Along with home, church and school, it set the parameters of proper behavior. Since the '60s, all of those other influences have waned, while Hollywood's clout has metastasized. Moviegoers ages 12 to 24 account for 38 percent of all ticket sales. Hollywood is sludge poured into empty craniums. In speech, dress and manners, the young imitate the most popular movies.
Opinion surveys show teens look to actors and actresses, more then their parents, as role models.
But every movie of this sort contributes to the collective crudeness of our culture and, along with it, the general loosening of restraints. On a Sunday in June, after an ethnic parade, a series of gang assaults took place in New York's Central Park. As many as 47 women were doused with water, stripped and groped. The assailants thought it was a riot. Like Carrey's alter ego, Hank, they had cast off society's artificial restraints.