This Film is Not Yet Rated, a documentary about movie ratings

ZacD

You can steam it on netflix
This is a documentary about rating system and R vs NC-17, its also very similar to the M vs AO situation in US, it also takes in account how big film studios and indy movies are treated with ratings, sex vs violence, who reviews the movies, censorship, how the system gives more power to a few big companies etc, etc, basically the same crap that does on in the video game industry. Pretty interesting stuff.

Sean VanGorder

I just saw this on netflix last night, guess I should check it out.

Reminds me, I still need to watch Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Jeremy-S

Yeah, this was amazing. I saw a long time back, and found the bits about how (I THINK) it was the Catholic church who had priest in there to give his thoughts on movies. Why he was there is beyond me. And the so called "average people" rating them.

Very interesting, revealing, and thought provoking documentary, especially for movie lovers. Sheds a lot of light on the subject, and if I remember right, has some film makers commenting on the ratings system as well.

ebagg

This movie and F*CK:A Documentary (or the F-Bomb: A Doc...I think they changed that name!) are great examples of how ridiculously ass-backwards censorship in the US is. Personally I am against censorship period and putting regulation of such entertainment as purely a parental responsibility, but the fact that they lean soooooo hard on sexuality and language over insanely graphic violence makes my brain hurt. The people trying to regulate such art forms shouldn't be in charge of the deep fryer at McDonalds, much less the content of the entertainment we enjoy.

sneakymcfox

Just watched it, I had know idea that censorship or at least tight creative control on certain mediums was so bad in the US, especially the priest. It seems so odd to me that people are so enthusiastic to force there moral standards on others, these so called "average parents" seems so quick to pass judgment on what the general public should see when they go to a cinema.

It does however repeatedly bring up Europe as some shining example, which it isn't a lot of rating companies exist in various countries but there starting to get there act together with people like PEGI for games though these are currently not enforced by shops in the UK (I don't know the situation elsewhere). They still use BBFC who do films and games and who are also relatively lenient compared to PEGI (Who are way to harsh on there ratings IMHO). that and i don't know anywhere that wouldn't stock either 18 on PEGI or BBFC.

The thing I don't understand about this censorship is why do we need ratings at all, theater doesn't have it and you can go see live sex scenes in several small independent shows near to where I live so why does this suddenly "affect" children if they see it on a screen.

ZacD

Its not really the parents that make the rating system so bad, its the stores that refuse to sell anything NC-17 or AO, you can't advertise a NC-17 a AO movie on tv. And really, what the difference between 17 and 18 year olds? pretty much nothing, kids start being exposed to sex, drugs, and language when they are 12-14! Even a movie that depicts safe sex is treated the same as a movie that shows rape.

In the movie Team America, during the puppet sex scene, they went way over the top in what they wanted in the final scene so they could get away with more, featuring water sports and scat, so those scenes would get cut instead of the crazy sexual positions.

PixelMasher

I watched this a while back, its pretty interesting. it still blows my mind that rediculously horrible/graphic things like saw and hostle are alright, but linger on the face of a woman having an orgasm for over 3-5 seconds makes your movie nc-17. just such a puritanical view of sex, its rediculous.

you can show hundreds of people being shot, stabbed and blown up, but heaven forbid you show a titty!

another really good netflix documentry is The Union: the business behind getting high. Adam turned me onto it and there are some fuckin ridiculous lil bits of info in there, one of the better documentaries i have ever seen.