Brutal movie in family restaurant

Last night (March 20) I celebrated a boy's 13th birthday, with his family, at a well-established 'barbecue barn' in Coffs Harbour. Near us, and in our direct line of vision, as we ate our meal, the management was repetitively showing the brutal movie 'Young Guns' on a huge projection screen approximately two metres wide. Around us were tables of families (for this is supposed to be a 'family restaurant', often patronized by families before and after the cinema), with mums, dads, infants and children.

As we ate, my party was regaled by this Western movie featuring much gratuitous violence. As characters were shot, we saw blood spurting from their foreheads and the rest of their bodies, and gore gushing from their mouths.

My complaint is not so much that it was nauseating to us as diners (as it was), as that it is indecently reprehensible to expose little children to such horrors and charge their parents for such bad example. I, for one, will never dine there again unless the corporation that owns this fake 'cowboy' steakhouse develops some social responsibility for the next generation in a too-violent world. Just imagine if the displayed film contained obscenities of sex rather than obscenities of human murder. What an uproar there would be!

Business owners ought to be reminded that one satisfied customer may tell five people, but a disgusted one will probably tell 20. They might also consider developing good corporate citizenship in our community.

***
Update: The management of the restaurant replied within hours, "I received your email regarding your evening with us last night and would like apologise for distressing you and your family. I have removed that movie from those available to be shown and I appreciate your prompt correspondence regarding your disappointment. It was a complete oversight on my part, as we do try to play movies that are suitable for everyone. This was a lack of attention to detail and I am very sorry."

Natch, I've accepted the apology, which I think was very graciously written. Matter concluded.

Categories: violence, movie, food, children, pornography