Comments | mariness: Movie ratings and other rambles

mariness

Movie ratings and other rambles

Oct 05, 2010 13:13

Back in high school, when I was well under 17, a friend and I walked into an R movie. Quite openly. Our plan had been to buy tickets for a PG movie and then sneak into the R movie we wanted to see (one reason to always be slightly skeptical of movie ticket sales as an indication of actual viewership - I can't imagine the American teenager has ( Read more... )

ratings, movies, disney

Comments 12

Well... ysabetwordsmith October 5 2010, 18:14:04 UTC

I am unimpressed with the movie rating system, along with any other system that has vague labels and opaque criteria. If I can't see their biases so I can compensate for those, the data is worthless to me.

Re: Well... mariness October 6 2010, 01:54:48 UTC

I think part of the problem is that their biases seemingly change from film to film.

cardinalximinez October 6 2010, 01:45:24 UTC

On top of all it's other problems, the organization that runs the ratings system is appparently incredibly corrupt.

mariness October 6 2010, 01:55:40 UTC

Given that Quills made it through on a R rating I would tend to agree.

starfire68 October 6 2010, 11:24:45 UTC

I find I pretty much ignore the rating system, especially when choosing movies for my own kids to watch. My system? I watch the movie first and if I don't think they'll have a problem with it, they can watch it. I know their maturity levels and what they are able to deal with far better than some arbitrary committee somewhere.

It's worked since my kids were old enough to have a preference of movies to watch. Granted, I end up watching things I have zero interest in merely to see if they're okay for the kids, but it's better than trusting someone I don't know to tell me what's appropriate.

cardinalximinez October 7 2010, 11:03:13 UTC

There's a section in IMDB for parents where the community provides a list of all the stuff parents might be concerned about, but does it non-judgementally.

E.g. They don't say "there's way too much cussing in this movie." They say, "There are 3 fucks, two shits, and a goddammit."

It's not perfect, but it works well when I don't have the time, money, or inclination to see a movie twice.

starfire68 October 7 2010, 11:08:35 UTC

Handy to know, I'll have to check it out :D I rarely worry about cursing...they hear worse at school and on the bus. It's more sex and gratuitous violence that I'm concerned with.

cardinalximinez October 8 2010, 10:59:28 UTC

My attitudes are similar, which is why I like the specific details rather than a single rating.

wyldemusick October 7 2010, 08:37:21 UTC

There was a documentary about the ratings system some years ago (trying to remember the title) that was sent to the Ratings And Classification Board and was promptly classified NC-17, despite the lack of any actual reason to rate it so.

Wrting and cutting to gain a specific rating is an old game, and it can get very odd indeed -- there was the case of, for example, Sam Peckinpah's THE KILLER ELITE, which was made as a fairly typical Peckinpah movie, and which everyone expected to come out as an R rated film for the usual reasons. Peckinpah suddenly decided to recut the thing (without reshoots!) to get a PG, which rather mortally wounds the film...which still has in it a brief but bloody shot of an agent having his brains blown out, and numerous bare breasts. No-one has been able to figure out why Peckinpah did this, although he might have been jumping in before the studio decided to whack at it ( ... )

cardinalximinez October 7 2010, 11:07:39 UTC

"This Film Is Not Yet Rated"? ...which I still need to watch one of these days.

wyldemusick October 7 2010, 08:39:11 UTC

Oh, and the reason the biases shift from film to film is that they're a shifting group of lay people and there are no real rules laid down. I'm amazed to this day that films like SAW and HOSTEL get through unscathed.