Rated DP

Last night Eduardo and I watched The Changeling. It's that Angelina Jolie is a mom in the 1920s whose kid gets kidnapped movie from last year. It's the first "new" movie I've seen in a long time. It's mostly been catching bits of Wedding Crashers and Romy & Michele on TBS since Johan was born.

The movie was decent, but not awesome, and it made me decide that there needs to be another rating system. I need a warning before watching when a movie features an execution. Since watching Dead Man Walking (which certainly gave a warning in its very title) at the Boulevard Theater when I was 12, movies that deal with the death penalty affect me strongly. It's not even the watching of the execution- I am not a lightweight in terms of being able to see violence on TV or in cinema. It's the feelings that get stirred up me; the disruption of my equilibrium; the physical changes that happen in my body- heart racing and irregular breath. All this doesn't last for too long, but nevertheless an intense reaction.

I can think of a few movies I've seen that should have been rated DP for death penalty, including The Changeling. Another is Chicago (I love the movie and the music, but the death penalty is an over-arching theme and the ballet dancer is actually hanged) and by far the most disturbing one is Dancer in the Dark. When I started watching it, I expected a quirky and cute Bjork-y film. I can't even remember exactly why the execution in that movie happens, but I can recall vividly my physical reaction to it. It wasn't pretty.

Anyway, I need movies to be rated DP- not because I won't watch them, but just so I am prepared.

Also, I just googled The Changeling and I see its original release date was October 31, 2008, just a few days before the election. The last line of the entire film is Angelina saying "Because now I have something I didn't have yesterday- hope." Coincidence? I doubt it. Way to go, Clint Eastwood.