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"Spotlight" - Is it a good or a bad thing ...

Is "Spotlight" beneficial or detrimental to society in general?


  • Total voters
    14

leibowde84

Veteran Member
"Spotlight", a major motion picture depicting child-sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, is one of the biggest movies of the year, and the reviews are phenomenal. Do you think this is a good thing that this is being publicized and shown to the world in this cinematic way? Has anyone seen it yet?
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
In general publicizing an issue that is plaguing society is a good thing. But I feel that I should add the caveat that it is done within a platform of correcting the issue. Shooting a movie about it, just seems to degrade it [social advancement issues] to sensationalism and that seems petty and purposeless to me.
 

Demonslayer

Well-Known Member
"Spotlight", a major motion picture depicting child-sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, is one of the biggest movies of the year, and the reviews are phenomenal. Do you think this is a good thing that this is being publicized and shown to the world in this cinematic way? Has anyone seen it yet?

I saw it and it was outstandingly done. I grew up in Boston during the height of it all and know some families directly effected, so I thought I pretty much knew everything about the issue. I was wrong, I learned a lot of details I didn't know from the movie.
 

leibowde84

Veteran Member
I saw it and it was outstandingly done. I grew up in Boston during the height of it all and know some families directly effected, so I thought I pretty much knew everything about the issue. I was wrong, I learned a lot of details I didn't know from the movie.
Having seen it, do you think it deserves the Oscar?
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Go see it, I feel it was done without much judgment or sensationalism.
I'll have to take your word for it. I don't think its playing in my country and even if it was, I don't watch movies as a matter of religious principle.
But I do believe you.
 

Demonslayer

Well-Known Member
Having seen it, do you think it deserves the Oscar?

I'm pretty bad at determining what films should win Oscars. I tend love stupid comedies that have no chance of winning one, and not to like many of the films that end up winning. (another overly emotional drama? You don't say)

I'll say it deserves to be in the running. It was compelling and informative, occasionally funny, very well acted, and if you're not moved by the time you're at the end of the story I'd be very surprised.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Can you explain what you mean by this. I'm intrigued.
*delete snarky comment*
I don't watch TV or movies. Its an ultra-Orthodox thing. Limit absorption of secular culture and ideas. Minimize exposure to woman and situations that are not for public purview. That type of thing. I don't have facebook or a smart phone either.
 

Demonslayer

Well-Known Member
I don't watch TV or movies. Its an ultra-Orthodox thing. Limit absorption of secular culture and ideas. Minimize exposure to woman and situations that are not for public purview. That type of thing. I don't have facebook or a smart phone either.

Wow. It seems like avoiding life to me. It seems very fearful from an outside view, like you're villainizing things that aren't really bad. I don't have a Facebook account either, but it's just because I don't have time and don't care what my friends third cousin had for lunch. Movies and TV can be a waste of time, sure, but they can also be educational and just plain fun. The life you describe seems to equate fun with badness, to be avoided.

"Minimize exposure to women" is super bizarre and backwards to me. What about your work, don't you work with women?
 

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
*delete snarky comment*
I don't watch TV or movies. Its an ultra-Orthodox thing. Limit absorption of secular culture and ideas. Minimize exposure to woman and situations that are not for public purview. That type of thing. I don't have facebook or a smart phone either.

Then you answering the question in the OP is kind of like a vegetarian answering a question about how good a particular burger is.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Wow. It seems like avoiding life to me. It seems very fearful from an outside view, like you're villainizing things that aren't really bad. I don't have a Facebook account either, but it's just because I don't have time and don't care what my friends third cousin had for lunch. Movies and TV can be a waste of time, sure, but they can also be educational and just plain fun. The life you describe seems to equate fun with badness, to be avoided.

"Minimize exposure to women" is super bizarre and backwards to me. What about your work, don't you work with women?
To me its sad that for you motion picture is synonymous with "life" to you. To me interacting with real people is "life". There are a lot of ways to gain education and have fun besides for the medium that is TV and movies. There's actually an entire world outside the box!!!

I understand that you see this as vilifying TV and movies, but I'm not telling you to not do these things. They are just incompatible with my way of life.

It happens to be that I actually don't work with women. Nor for the most part do I look at women (outside my immediate family). I have no idea what my neighbors wives look like, and they are as unlikely to greet me as I them. Separation between genders is taken very seriously in my sect.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
That's true, God has seen all movies. Isn't he a bit hypocritical to demand you don't see them when He sees them all?
There is no Law against watching movies. Kind of like there's no Law requiring that we refrain from putting our left shoe on our right foot.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
*delete snarky comment*
I don't watch TV or movies. Its an ultra-Orthodox thing. Limit absorption of secular culture and ideas. Minimize exposure to woman and situations that are not for public purview. That type of thing. I don't have facebook or a smart phone either.
The internet, having become a substantial part of secular culture, wouldn't spending time on it fall within that category as well?
 

Demonslayer

Well-Known Member
To me its sad that for you motion picture is synonymous with "life" to you. To me interacting with real people is "life". There are a lot of ways to gain education and have fun besides for the medium that is TV and movies. There's actually an entire world outside the box!!!

I'm an avid skier, logging 30-35 days a year, belong to a running club, belong to the Green Mountain Club and go hiking almost every weekend in the summer in Vermont, belong to a workout program called CrossFit that combines a social atmosphere with advanced physical fitness, and my wife and I have a lot of friends and family that we hang out with socially all the time. I read about a book a month, volunteer my time a few times a year to various charities, and work a 10 hour day to earn a living.

From 8:00-10:00 most weeknights I relax with some television, and maybe I watch two movies a month. I hardly think that's "equating a motion picture with life." I completely agree with you about the world outside the box and all the wonderful non-TV things there are to do. I spend the vast majority of my time doing non-TV things.

My position is balance. I would never advocate a life of only watching television and refusing to go outside even once. Nor would I advocate your life where you refuse to watch even one movie or television show. I believe we can have some balance in life.

I understand that you see this as vilifying TV and movies, but I'm not telling you to not do these things. They are just incompatible with my way of life.

I know, and of course it's you're right to live however you want. This is just one of those sad things about religion to me. Driving people away from things that aren't really bad based on some doctrine they may not even fully understand.

It happens to be that I actually don't work with women. Nor for the most part do I look at women (outside my immediate family). I have no idea what my neighbors wives look like, and they are as unlikely to greet me as I them. Separation between genders is taken very seriously in my sect.

Again, super sad to me. You talk about being social in the beginning of your post...the importance of interacting with other people. And yet you won't even look at a woman. I'm sorry, I don't understand how you can place importance on human interaction when you refuse to interact with half the human race.

It's weird. I mean you must know on some level this kind of behavior creeps people out right? You're neighbors, unless they are in your sect, likely think of you as the creepy dude who won't look at women. From an outsiders view it seems like a person who is very poorly adjusted socially.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
The internet, having become a substantial part of secular culture, wouldn't spending time on it fall within that category as well?
My internet is filtered. So I don't have access to the vast majority of it. I wouldn't even have a computer were it not for the fact that my wife needs it for work and my parents like to see my kids on skype and get pictures. On the other hand, I don't have a smart phone either, so I'm also not completely engaged to the internet as those poor souls I see tapping away on their cell phones every moment of their lives.

I kind of feel like I'm derailing the OP, which was not my intent.
 
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