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The point of this thread is not to discuss any movie at all.
It is just to try to get a feel of how many frum jews watch movies.
Of course, i am not referring to “jewish movies”. They don’t count, for the purposes of this survey. Thanks
I shouldn’t say I don’t watch movies anymore..
In the past two years, I watched 3, one was for extra credit for a class, and the other two were animated (Toys Story3 and Alice in Wonderland if you were curious).
So i SHOULDN’T say i don’t watch movies, but i do, because I don’t actively go to watch. (both times my brothers were watching and i sat down and joined)
Missing two HP movies hurt, that much I can tell you, and sometimes i ache to watch, but at the end of the day, staring blankly at a highly entertaining, numbingly stupid-ifying screen is not what I want to spend my time doing, so that’s that!
Why do frum Jews only watch movies on airplanes?
Torah lo bashamayim he
Cuz their bored!or don’t usually so think it’s okay. Lol bt yo mad funny.
Yes, but rarely. I watched a movie on my return flight from Europe last week.
yw mod excellent!!!! i stopped watching movies few years ago. more out of thinking its waste of time and less out of yiddishkeit. lately i have seen some but i can count them on one hand.
YW Moderator-42, who are u reffering to by FRUM JEWS. I dont watch movies on airplanes and I am a frum jew. If I wouldnt watch a movie in my dining room, why would i do so on an airplane?
I didn’t see movies for 7 years, after I saw a movie that was so untzniusdicke, I was horrified and walked out in the middle ( and found half the theatre was yeshiva boys and seminary girls (in Israel). Then, a friend of mine came in from out of town and wanted to see “Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was partially a cartoon. My parents pushed me to go, for her. That kind of broke down the wall a little bit. Later, I was set up with a guy from a yeshivish background who (unbeknownst to me) became a bit more modern. We went out for a while, but I hung back because of the hashkafic differences. To see if I’d be ok with his way of life, I agreed to see a movie, only far away, where no one would see me. The next night I told him I wanted to see a movie again! I still didn’t want a tv in my future house, which was agreed upon. However, a friend bought us a tv as a wedding present (I suspect so he could watch when he came over). That was the end of that.
Lol Mod 42…I like that one!
mod- lol it’s true i only watch on the plane..
42-good one!
I watch movies…not as much as I did when I was younger, but I’m not opposed to them…Of course I pay attention to the ratings.
remember no one knows who you are…… 🙂
G-d knows who you are.
i watch movies. i prefer comedies
Haven’t in a long time, but I really miss the Bond movies!
And I’ll bet the Harry Potter saga looked 10 x better on a big screen than it does on DVD (Babby’s house, natch)
Not as much anymore.I especially enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy (though IMHO the books were more entertaining)
remember no one knows who you are…… 🙂
G-d knows who you are.
Alot of times things arent halachily assur, but “frumkite” assur
I think movies are frowned upon because of bitul Torah and being exposed to untzniusdicke things. Frankly, if a person isn’t going to learn Torah in that time anyway, a lot of movies are very benign. Going to a theatre is another story, though. If I wouldn’t invite the others who are seated in the theaters to my living room, why would I sit with them there? It’s a shared experience, and thus a connection. The trouble is figuring out what’s ok to see and what’s not. By the time you’re ready to reject a movie, you’ve seen too much.
Alot of times things arent halachily assur, but “frumkite” assur
Movies are halachicly assur. Even if there is “only” one scene of one woman dressed totally tznius except that her shirt-sleeve only reaches just above her elbow. Considering (other than animated only films) that out of over 250,000 made I doubt there are even a handful that meet that criteria. And the vast vast vast majority are far far far worse.
By that standard walking the streets of NYC in summer is halachily assue, Almost everyone dresses Untzniut.
quark- dont worry, It was an extra credit assignment from college. I had to watch a movie that had something to do with anthropology..she recommended one rated pg13, so my friend picked a nice PG one, and we had a kosher movie night.
I watch a movie maybe once a week. I rarely go to the theater, because it just seems like a waste of money. When I’m married, I plan to have ‘movie night’ (around once a week) with my wife. Or, as often as she would like.
i remember once when we had to watch something for school and a friend of mine sat down but felt so horrible watching after so many years of not watching…she could not stop saying how it feels horrible…. but it was a perfectly kosher movie (we had to read the book but didnt want to so we just watched the movie instead)
If frum jews think going to the movies is ok, we are in trouble!
I watch movies, not only with my kippa on, but with my tzitzis out too, though I mostly don’t go to theaters because I’m not into it enough to spend the extra money and travel time.
i used to watch movies all the time. But then i realized it destroys my sense of relationships. I can think of 1 movie that I watched since i stopped (which was about a year and a half ago) and that movie reestablished my reasoning for why i stopped.. I am trying to get out of the fantasy land of perfect love stories and watching these movies always puts me back in it!
mommamia22- r u happier and more fulfilled now that u watch movies?
movies are the anitthwesis of torah. its so sad all of you still watch them. you need to delete ur facebooks and stop watching movies this instant!!
I’m not a very “b’shitta” type of person, so although I don’t have a TV, certainly don’t go to movie theaters, and don’t generally watch movies, I wouldn’t say “I don’t watch movies” because if I happened to be somewhere and others were watching a movie I would possibly sit down and watch if it seemed interesting.
However I truly don’t believe there exists any non-kids movies today which are “a perfectly kosher movie” — maybe “mostly kosher” or “pretty ok” . .. .I remember when I was in high school there was a certain movie that had come out that was very popular among the girls in my OOT Bais Yaakov. Many girls who didn’t “watch movies” were watching it “just to see some of the great choreography”, and anyway, it was “perfectly clean”. A friend of mine was convinced by someone to join her in watching. About 15 seconds into the movie came the first bit of nivul peh. When my friend raised her eyes, the other girl said “oh, everyone talks like that in the world — it doesn’t count!” — and of course the romantic subplot with the related scenes didn’t count either. . .
Although for a woman or girl watching movies is probably not halachicly assur (men are obviously a different issue), you are definitely introducing many things into your mind that you are better off without — language, twisted values, violence, unrealistic relationships, etc.
yes I watch movies, albeit not very often. saw ‘Harry Potter’ 11 days ago.
quark2 – Are you Joseph? Because this sounds like a topic he would start!
Most movies are not created with a torahdig view, to put it mildly. They give you false illusions of relationships, and seeing things that are not tznius is totally asur. There are definitely some like national geographic ones, that pose no problem at all, but still, I know plenty of people who are movie addicts and it slowly but surely leads them down down down so I try to keep from watching any.
everyone is effected by what they see, thats why there is a concept of shmiras eynayim. if its in ur control (ie. in the street vs. bringing the movie into ur house) then u are gonna be held accountable. and no movie is completly kosher! if their is, then let me know…
If a Jew that worships Hashem would actually realize that when watching a film or play he or she is offering their heart and mind to a group of people that literally worship another god. 99% of the entertainment crowd are consciously or subconsciously in a cult called “art for arts sake” whose values are sunk in selfishness and Greek culture, exalting the human self. This is why the most sensitive films end up having the opposite effect and cause more callousness about the exact topic they dealt with. I heard Rav Feldman (R.Y. Ner Yisrael) bring a posuk from Mishlei with the commntary of the Gra to prove this and he said he saw it occur himself when a couple that had problems saw a Swedish artsy film about a marriage and divorce and immediately after their marriage took a turn for the worst.
littleapple: By that logic it would be forbidden to daven at 90% of the shuls in Brooklyn because you would have to “offer your heart and mind to a groupof people that literally worship another god” (sic) by listening to the endless conversation of people who come to shul to serve their Lord and Saviour the Almighty Benjamin.
i really tried very hard to stop watching this year. i started last summer by only watching movies i saw b4 [ones i knew like by heart when i was little].. this year i watched 3 or 4 . 2 of them were for school and were black and white]…i didn’t really tell my family memers that i won’t go to a theatre anymore because they would make it much worse for me..it was sooo hard for me not to see the new harry potters that came out 🙁 i used to be obsessed. but i did it b”H!
zahavasdad
“By that standard walking the streets of NYC in summer is halachily assue, Almost everyone dresses Untzniut.”
True, one has to watch his eyes at all times, but in the street, one has no choice, he has to be there but even in the street one can be very careful and look downwards and not see anything untzniusdig. Watching a movie is willingly looking watching and listening to things that are assur and kenneged the Torah way of life. No hetter whatsoever.
I’m taking my kids to see WInnie the Pooh..I have no problem with it….every couple of months or so I’ll take my wife for dinner and she’ll treat me to a movie 😉
I only wish that I could watch movies. As soon as they start, I stop – I am asleep within minutes. Certainly they work better for me than any prescription medication – and it doesn’t matter if the movie is on TV, on a plane or in a theatre where I have paid at least 10 dollars for a ticket. I only hope that I don’t snore. I have even been known to fall asleep during live theatre events where the tickets are far more costly than 10 dollars.
I am so proud to say that I don’t watch movies!!
quark2: See “WIY”‘s comment. It already answered your point. You should look down when walking in Wal-Mart on on the street (in NY or anywhere) to avoid seeing pritzus/non-tznius. You go to a movie knowing, or should knowing, there will be non-tznius (unless it is a totally animated film as was pointed out.) There simply is no excuse. You won’t be able to tell the beis din shel maila any excuses.
quark2: There is absolutely positively no “need” to see a movie. There is a no excuse. You know it has pritzus. It is prohibited.
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