Censorship in Movies 6

The problem of widows in Indian culture was already hidden in the depths of my mind before seeing this movie, but the intensity of the problem has never been revealed to me in such a fashion as this movie.  The film Water is effective in that it clearly shows there may a problem with the religious system in India, and that the system is at least partially influenced by the greed and corruption of the men.  If widows were to inherit their dead husband’s wealth and money, which would take away from what the men could keep for their own.  The tricky aspect in revealing dubious dealings under the guise of religion is that many people watching this film believe wholeheartedly that the widow aspect of culture is an unbreakable aspect of their religion as well.  The film does a good job of bringing up the question of whether or not the widow aspect of Indian culture should be maintained without directly accusing the viewers for their beliefs.  Instead, the film asks the viewer to ponder the question, and thus arise to an answer independent to the film.

Bringing the US back to a state where the films were all regulated by a board that believed itself to be the “moral guardians” of our country would mean that immoral activities would be censured from the viewers entirely for the sake of “guarding” them.  The current rating system we have now is definitely not a “moral guardian” because it does not censure the material, but rather discerns it into separate groups depending on what material is included in the movie.  It is left to the viewers on whether they should watch it, and in addition must be a certain age to purchase certain media. Otherwise it is the people who are given control over what they accept as morally acceptable, and not the government.  In a way I think this promotes the Christian message better than a censured system would.