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"The thinking behind movie ratings"
12/29/2002 Entry
I saw Catch Me If You Can last night upon the recommendation of a friend of mine, but I'm not here to tell you about that movie. I enjoyed it, it was entertaining, but the most long lasting effect from that movie-going experience comes from some of the previews.
You've all seen it before: This preview has been approved for all audiences. I saw a preview for a movie that is all about featuring in the most gruesome and practically more-real-than-life-itself manner accidents that can happen to us on a daily basis. I had to wonder about not only what sicko would make such a movie but what deranged mind would approve it for all audiences?! (I will spare you the details because I don't want to inflict on you the kind of graphical description that I was involunteerly subjected to last night.)
So this started me thinking about movie ratings and how much they tell us about the values of the society in which they are implemented. Growing up in Europe, I was used to seeing shows on TV with fairly elaborate physical intimacy scenes [I have to avoid the s word here to make sure my blog doesn't get censored by too many]. So it's been a shocker how prude certain regulations are in the US. But perhaps it's even more of a shocker that in grave contrast, violence of all sorts is fully acceptable. How else could some of those previews possibly be "approved for all audiences"?
Catch Me If You Can has a rating of PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned - Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). It took me a while to figure out why it did not get a G (General Audiences - all ages admitted) rating in light of the G-rated previews we saw. The movie barely has any physical intimacy scenes and there are certainly no images of people without clothes on [I'm avoiding the n word here as well]. Then I realized the likely culprit: the f word is spoken twice! That must be it. Hearing the f word will corrupt our youth much more than seeing the most lurid horrible violent scenes. How could I miss that?!
You have to wonder what kind of values are being advocated when people losing body parts and being killed in the most ghastly ways is completely acceptable for general audiences but seeing two people express love and affection for each other is a grave sin from which we must protect the next generation. Only one question remains, I guess: what is going to protect me from the kind of generation that grows up on such values?
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