting "gratuitous" in Parents Guide items.
As outlined in the "Parents Guide" submission guide,
[...] the beliefs that parents want to instill in their children can vary greatly. Please only describe the facts of relevant scenes [...]
It seems to me that whether a given occurrence of nudity, gore, et cetera is gratuitous or not is necessarily a subjective judgement rather than a more or less objective observation - and moreover a judgement which no single contributor should be considered qualified to make, in this context. Therefore, it does not belong in Parents Guide items.
Usually, issues such as this have to be left to case-by-case determinations by submission reviewers. But on this occasion, "gratuitous" is so overwhelmingly the go-to term that simply disallowing it would make a lot of headway, IMHO.
Cheers,
- kassy
jeorj_euler
10.7K Messages
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225.4K Points
4 years ago
Seems like it would be more sensible to simply ask for feedback on how to revise the content of IMDb parents guides that contain the word "gratuitous" or other words like it.
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nick_burfle
189 Messages
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6K Points
3 years ago
Here's my perspective. Each time I find in the Parents Guide not just opinion, but judgmental opinion, my blood boils a little. We don't need other contributors telling us that the content is gratuitous, or inappropriate, or unnecessary, or that the swearing, violence, or sex is appropriate in context, or that a film is fine for kids if they're over 14, have seen movie X, and their parents watch it with them. I've even seen -- I'm not making this up -- a couple of times where someone saw fit, in the profanity section, to lecture others via scripture: "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain." How incredibly rude!
I have no qualms at all about editing out these terms out. Usually they can just be cut, sometimes very simple editing is required to retain the pertinent parts of the original contributors content. It's not difficult.
There's a problem, though, with the idea of automating this. I've seen every one of these terms used correctly when describing how the characters in the film relate to one another, along the lines of one character accusing another of inappropriate contact or unnecessary violence. In some films, characters may be punished for blasphemy. As for "gratuitous" in particular, in one case the director, in the main body of the film, states that he's adding gratuitous nudity to satisfy viewers who insist on an unrated version.
So let's continue editing these flagrant violations, but not automate it.
As previously suggested, I do wish IMDb would reinstate the reminder that used to appear at the top of the page, that parents' values differ and that the guide is the place for description, not opinion.
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