The MPAA is trying to fine-tune their rating system amidst scorn from just about everyone saying that the system is broken. Personally I think it is only broken in the sense that certain filmmakers are limited in what kind of films they make based on the rating the studio desires. Considering ratings are an arbitrary thing there is no telling what the MPAA is going to think until you give them your movie to review and simply hope past precedent holds true, something that is made an example of in Scorsese’s The Aviator when Howard Hughes compares bust lines from several past on-screen beauties.
In the process of trying to “fix” the current system the new goal is “trying to make NC-17 respectable” reports Variety. This is a rating that pretty much replaced an X rating when it was first introduced in 1990 making a movie not at all available to anyone under the age of 17, accompanied by a parent/guardian or not. Considering the rating it was replacing this made movies that earned this rating pretty much black listed.
There are really only two things the rating would be used for: extreme violence and hardcore sex. Unfortunately for the violent films this is a rating that never escapes that feeling of an X rating meaning people see NC-17 and they think porn. The highest box-office grossing NC-17 rated movie was Showgirls at $20 million domestically, and it didn’t earn that rating because the Las Vegas honeys picked up machetes and machine guns and began mowing people down. It was for beaver shots and a bunch of tits, such imagery that would make any Christian elitist shiver in disgust.
On top of going after violence and sex there is now a group going after a stamp for any movies that have smoking in them. WHAT?!?!? Come on people, find something better to do. Variety reports that watchdog groups have long complained that movies romanticize smoking. Boo hoo. Cry me a river watchdog groups. How about getting a friend or two and enjoying life?
Here is the problem with NC-17 outside of the fact that a lot of theaters won’t carry an NC-17 rated movie and even Blockbuster refuses to carry DVDs rated NC-17. Such a rating means losing teen audiences that make movies like Saw and Hostel profitable. If 300 had been rated NC-17 do you think it would have made $70 million this weekend? The answer is no of course, which means you are ultimately taking a lot of money out of a lot of people’s pockets.
All that said, here’s an idea… should we just get rid of ratings?
Instead of giving the movies ratings, let’s just give them the MPAA’s explanations and allow people to make choices based on that.
In that case 300 would not have been rated R. Instead parents and moviegoers would simply know that 300 has “graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity.” Okay, I get it, makes perfect sense. I don’t need a letter rating outside of that explanation. How about Wild Hogs? That movie has “crude sexual content, and some violence.” From the trailer we know it is a comedy so that means it has sex jokes, maybe some profanity and a little bit of comical violence. If a parent can’t decide if they want to take their kids to these movies based on those reasons they are idiots, plain and simple. If they say they don’t want to look for the explanation and the rating is easier I say they are lazy idiots and I am surprised they figured out how to have kids let alone figure out how to drive to the movies or read in the first place.
With the large number of movies being released now days film ratings have become a huge influence on what kind of movie a filmmaker creates. Titanic was rated PG-13 and you get a nice long shot of Kate Winslet’s tit in that one. I can only assume an R rating would have either lost the tit or caused a huge ruckus. One thing I do know is that Titanic would not have made $600,788,188 at the box had it been rated R. How did it score the PG-13 and not an R? Who knows, but if it gets more tit in PG-13 movies then go for it. Unfortunately I don’t think I have seen a nip in anything other than an R rated movie since.
The rating system needs to be evaluated, but instead of simplifying it down to a letter, why not just give moviegoer’s a description of what they will find and leave it at that? Hell, you have a whole association at your disposal, put ’em to work. Also, it will help get rid of these worthless “Unrated” DVDs since everything will now be unrated. That alone is reason enough to make the move.
