How Would YOU Rate It
By: Dan Jones
The PG rating was established to protect our kids, because not everything was suitable for a six year old (for instance, nude scenes in the PG rated “The Omega Man” of 1971). There was a “Mature” rating in the late 60′s, but that didn’t quite pinpoint the content either.
The PG-13 rating was invented to correct the problem for those films difficult to categorize. (The new rating was created for the upcoming release of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” in 1984.)
The R rating is for the adult (17 and older) unless the adult allows the young to join.
Later came the X rating and the complications with such films as “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) and “A Clockwork Orange” (1971). X became NC-17, which has become the unrated DVD version. No one is supposed to see these films unless they are 17 or above.
But do previous ratings still hold today? Are the ratings of today accurate enough? Too accurate today?
Let’s look at today.
Below the MPAA movie rating symbol and its surrounding box, there’s now a run-on sentence inside another box describing the film’s content. “Good. There’s some violence, not apparently bloody. And no mention of poor language. I’ll allow my six year old to watch.” In the first five minutes of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (2009), good guys are swearing and your son asks what a %#$! is. So why the run-on sentence? You can’t trust it. (And why, if there’s one scene of violence in a film we will not mention, does it specify? That one scene is called the climax, and you’ve ruined it!)
Many of the PG kid movies of the 80′s are full of swear words and, perhaps, more dead bodies than today’s PG movies. If you know this, you can make an educated decision (since there was no run-on sentence back then) and enjoy “The Goonies” (1985) or “GhostBusters” (1984) with your little one. The G movies of today are almost nonexistent, for there aren’t many wholesome movies being released. So, really, what’s the difference? At least you can show your kid the good stuff.
Nowadays, PG-13 has become the money-making rating for two reasons. One, an irresponsible adult can drag their six year old to the “The Ring” (2002); and secondly, movies like “Ed Wood” (1994) would, today, lighten up on the handful of “F” words and receive a PG-13 rating to broaden the audience (not the audience’s horizons). “Ed Wood” is, however, marked with the R, but for what they must have perceived as “good reason.” Why do we need our six year olds, eight year olds, or thirteen year olds, for that matter, to see a film about a transvestite director from the 1950s?
The system doesn’t appear to be for our children but the studios and selfish adults.
In a perfect world, R would be for the adults (even if their only objectionable parts are a few “F” words throughout the adult-driven drama); PG-13 would be for horny teens instead of horny dirty old men; PG would be relatively safe; and G would qualify for all (entertaining adults as well).
So this is a friendly tap on the shoulder, a reminder, to go to the movies for your kids, yourself, or as a family. Don’t guess and hope your little child didn’t catch the masturbation reference. Or if the masturbation reference makes you uncomfortable as your sharing popcorn with your fourteen year old, maybe you should have let him see this one with his friends while you went to theater 3 to watch the blood and gore R movie.
Ratings help, but they’re not the ultimate guide.
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