How The PG-13 Rating Ruined Movies
Apr. 6th, 2012 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficWe all know how, after Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom shocked family audiences by having 100% more ripped-out hearts than the previous movie, the MPAA created the PG-13 rating to further delineate between what was appropriate for kids and what wasn't. (To those who don't know, after Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom shocked family audiences by having 100% more ripped-out hearts than the previous movie, the MPAA created the PG-13 rating to further delineate between what was appropriate for kids and what wasn't.)
The weird thing is, this has had the exact opposite effect. Instead of separating inappropriate from appropriate, we've simply made everything appropriate for kids. Like in The Dark Knight, where a man has half his face burned off and walks around like that for half the movie.
"Don't worry, parents, I didn't say 'fuck' as the flames consumed my flesh on camera."
Or Revenge of the Sith, where a man has all his limbs cut off and is burned alive in retaliation for murdering children and assaulting his wife.
"Don't worry, parents, I didn't say 'fuck'... err, right now. I'm not saying it."
Or X-Men, where pretty much the only bit of continuity between four movies is that a naked blue woman walks around. Except in Wolverine, where Hugh Jackman shows off his... shit, what's a word for buttocks that is also a reference to a Canadian samurai wolfperson with a mutant healing factor?
From the caption: "There is something very oddly arousing about Rebecca Romijn as Mystique. I have no idea what it is but she’s just as hot." Really? You really have no idea what it is?
Let's think about this. Let's spend five seconds on it. How many ratings do you really need? I'd say three. "Okay for kids," "maybe okay for kids," and "not okay for kids." That's it. Everything else is bullshit. The fact that we have a government agency devoted to bullshit is... well, pretty par for course, really.
The thing is, these days any parent who's really concerned about what their kids are exposed to can easily find information on the web devoted to exactly what's in a movie. So having an agency presented to making that judgment for them is like having a government task force devoted to curbing the rampant phone booth stuffing epidemic.
The weird thing is, this has had the exact opposite effect. Instead of separating inappropriate from appropriate, we've simply made everything appropriate for kids. Like in The Dark Knight, where a man has half his face burned off and walks around like that for half the movie.
"Don't worry, parents, I didn't say 'fuck' as the flames consumed my flesh on camera."
Or Revenge of the Sith, where a man has all his limbs cut off and is burned alive in retaliation for murdering children and assaulting his wife.
"Don't worry, parents, I didn't say 'fuck'... err, right now. I'm not saying it."
Or X-Men, where pretty much the only bit of continuity between four movies is that a naked blue woman walks around. Except in Wolverine, where Hugh Jackman shows off his... shit, what's a word for buttocks that is also a reference to a Canadian samurai wolfperson with a mutant healing factor?
From the caption: "There is something very oddly arousing about Rebecca Romijn as Mystique. I have no idea what it is but she’s just as hot." Really? You really have no idea what it is?
Let's think about this. Let's spend five seconds on it. How many ratings do you really need? I'd say three. "Okay for kids," "maybe okay for kids," and "not okay for kids." That's it. Everything else is bullshit. The fact that we have a government agency devoted to bullshit is... well, pretty par for course, really.
The thing is, these days any parent who's really concerned about what their kids are exposed to can easily find information on the web devoted to exactly what's in a movie. So having an agency presented to making that judgment for them is like having a government task force devoted to curbing the rampant phone booth stuffing epidemic.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-06 01:46 pm (UTC)Technically speaking, no film needs to submit itself for rating, and a film can be released with no rating. It just will have a tough time getting advertised and shown in a bunch of places, but that only matters to people making big mainstream Hollywood films.
As a practical matter there are only three ratings right now. G(a tiny handful of films) and PG together comprise a small number of films which fall into your "Okay for Kids" category. Roughly double the G/PG numbers, and you get PG-13, your "maybe okay for kids" rating. And then R, your "not okay for kids rating". NC-17 is essentially never used. There are actually quite a few unrated films, far more than G and PG , they're just generally documentaries, arthouse revivals of very old movies, Bollywood flicks, tiny budget limited release indies, etc.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-06 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-07 11:25 am (UTC)G.
>"maybe okay for kids,"
PG.
>and "not okay for kids."
R.