The always excellent chud.com has an interesting acticle up that starts out as a defense of Die Hard 4’s PG-13 rating but ends up being an indictement of the MPAA’s rating system.

Devin proposes a familiar solution, more rating classes. He thinks Die Hard 4 would be a good fit for a PG-15. Roger Ebert similiarly proposed an A rating a few years ago as a commercially viable alternative to the NC-17 rating, which was created to be an alternative to the X rating.

I think Devin makes some insightful points but his solution is misguided. This type of thinking is how we got the PG-13 and NC-17 ratings in the first place and the system has only got more broken. The root of the problem is two fold:

1) The over whelming majority of the population doesn’t even know what the MPAA is. Despite that ignorance their ridiculous rating system is exalted on some pedestal. The rating reflects nothing more than the arbitray opinion of a shadowy and politically motivated private organization.

2) The rating system operates under the assumption that the viewing rights of private citizens should be infringed upon in order to ensure that some 15 year old in Topeka Kansas doesn’t see a pair of tits on screen.

Most people assume that the MPAA is some kind of government beaurocracy (thank god it’s not) but actually the organization was created by and is financed by the six major studios. It’s a private organization and its only authority is self appointed. Furthermore, not only is the rating voluntary but it costs money and it’s not cheap.

There’s a better answer; fewer restrictions and scaling back the power of the MPAA. To the civilized wold those Christian Fundementalist rating sites (like this one) may seem backwards but I think they’re on the right track. At least these people are taking responsibility for themselves for vetting content and deciding for themselves if a film reflects their values.

Furthermore that 15 year old in Topeka Kansas is too busy getting to third base with his pet mule to worry about going to the movies. Secondly, 15 year olds spend most of their time trying to see a pair of tits in real life, and a good number actually succeed. We’re kidding our selves thinking we’re ‘protecting’ our nations youth from R rated material while they live X rated lives filed with sex drugs and adult situations.

Technically studios are perfectly free to release adult themed films (I’m not talking about porn) to the public but there’s a whole gauntlet of fines, levies and ad restrictions in the way. This was not the case in the pre NC-17 days when films like Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Clock Work Orange where the norm at the local cinema. I don’t think adding sex and violence to films makes them better per se but neither is it a coincidence that the golden age of american cinema occurred in between the tyranny of the Hayes Commission and the buearocratic obstructionist tactics of the MPAA.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Share This