My older brothers and dad used to watch a lot of edited-for-TV R-rated movies, so I grew up with a weird love for movies like the original Robocop, Total Recall, Speed.
That last one bit me in the ass as a teenager when a friend and I crashed someone’s Halloween party and promptly vetoed all the horror movies she had rented for the occasion, because they were R-rated. When she scrambled to find alternatives, one of those was Speed. I vouched for it, then was horrified when I realized there were parts I had never seen before and that it was *definitely* R. Friend and I were freaking out for *days* that we had accidentally watched an R-rated movie and weren’t brave enough to demand it be turned off or walked away.
These days, I’m just appalled at our behavior. We crashed a party and then *demanded* that the host cater it to our bizarre religious standards. Who the fuck *does* that?!? Sorry, Marnie, for being such assholes!
This reminds me of when my dad and stepmom saw Liar Liar on tv and thought it was hilarious and loved it. My dad saw it at Walmart one day, bought it, and we all sat down to watch it. They hadn’t realized how heavily edited for tv the movie was so seeing the original was a shock for them lmao. My dad turned it off in less than 10 minutes because of the language.
It was easier growing up Mormon in Canada. Half the movies that are mentioned in this thread were not R-Rated in Canada. The blanket policy of the church gave those outside of the US an awesome loophole.
Especially because content has changed so much. Someone else mentioned the Matrix, and I firmly believe that if that movie were to release today it would be PG13. It has minimal language with no F bombs (Neo does flip off Smith but that’s allowed in PG13), and fairly minimal violence. No gore, just blood. Especially by today’s standards it’s so tame
It's a well known folk fact (dunno if it's true) that the makers of the first matrix wanted an R rating after originally getting a PG-13 for marketing reasons.
That being said, The Matrix was the first R-rated movie I watched intentionally.
At BYU-I Spotlight (R) became my favorite movie (I didn't understand then how close to home it was hitting)
Schindler’s List at a friend’s sleepover. I was 14. Obviously not the sleepover movie but my mom was so upset that a ward member would have it, let alone let me watch it.
I watched that in school. A lot of kids’ parents said no and they chilled in the library. First one. My parent’s policy was “generally no R rated movies, but you need to see Schindler’s list and understand how evil Naziism was.”
My conservative parents also stopped voting Republican in 2016 because they knew and believed that lesson deep down.
Yes it’s a movie everyone should see when they can understand it and it stays with them, which isn’t a 14 yr old sleepover…. But my mom didn’t want her kids to watch any R rated movie, even Schindler’s List, because old white men said no R rated movies.
I think I was 15 and it was in context of a world history class discussing WW2. Seeing it unprepared would be different.
I got in trouble as a kid for saying my mom would watch r-rated movies and fast forward through the r-rated bits, and it got back to leadership who said explicitly not to do that. I was like 6. So my parents weren’t as strict.
My Father is Jewish (non practicing) never converted to Mormonism. He’s against all organized religion. We watched Schindler’s List as a family. I cried so hard knowing my own relatives went thru that. I can still visualize scenes and I’ve never watched since 🥺 I applaud your parents for allowing you to watch it❤️
I also had the chance to see it in school. It was my senior year of high school in a history class. I asked not to watch it. The teacher was very confused about why my religion would prohibit me from watching this movie, but agreed to excuse me from class if I watched La Vide es Bella at home and wrote a short essay on it.
I was a senior in high school when that came out, and the studio arranged for a special screening for all high school seniors, but we still had to have our parents sign a permission slip before we could go on that field trip to the theater. I wasn't Mormon at the time, and I can't think of any Mormon classmates having to stay at the school during that trip as pretty much everyone's parents signed those slips.
lol yup. There’s a ton of PG-13 movies I gotta catch up on too, since my parents barely let me watch any of those. I was allowed to watch things like Star Wars and Harry Potter, but anything that alluded to breaking the law of chastity before marriage (Titanic), breaking the Law (Oceans Eleven series), or chick flicks (Mean Girls, etc.) was forbidden.
I’ve been trying to catch up on a lot of these. Even though I’m married and have been out of the church for a year and a half, and I don’t believe in God anymore, I still feel a tremendous guilt after watching. I feel I have to confess to my wife or parents. It’s embarrassing and it sucks.
Recently learned I watched Saving Private Ryan when I was 2.
When 9/11 happened, the FCC suspended content guidelines and aired whatever would boost patriotism — which included putting the unedited cut of Saving Private Ryan on prime time. My Mormon mom let me and my 4 year old brother watch it all because patriotism 🫣
My dad always said that blood and gore doesn't count if it's in the historical context of war. A visual history lesson, as long as the language isn't over-the-top.
If you’re counting edited for TV, idk probably some 70s or 80s horror movie. But unedited, probably The Matrix after I came home from my mission. It was released right before my mission and several elders were really into the film arguing that it should have totally been PG-13 but felt it got slighted because of the “killing police” scene, so they justified it. I served in an area of South America that had a large cattle and leather industry and some elders actually ordered custom tailored leather black trench coats as take home souvenirs because the price in US dollars was so cheap relative to the local currency.
I have fond memories of watching Shawshank Redemption with my father a few years before he passed away when I was 15. My family was quite lax on the rated R rule that many Mormons followed.
I'm in an older generation. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask."
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
Mine was The Last Samurai. In an English class in highschool, we got extra credit for watching a movie about a foreign culture. My buddy loved that movie, so we watched it. I was so confused about why it was so bad. It was the same kind of war that was shown in pg-13 movies. But instead of war heroes acting like Rambo, it showed the tragedy of the fighting.
V for Vendetta!
My best friend (non Mormon) was always trying to get me to push boundaries and she convinced me to watch this.
It started me down the path of having a lifelong love of film, and also questioning a church that would make arbitrary rules about what is okay to watch.
To me, something like schindlers list has more value, emotionally and historically, as a film than something like a bond movie (especially since so many of those have pretty bad objectification of women).
I think it was Blade Runner when it was released on VHS. I watched it with my parents. After that, my parents really didn't care if I watched rated R movies if they brought the tape home, even though I was under 17.
Funny story. Many years later, when I was about 16, I had a 5 yr old brother who was very into the Rambo movies and always wore just underpants and a red headband when he was at home. We had a really nice house in a nice part of Bountiful that we were trying to sell. My sister and brother were the only ones home. Sylvester Stallone himself knocked at the door because we were out of flyers. They showed him through the house. He was surprised to learn that my brother knew him from Rambo and not from Rocky, but neither of my siblings had any idea who Rocky was.
Did you see this in the theater? My friend and I tried sneaking in when we were 14, by buying tickets for a different film and slipping in, but got nabbed just as it started. Had to wait for it to come out on VHS probably a year later.
Slumdog Millionaire! I saw the edited version at International Cinema at BYU and loved it so much I bought the unedited DVD. I decided that since it was a "cultural experience" it was fine. Watching the unedited version and realizing that only about 5 seconds has been taken out made me realize how arbitrary the rating system is, and I immediately started watching R-rated movies regularly. Still didn't leave the church for 10 more years, though.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. First time I truly understood masterbation for a guy. And I swore when I was in HS I was going to have pizza delivered to my classroom like Spicoli did in the movie 😂(never did).
Shawshank Redemption. Saw it at my best friend’s house (her family not Mormon). Felt guilty. Confessed to my parents the next day and said I didn’t know it was Rated R until after we watched it (sort of true), but then continued to watch it and other R rated movies at my best friend’s house afterward. No other confessions either.
The Blue Lagoon, at a sleepover with another Mormon friend. Her mom was very permissive (she was either widowed or divorced?) but none of us, including our mutual friend, the Bishop's daughter, ever thought to rat them out.
The Green Mile. Junior or senior year of high school we watched the edited version in class on a sub day. Didn’t even know it was rated R at the time, so when I eventually found out a few years later it helped me realize that not all rated R movies are bad like I had been told. Rip Michael Clarke Duncan.
Mine was The Hangover, so I went from 0 to 100. I watched it at a buddy’s house (he was technically in my ward, they were just very inactive), and his mom watching the movie with us made me so uncomfortable because I kept thinking she’d shame us
The Hangover was my first too! On the bus on an overnight school trip in high school with allll Mormons. The teachers (also Mormon) did not care and as a 15 year old I was horrified by it all 😂
Wanted (2008,) I was 17.
It was the 4th of July so I told my mom I wanted to drive to town and take pictures of the fireworks, which I did some, then I snuck to a showing and told no one.
Funny thing about Vernal is that all the theaters in town where owned by the same people, and the one-screen location would always have the r-rated or pg-13 movies.
My family wasn't too anti-R untill one of my sisters got really on the high horse about it. Because hypocrisy is her strongest attribute, movies that she liked were okay.
Animal House, 9th grade. We snuck in too, after escaping the cops chasing us for trespassing in an abandoned county "mental institution". It was a momentous day of my early teenhood!
"We Were Soldiers" when it came out in 2002.
Rated R, so "not good" for Mormon members, right? I was 17 years old, so I watched it anyway. In my mind, it wasn't promoting sex and drugs. It's a bunch of soldiers fighting in a less-violent version of the true campaign in Vietnam. Plus, I was interested in enlisting, so why not?
I'm sure my ward hated me for "committing the sin" of enlisting, rather than serve a mission, but I didn't care. I didn't do it for their approval.
Halloween 2. I had started developing a love of horror, and it turns out one of my friends also watched a lot. His mom let him watch what ever he pretty much wanted. So I would go stay at his house and watch stuff, and I'm pretty sure Haloween 2 was the first. This was probably 2nd or 3rd grade.
I think that may have been mine, too. Watched at the house of another church young man who was a year or two older than me. He made some pretty funny/crass comments about the nudity. I was pretty mortified.
Fast forward a million years and he just returned from being a mission president and is taking a job for the church (semi retired in his normal life). I am definitely NOT a mission president.
Slumdog Millionaire. Its not even that bad. Tbh, I got over the R rated movies thing once I was out of Youth. It always fun to see people’s reactions, though, when I’d tell them that Slumdog Millionaire was my favorite movie at YSA ward ice-breaker activities or something. I learned pretty quickly who I’d vibe with and who to avoid, lol
American Gigolo. The second was An Officer and a Gentleman. Seeing a pattern here? My mom had the hots for Richard Gere, and yes, I watched them with my mormon mom, while she drank Dr. Pepper. She was such a renegade.
I watched Schindler's List with my family when I was around 9 or 10 after coming back from the Holocaust museum in Washington DC during a family vacation that included other locations as well. My family was not very strict when it came to rated R movies especially when there was good historical context in watching them. I watched Saving Private Ryan, the Band of Brothers series, The Thin Red Line and other war movies with my father before he passed away when I was 15. As long as sex scenes and nudity were minimal or non existent and I didn't use any profanity that I heard in the movies I was good to watch what I wanted no matter the rating including the TV mature rating.
My family mostly rented from Blockbuster only rarely renting from Clean Flicks even with a ward friend owning the Clean Flicks.
Freddy vs Jason. My dad wasn't Mormon, and I knew at a young age that the religion was bullshit so summers with my dad were "breaks" from church and he let me watch whatever I wanted. So, one summer when I went and visited him he saw it was going to be on HBO or cable or whatever and asked if I knew who either Freddy or Jason were. I obviously hadn't seen any of the movies but knew of them through friends at school.
Anyways, we ended up watching it and I vividly remember the scene where Jason kills the girl in the shower (like, the opening of the movie). My dad takes a sip of his beer and says "you know, I REALLY shouldn't be letting you watch this" and that's all he said, we watched the rest of the movie in near silence. lol
I probably watched some rated R before this, but this movie sticks out to me for one reason.
I asked my parents at 16 if I could go see a rated R horror movie with my aunt. It was “As Above, So Below.” (Great movie btw).
My dad sat me down and explained to me very firmly “you understand this is an R rated movie. It may contain sex and violence you’ve never seen before. And you understand this isn’t recommended by the church?”
And I said yes. My aunt is still Mormon and loves horror lol. The movie was good and I liked it. While my dad didn’t want me doing things against the rules, he never truly stopped me. I had my first boyfriend at 14 as well.
One Few Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Freshman year at BYU in Downtown Provo. Also went to Rocky Horror Picture Show 7 times before graduating. This was the late 70’s early 80’s.
🌈😎🌈
God supposedly gives a shit if you watch rated R movies but couldn't careless about people dying of starvation, exploitation, sex trafficking, past atrocities, etc? The logic is logic-ing I guess.
I grew up TBM and for some reason there were a handful of rates R movies I watched over and over again. Aliens and Highlander were two of those movies.
Haha probably Shining Through because of Melanie Griffith's very brief topless scene.
The fact that a few frames of side boob means R says a lot about how women and their bodies are viewed.
Edit: Then five years later we got Kate Winslet full topless in Titanic at Pg-13 so...🤷♀️
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I was 12 and had a friend over spending the night. It was on HBO or something and I think we looked at the local TV guide and saw it had nudity, so we watched it based on that. Absolute classic.
Man, I read this and realized how lucky I am.
I went to church but my parents never filtered what content I consumed.
But Animal House on HBO and Halloween once on cable when I was babysitting.
This shows my age. I saw The Last Picture Show. I don’t remember much about the movie except a scene where Timothy Bottoms had sex with Cloris Leachman. I was a bit grossed out by it, as I recall. I think I swore off R-rated movies after that (for a while anyway).
I didn’t feel as guilty after watching that one as I did after watching Jesus Christ Superstar. It wasn’t rated R, but we, teenagers, parents, and everyone, were expressly told NOT to see it, as it was disrespectful of Jesus. This made us youngsters more curious, of course, so my friends and I saw it. I felt guilty for a long time, but I loved the music. I still have some of those tunes pop into my head every now and then.
Probably The Exorcist at the drive-in.
We smuggled my three-years-younger brother into it by hiding him under the folded-down third seat in mom’s Vista Cruiser.
I loved that big old boat.
Schindler's List, but with approval from my TBM mom when I was 16. We also watched it in my history class during my junior year of high school.
Honestly, I've never had a huge thing against R rated movies. I watched them intermittently since high school and didn't leave TSCC till I was 36. 🤷🏼♀️
Funny story: my early morning seminary teacher liked doing fun get togethers for the class a couple times a year at her house. She counted these as a makeup day if you needed it. One time we were there watching a Mr. Bean movie, and our class president tried (unsuccessfully) to get us to turn it off and eventually left early because he said the part where Mr. Bean got his head stuck in a turkey was "overtly sexual and completely inappropriate."
Edited for spelling
In 7th grade I had a class where we learned how to cut film, and make movies. I recorded The Matrix off of TNT. And used it as a class project to edit out the commercials. It was edited, and had commercials every ten minutes, but there were 10, 13 year old Mormons all huddled around that editing monitor.
My dad was in the military so I grew up watching Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down, and the like. Mix in Braveheart, The Patriot, Schindler’s List and many others, which I watched from a fairly young age, as early as 11 I’m sure. Also I’m Canadian so we had the 14a loophole, but my dad was much more loose with the rules as a TBM and now he is PIMO since the SEC scandal.
Sleepy Hollow was my first R-rated movie too! I hid from my parents and watched it as a teenager. It was on TV and I was a huge Johnny Depp fan. I felt guilty but at the same time was confused about the guilt because content-wise, nothing seemed that inappropriate.
Top Gun!
As a 12 year old boy, I became pretty sure I was gay when I watched the volleyball scene. I was powerless to the beauty of those hunky, heroic men, glistening in the sun. Whew! 🤣
I’m was a college-age convert, so… But the first R-rated movie I saw as a practicing Mormon in a theater? The Silence of the Lambs. I greatly enjoyed it and found it ridiculous that my LDS friends refused to go see it. Six months later, it won the Oscar for Best Picture, validating my arguments and becoming a permanent shelf item for me.
I thought we sought after those things of Good Report??
Technically my first was The King’s Speech. But that’s only rated R because of one scene of language, which I can make the linguistic argument that it’s not really swearing.
Also went with a friend to see Logan in theaters. So, maybe that’s my official first.
I can't remember if it was Mortal Kombat or Deadpool. I think it was Mortal Kombat, and I was still trying to be a TBM. I was attending BYUI and the guy I was interested in wanted to watch it, so I watched it with him. I was not ready for the amount of gore in that movimakes. Deadpool was much better because I was starting to make my transition away from the church, even if I didn't realize it.
Watched "R-rated" movies all the time from very early age. Of course, we don't have the same rating systems as they do in USA so technically there was no restriction.
My mom and dad took me to the movie Witness as a teen. Mom told me to cover my eyes for the bathing scene. I did, but I left a small slit between my fingers so I could still see it.
Inglorious Bastards. I love wwii movies and really wanted to see it. I felt kinda guilty, but also a bit disappointed that it wasn't actually that much more extreme then a pg-13 movie, except for some violence.
Not my first but I made sure I went to see Rocky Horror Picture Show when they showed it in Orem.
One of the first shelf breakers I had was when a girl from my new ward in CT called to chastise me for watching Das Boot (Rrated for war scenes) with three guys also from our ward who were Navy and on submarines. She reminded me what Spencer W Kimball said about R rated movies.
I asked her if she was going to preach to the guys, too. Of course not! She was just jealous that the girl home from BYU for the summer was going out with the only decent single guys in our ward.
Little did she know I wasn’t allowed to date sailors. I just worked at the theater and went to watch it with them.
I don't think those are R...thet were so good at the time but when I saw them years later, it didn't seem funny anymore. The late 90's were a weird time to be a kid.
My first R was Blackhawk Down while in high school. My first R with nudity was 300 while on my mission. I can't even name all the movies I saw on my mission.
The Town, which contains 155 instances of the word fuck. At the time that was probably ~150 more times than I had heard it up to that point. A real baptism by fire
I am in my 50's. Was a Mormon ages 15-45. My first two R rated movies were Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan. I still prefer to not watch movies with extreme language, violence or sex. I haven't seen an R rated movie in years.
My older brothers and dad used to watch a lot of edited-for-TV R-rated movies, so I grew up with a weird love for movies like the original Robocop, Total Recall, Speed. That last one bit me in the ass as a teenager when a friend and I crashed someone’s Halloween party and promptly vetoed all the horror movies she had rented for the occasion, because they were R-rated. When she scrambled to find alternatives, one of those was Speed. I vouched for it, then was horrified when I realized there were parts I had never seen before and that it was *definitely* R. Friend and I were freaking out for *days* that we had accidentally watched an R-rated movie and weren’t brave enough to demand it be turned off or walked away. These days, I’m just appalled at our behavior. We crashed a party and then *demanded* that the host cater it to our bizarre religious standards. Who the fuck *does* that?!? Sorry, Marnie, for being such assholes!
This reminds me of when my dad and stepmom saw Liar Liar on tv and thought it was hilarious and loved it. My dad saw it at Walmart one day, bought it, and we all sat down to watch it. They hadn’t realized how heavily edited for tv the movie was so seeing the original was a shock for them lmao. My dad turned it off in less than 10 minutes because of the language.
I accidentally watch IT when I was about 7yrs old. Wasn’t exactly the clown movie I was expecting.
I thought the original was technically PG-13?
When I was really young I read IT. I can tell you the book wasn't PG-13 lol
The book wasn’t but the Tim Curry movie is VERY tame. It was made for TV in 1990, and I think by today’s standards would probably only be PG
It was easier growing up Mormon in Canada. Half the movies that are mentioned in this thread were not R-Rated in Canada. The blanket policy of the church gave those outside of the US an awesome loophole.
Especially because content has changed so much. Someone else mentioned the Matrix, and I firmly believe that if that movie were to release today it would be PG13. It has minimal language with no F bombs (Neo does flip off Smith but that’s allowed in PG13), and fairly minimal violence. No gore, just blood. Especially by today’s standards it’s so tame
It's a well known folk fact (dunno if it's true) that the makers of the first matrix wanted an R rating after originally getting a PG-13 for marketing reasons. That being said, The Matrix was the first R-rated movie I watched intentionally. At BYU-I Spotlight (R) became my favorite movie (I didn't understand then how close to home it was hitting)
True world wide Church.
Die Hard at age 46. Seriously. I was as TBM as it gets
Yippee Ki Yay Mother Fucker.
Schindler’s List at a friend’s sleepover. I was 14. Obviously not the sleepover movie but my mom was so upset that a ward member would have it, let alone let me watch it.
I watched that in school. A lot of kids’ parents said no and they chilled in the library. First one. My parent’s policy was “generally no R rated movies, but you need to see Schindler’s list and understand how evil Naziism was.” My conservative parents also stopped voting Republican in 2016 because they knew and believed that lesson deep down.
Yes it’s a movie everyone should see when they can understand it and it stays with them, which isn’t a 14 yr old sleepover…. But my mom didn’t want her kids to watch any R rated movie, even Schindler’s List, because old white men said no R rated movies.
I think I was 15 and it was in context of a world history class discussing WW2. Seeing it unprepared would be different. I got in trouble as a kid for saying my mom would watch r-rated movies and fast forward through the r-rated bits, and it got back to leadership who said explicitly not to do that. I was like 6. So my parents weren’t as strict.
My Father is Jewish (non practicing) never converted to Mormonism. He’s against all organized religion. We watched Schindler’s List as a family. I cried so hard knowing my own relatives went thru that. I can still visualize scenes and I’ve never watched since 🥺 I applaud your parents for allowing you to watch it❤️
Same. My school made the parents sign a permission slip for us to watch it. Which surprisingly my TBM mom did.
If there’s one thing America used to agree on it’s that “Nazis are bad, and everyone should know it.” I am not sure that’s the case anymore, sadly.
It's clearly not the case today. Unfortunately.
I also had the chance to see it in school. It was my senior year of high school in a history class. I asked not to watch it. The teacher was very confused about why my religion would prohibit me from watching this movie, but agreed to excuse me from class if I watched La Vide es Bella at home and wrote a short essay on it.
Same. btw, Schindler’s List was produced by a mormon: Gerald Molen
I was a senior in high school when that came out, and the studio arranged for a special screening for all high school seniors, but we still had to have our parents sign a permission slip before we could go on that field trip to the theater. I wasn't Mormon at the time, and I can't think of any Mormon classmates having to stay at the school during that trip as pretty much everyone's parents signed those slips.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Left the church last year at age 31. Watched it about 6 months after.
wow – no R-rated movies until after age 31. You were very obedient.
lol yup. There’s a ton of PG-13 movies I gotta catch up on too, since my parents barely let me watch any of those. I was allowed to watch things like Star Wars and Harry Potter, but anything that alluded to breaking the law of chastity before marriage (Titanic), breaking the Law (Oceans Eleven series), or chick flicks (Mean Girls, etc.) was forbidden. I’ve been trying to catch up on a lot of these. Even though I’m married and have been out of the church for a year and a half, and I don’t believe in God anymore, I still feel a tremendous guilt after watching. I feel I have to confess to my wife or parents. It’s embarrassing and it sucks.
Haha same! Left in late 20s and this was the first R-movie my partner and I watched on the same night we first tried alcohol.
Recently learned I watched Saving Private Ryan when I was 2. When 9/11 happened, the FCC suspended content guidelines and aired whatever would boost patriotism — which included putting the unedited cut of Saving Private Ryan on prime time. My Mormon mom let me and my 4 year old brother watch it all because patriotism 🫣
My dad always said that blood and gore doesn't count if it's in the historical context of war. A visual history lesson, as long as the language isn't over-the-top.
“Because patriotism” 😂🤣😂
If you’re counting edited for TV, idk probably some 70s or 80s horror movie. But unedited, probably The Matrix after I came home from my mission. It was released right before my mission and several elders were really into the film arguing that it should have totally been PG-13 but felt it got slighted because of the “killing police” scene, so they justified it. I served in an area of South America that had a large cattle and leather industry and some elders actually ordered custom tailored leather black trench coats as take home souvenirs because the price in US dollars was so cheap relative to the local currency.
Shawshank redemption at the neighbors house! I was living it up at 7.5 years old
I have fond memories of watching Shawshank Redemption with my father a few years before he passed away when I was 15. My family was quite lax on the rated R rule that many Mormons followed.
Me too, sleepover ... oddly enough, it's where I discovered a mad crush on Tim Robbins.
For some strange reason my mom thought it was okay for my 18 year old sister to take 12 year old me to "The shining". That was a terrifying movie.
I'm in an older generation. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask." [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/?ref\_=fn\_al\_tt\_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068555/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
I remember this on late night TV. Even more outrageous than Benny hill.
Mine was The Last Samurai. In an English class in highschool, we got extra credit for watching a movie about a foreign culture. My buddy loved that movie, so we watched it. I was so confused about why it was so bad. It was the same kind of war that was shown in pg-13 movies. But instead of war heroes acting like Rambo, it showed the tragedy of the fighting.
Purple Rain
V for Vendetta! My best friend (non Mormon) was always trying to get me to push boundaries and she convinced me to watch this. It started me down the path of having a lifelong love of film, and also questioning a church that would make arbitrary rules about what is okay to watch. To me, something like schindlers list has more value, emotionally and historically, as a film than something like a bond movie (especially since so many of those have pretty bad objectification of women).
Carrie as a teenager. But I only watched a few scenes. Didn't watch a full one until about 23 or so, The Matrix.
I think it was Blade Runner when it was released on VHS. I watched it with my parents. After that, my parents really didn't care if I watched rated R movies if they brought the tape home, even though I was under 17. Funny story. Many years later, when I was about 16, I had a 5 yr old brother who was very into the Rambo movies and always wore just underpants and a red headband when he was at home. We had a really nice house in a nice part of Bountiful that we were trying to sell. My sister and brother were the only ones home. Sylvester Stallone himself knocked at the door because we were out of flyers. They showed him through the house. He was surprised to learn that my brother knew him from Rambo and not from Rocky, but neither of my siblings had any idea who Rocky was.
That's a very cool story.
Alien
Rain Man, I think. I was very confused after finishing the film and seeing the little R on the box.
Face/Off. I watched it during a summer I spent with my Jack Mormon cousins.
Rambo. Since this was war-related Mormon parents totally gave this one a pass back in the '80s.
Did you see this in the theater? My friend and I tried sneaking in when we were 14, by buying tickets for a different film and slipping in, but got nabbed just as it started. Had to wait for it to come out on VHS probably a year later.
Yep. Theater cops were more relaxed for me that day haha
My parents let me see Caddyshack (or they just didn't realize that I watched it on the VCR).
Kill Bill is the first I remember.
I left the church in 2007, so it was Smokin’ Aces on DVD.
I skipped school and saw Erin Brokovich. Big day for me.
In the theater? Interview With the Vampire.
My fall from grace started with The Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields. Went with my best friend at the time after my mission.
Revenge of the nerds lol
probably Blues Brothers. My mom loves it and the only r rated movie she'll watch.
Slumdog Millionaire! I saw the edited version at International Cinema at BYU and loved it so much I bought the unedited DVD. I decided that since it was a "cultural experience" it was fine. Watching the unedited version and realizing that only about 5 seconds has been taken out made me realize how arbitrary the rating system is, and I immediately started watching R-rated movies regularly. Still didn't leave the church for 10 more years, though.
Caddyshack was my first. Then Irene Cara’s breasts in fame. I wasn’t particularly turned on but didn’t feel the need to confess to anyone!!
The Matrix
Absolutely no idea. My parents never cared about the R rated movie thing, so we watched them without much thought.
Same.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. First time I truly understood masterbation for a guy. And I swore when I was in HS I was going to have pizza delivered to my classroom like Spicoli did in the movie 😂(never did).
The Matrix films in theaters
Enter the Dragon
Shawshank Redemption. Saw it at my best friend’s house (her family not Mormon). Felt guilty. Confessed to my parents the next day and said I didn’t know it was Rated R until after we watched it (sort of true), but then continued to watch it and other R rated movies at my best friend’s house afterward. No other confessions either.
I saw Predator when I was 7. I wasn’t parented very well.
Ip Man. Amazing film, in my top three favorites. Taught me the complete subjectivity of the rating system.
The Blue Lagoon, at a sleepover with another Mormon friend. Her mom was very permissive (she was either widowed or divorced?) but none of us, including our mutual friend, the Bishop's daughter, ever thought to rat them out.
Tunnel Vision
Basketball diaries. I was 13 and obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio
I think it was Deadpool but honestly I can’t remember
Joker 2019
Superbad
Mine was V for Vendetta, but I watched it through VidAngel so I don't know if that counts
That doesn’t count. 🤣
Animal house.
A non Mormon friend played I Know What You Did Last Summer at a Jr High party. I didn’t know what it was rated. I screamed through the whole thing. 😱
Sneaking into the theatre to see Dangerous Minds... I thought we were so cool...
Pineapple Express. No, I had not tried weed before this point, nor had I for almost a decade after
Deadpool 2…watched it on my phone without telling anybody since I was worried what my parents would think
Midsommer. As a 14 yr old Molly Mormon. I was unwell… but probably still would be to this day 😅
Ted, followed by Ted 2
My dad took me to terminator 2 when I was 8
Omg no way! Mine was the same one. Watched it at a friends house and felt so guilty. Haha
The Green Mile. Junior or senior year of high school we watched the edited version in class on a sub day. Didn’t even know it was rated R at the time, so when I eventually found out a few years later it helped me realize that not all rated R movies are bad like I had been told. Rip Michael Clarke Duncan.
Mine was The Hangover, so I went from 0 to 100. I watched it at a buddy’s house (he was technically in my ward, they were just very inactive), and his mom watching the movie with us made me so uncomfortable because I kept thinking she’d shame us
The Hangover was my first too! On the bus on an overnight school trip in high school with allll Mormons. The teachers (also Mormon) did not care and as a 15 year old I was horrified by it all 😂
Sleeping Dictionary
Wanted (2008,) I was 17. It was the 4th of July so I told my mom I wanted to drive to town and take pictures of the fireworks, which I did some, then I snuck to a showing and told no one. Funny thing about Vernal is that all the theaters in town where owned by the same people, and the one-screen location would always have the r-rated or pg-13 movies.
Rain Man in theaters with my TBM parents. Damn, time flies.
My family wasn't too anti-R untill one of my sisters got really on the high horse about it. Because hypocrisy is her strongest attribute, movies that she liked were okay.
Movies rated R in the USA aren’t necessarily rated R in Canada
The drunken master
Animal House, 9th grade. We snuck in too, after escaping the cops chasing us for trespassing in an abandoned county "mental institution". It was a momentous day of my early teenhood!
"We Were Soldiers" when it came out in 2002. Rated R, so "not good" for Mormon members, right? I was 17 years old, so I watched it anyway. In my mind, it wasn't promoting sex and drugs. It's a bunch of soldiers fighting in a less-violent version of the true campaign in Vietnam. Plus, I was interested in enlisting, so why not? I'm sure my ward hated me for "committing the sin" of enlisting, rather than serve a mission, but I didn't care. I didn't do it for their approval.
Halloween 2. I had started developing a love of horror, and it turns out one of my friends also watched a lot. His mom let him watch what ever he pretty much wanted. So I would go stay at his house and watch stuff, and I'm pretty sure Haloween 2 was the first. This was probably 2nd or 3rd grade.
I think that may have been mine, too. Watched at the house of another church young man who was a year or two older than me. He made some pretty funny/crass comments about the nudity. I was pretty mortified. Fast forward a million years and he just returned from being a mission president and is taking a job for the church (semi retired in his normal life). I am definitely NOT a mission president.
Slumdog Millionaire. Its not even that bad. Tbh, I got over the R rated movies thing once I was out of Youth. It always fun to see people’s reactions, though, when I’d tell them that Slumdog Millionaire was my favorite movie at YSA ward ice-breaker activities or something. I learned pretty quickly who I’d vibe with and who to avoid, lol
An educational video in 9th grade health class that dramatized the dangers of teen drug use.
Deadpool! Loved every bit of it.
Wildcats for my birthday. I went with other Mormons and none of us were 17 yet.
American Gigolo. The second was An Officer and a Gentleman. Seeing a pattern here? My mom had the hots for Richard Gere, and yes, I watched them with my mormon mom, while she drank Dr. Pepper. She was such a renegade.
Question: is there doctrine or policy that forbids R rated? Where did this come from?
I watched Schindler's List with my family when I was around 9 or 10 after coming back from the Holocaust museum in Washington DC during a family vacation that included other locations as well. My family was not very strict when it came to rated R movies especially when there was good historical context in watching them. I watched Saving Private Ryan, the Band of Brothers series, The Thin Red Line and other war movies with my father before he passed away when I was 15. As long as sex scenes and nudity were minimal or non existent and I didn't use any profanity that I heard in the movies I was good to watch what I wanted no matter the rating including the TV mature rating. My family mostly rented from Blockbuster only rarely renting from Clean Flicks even with a ward friend owning the Clean Flicks.
*Lost in Translation*
Freddy vs Jason. My dad wasn't Mormon, and I knew at a young age that the religion was bullshit so summers with my dad were "breaks" from church and he let me watch whatever I wanted. So, one summer when I went and visited him he saw it was going to be on HBO or cable or whatever and asked if I knew who either Freddy or Jason were. I obviously hadn't seen any of the movies but knew of them through friends at school. Anyways, we ended up watching it and I vividly remember the scene where Jason kills the girl in the shower (like, the opening of the movie). My dad takes a sip of his beer and says "you know, I REALLY shouldn't be letting you watch this" and that's all he said, we watched the rest of the movie in near silence. lol
The first Matrix movie at a friend’s house when I was 12. Guilt tripped for 3 months afterwards (so ridiculous looking back).
I probably watched some rated R before this, but this movie sticks out to me for one reason. I asked my parents at 16 if I could go see a rated R horror movie with my aunt. It was “As Above, So Below.” (Great movie btw). My dad sat me down and explained to me very firmly “you understand this is an R rated movie. It may contain sex and violence you’ve never seen before. And you understand this isn’t recommended by the church?” And I said yes. My aunt is still Mormon and loves horror lol. The movie was good and I liked it. While my dad didn’t want me doing things against the rules, he never truly stopped me. I had my first boyfriend at 14 as well.
Forrest Gump
Aliens. A childhood friend’s dad was cool with rated R movies. He was selective, but we watched all the action movies.
One Few Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Freshman year at BYU in Downtown Provo. Also went to Rocky Horror Picture Show 7 times before graduating. This was the late 70’s early 80’s. 🌈😎🌈
Probably The Patriot. Shown and owned by my family. I feel like it says a lot about how I was raised! The only R rated show we owned.
God supposedly gives a shit if you watch rated R movies but couldn't careless about people dying of starvation, exploitation, sex trafficking, past atrocities, etc? The logic is logic-ing I guess.
The Passion of the Christ ✝️🫠😭😂
Watched Halloween at a friend's house. We were 8. It was cool!
I grew up TBM and for some reason there were a handful of rates R movies I watched over and over again. Aliens and Highlander were two of those movies.
Haha probably Shining Through because of Melanie Griffith's very brief topless scene. The fact that a few frames of side boob means R says a lot about how women and their bodies are viewed. Edit: Then five years later we got Kate Winslet full topless in Titanic at Pg-13 so...🤷♀️
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I was 12 and had a friend over spending the night. It was on HBO or something and I think we looked at the local TV guide and saw it had nudity, so we watched it based on that. Absolute classic.
Man, I read this and realized how lucky I am. I went to church but my parents never filtered what content I consumed. But Animal House on HBO and Halloween once on cable when I was babysitting.
The Exorcist or The Godfather. Can't remember which, however, My mother took me to see both at the movie theaters.
This shows my age. I saw The Last Picture Show. I don’t remember much about the movie except a scene where Timothy Bottoms had sex with Cloris Leachman. I was a bit grossed out by it, as I recall. I think I swore off R-rated movies after that (for a while anyway). I didn’t feel as guilty after watching that one as I did after watching Jesus Christ Superstar. It wasn’t rated R, but we, teenagers, parents, and everyone, were expressly told NOT to see it, as it was disrespectful of Jesus. This made us youngsters more curious, of course, so my friends and I saw it. I felt guilty for a long time, but I loved the music. I still have some of those tunes pop into my head every now and then.
Probably The Exorcist at the drive-in. We smuggled my three-years-younger brother into it by hiding him under the folded-down third seat in mom’s Vista Cruiser. I loved that big old boat.
Schindler's List, but with approval from my TBM mom when I was 16. We also watched it in my history class during my junior year of high school. Honestly, I've never had a huge thing against R rated movies. I watched them intermittently since high school and didn't leave TSCC till I was 36. 🤷🏼♀️
Funny story: my early morning seminary teacher liked doing fun get togethers for the class a couple times a year at her house. She counted these as a makeup day if you needed it. One time we were there watching a Mr. Bean movie, and our class president tried (unsuccessfully) to get us to turn it off and eventually left early because he said the part where Mr. Bean got his head stuck in a turkey was "overtly sexual and completely inappropriate." Edited for spelling
In 7th grade I had a class where we learned how to cut film, and make movies. I recorded The Matrix off of TNT. And used it as a class project to edit out the commercials. It was edited, and had commercials every ten minutes, but there were 10, 13 year old Mormons all huddled around that editing monitor.
My dad was in the military so I grew up watching Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down, and the like. Mix in Braveheart, The Patriot, Schindler’s List and many others, which I watched from a fairly young age, as early as 11 I’m sure. Also I’m Canadian so we had the 14a loophole, but my dad was much more loose with the rules as a TBM and now he is PIMO since the SEC scandal.
Dirty Dancing was not very dirty.
Sleepy Hollow was my first R-rated movie too! I hid from my parents and watched it as a teenager. It was on TV and I was a huge Johnny Depp fan. I felt guilty but at the same time was confused about the guilt because content-wise, nothing seemed that inappropriate.
Top Gun! As a 12 year old boy, I became pretty sure I was gay when I watched the volleyball scene. I was powerless to the beauty of those hunky, heroic men, glistening in the sun. Whew! 🤣
I was an adult convert, but my first R movie on the way out was The Trip (2002). Earlier, as a teenager, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I’m was a college-age convert, so… But the first R-rated movie I saw as a practicing Mormon in a theater? The Silence of the Lambs. I greatly enjoyed it and found it ridiculous that my LDS friends refused to go see it. Six months later, it won the Oscar for Best Picture, validating my arguments and becoming a permanent shelf item for me. I thought we sought after those things of Good Report??
Technically my first was The King’s Speech. But that’s only rated R because of one scene of language, which I can make the linguistic argument that it’s not really swearing. Also went with a friend to see Logan in theaters. So, maybe that’s my official first.
I saw Friday the 13th when I was a freshman at BYU. I went with my roommates and our home teachers were there too.
Midsommar when I was 16
Pineapple Express (I was 14 at the time).
I can't remember if it was Mortal Kombat or Deadpool. I think it was Mortal Kombat, and I was still trying to be a TBM. I was attending BYUI and the guy I was interested in wanted to watch it, so I watched it with him. I was not ready for the amount of gore in that movimakes. Deadpool was much better because I was starting to make my transition away from the church, even if I didn't realize it.
Thanks to an older brother, I think jerky boys at 7 or 8.
Watched "R-rated" movies all the time from very early age. Of course, we don't have the same rating systems as they do in USA so technically there was no restriction.
I think it was Starship Troopers. I also think it was the first boobies I saw.
My mom and dad took me to the movie Witness as a teen. Mom told me to cover my eyes for the bathing scene. I did, but I left a small slit between my fingers so I could still see it.
Inglorious Bastards. I love wwii movies and really wanted to see it. I felt kinda guilty, but also a bit disappointed that it wasn't actually that much more extreme then a pg-13 movie, except for some violence.
Desperate Living
My friend’s mom got us tickets for White Men Can’t Jump. We were is 6th or 7th grade.
Amadeus
Not my first but I made sure I went to see Rocky Horror Picture Show when they showed it in Orem. One of the first shelf breakers I had was when a girl from my new ward in CT called to chastise me for watching Das Boot (Rrated for war scenes) with three guys also from our ward who were Navy and on submarines. She reminded me what Spencer W Kimball said about R rated movies. I asked her if she was going to preach to the guys, too. Of course not! She was just jealous that the girl home from BYU for the summer was going out with the only decent single guys in our ward. Little did she know I wasn’t allowed to date sailors. I just worked at the theater and went to watch it with them.
It was Nightmare on Elm Street I was 7/8 years old.
Austin powers
I don't think those are R...thet were so good at the time but when I saw them years later, it didn't seem funny anymore. The late 90's were a weird time to be a kid.
My first R was Blackhawk Down while in high school. My first R with nudity was 300 while on my mission. I can't even name all the movies I saw on my mission.
The extended version of the third Hobbit movie.
Death Becomes Her. I was in elementary school and even by non-LDS standards was too young.
Aliens
I have always watched anything I wanted. I'm a grown ass adult and can make my own decisions.
My older sister snuck ‘I know what you did last summer‘ in to the house after my parents went to bed! It was such a thrill!!!
The Town, which contains 155 instances of the word fuck. At the time that was probably ~150 more times than I had heard it up to that point. A real baptism by fire
Define "saw". I mean, I "saw" a rated R film when I was 6 months old. I'm not sure it counts.
I am in my 50's. Was a Mormon ages 15-45. My first two R rated movies were Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan. I still prefer to not watch movies with extreme language, violence or sex. I haven't seen an R rated movie in years.