Hidden in America is a made-for-tv (Showtime) movie that was commissioned in 1996 by an organization called End Hunger. It features Beau Bridges as a widowed father of two who has fallen on hard times. He loses his $16 an hour factory job and his health insurance just before his wife becomes ill. After her death, he moves to a new town to start over, but has trouble finding steady full-time work. He does the best he can with a pastiche of part-time minimum wage jobs, but his resources are meager. His pride will not allow him to seek assistance until poor nutrition makes his 10-year-old daughter so sick that he has no choice.

I became aware of this film a few weeks ago when I sought information from the Internet about hunger resources. I'm in the middle (okay, another beginning) of a year-long weight loss effort, chronicled (although not since May!) in another part of this site. In refocusing my energy in this area and getting ready to begin updating that section again, I plunked down another $116 for twelve weeks of Weight Watchers and listened to that evening's presentation on food choices. And I was struck (not for the first time) by the absurdity of my ability to pay money to restrict my food choices when there are thousands of people in the richest country in the world who don't have enough money to make very many choices.

So Sunday night at Blockbuster, after I'd picked up the remake of Psycho, I sought out Hidden in America. A single copy of it was filed with other "H" titles in the drama section (there were dozens of copies of Psycho and South Park and Steven Seagal action flicks displayed prominently along the walls). I reached behind the illustrated but empty commercial sleeve for the actual video in its plain blue and white box and was startled to find it festooned with a "Youth Restricted Viewing" sticker. (Hidden in America, although made for television, carries a MPAA rating of PG-13. Psycho, rated R, bears no such sticker.)

As I was checking out both titles I inquired about the YRV designation. According to Blockbuster's guidelines, R-rated movies and some unrated material deemed of a mature nature are off limits to those under 17 unless they are specifically authorized access by the adult who holds the membership. Blockbuster stocks neither X-rated nor NC-17 movies nor video games rated A (Adults only). None of the clerks, of course, could tell me why Hidden in America might be deemed YRV even though it's PG-13 because none of them (not surprisingly) had ever heard of it.

At home, my husband and I enjoyed Psycho on Sunday night -- as a remake it was adequate, although it suffered from the absence of Anthony Perkins and of Alfred Hitchcock's trademark walk-through. The sexual material was only slightly more explicit than in the 1960 original, and the slashing scenes retained the horror engendered by careful suggestive photography rather than the tissue-spewing reality found in some low-budget slasher films. Fine for adults, we agreed, but neither suitable nor necessary for youngsters.

We watched Hidden in America on Monday. Good writing and fine acting made for a thought-provoking if not exactly entertaining viewing experience -- the story ends on a hopeful rather than a triumphant note, and you don't exactly walk away from the theater whistling a happy tune. But there's no sexual content, no foul language, and no violence, except for one brief scene in which the 11-year-old son, driven by the belief that his father and sister will be better off with one less mouth to feed, attempts suicide.

And that's probably what earned the work its YRV designation from Blockbuster, if, indeed, anyone at Blockbuster has actually seen it. I agree that such a scene might be disturbing for sensitive and impressionable youngsters. But I also believe that the circumstances under which they might see this movie -- Sunday School class, youth group meetings, family discussion nights in homes like ours -- would prepare them for the experience and give them an outlet for discussing their feelings (the G in PG). Trust me, this is not a video my daughter and her buddies are likely to be attracted to when searching for entertainment to while away another 102-degree afternoon.

My concern stems from the impression that the YRV sticker conveys -- that the material contained therein is prurient, vulgar, or lacking in redeeming social value. Some adults, when choosing material for their children, will automatically screen out anything with such a warning sticker. The designation thus puts the movie off limits to children who only a few months from now will be able to rent Bowfinger, the new Eddie Murphy/Steve Martin PG-13 flick promoted during network tv's prime time hours last night. Right there, during the commercial breaks of popular shows, was a clip which featured a woman displayed on a stage in two different bondage poses.

But that's our culture right now -- bondage made amusing is available to virtually anyone, but heightening awareness of a social problem that we can all do something about is deemed too disturbing for some.

I don't like to write pieces that are pure rants -- complaints about a situation with no plan of action for improving things. I've decided to include hunger awareness material (including promoting Hidden in America) when I start updating my "Refiguring" pieces, and I'm contacting Blockbuster, not to rave in complaint, but just to express my feelings.