Black Bars and Bleeps

Since its creation, the system in place for rating movies has been a controversial one based of the preference of the raters. In Leff’s book Dame in the Kimono, he explains how public outcry from the Catholic Church and angry parents pushed the Supreme Court to making a decision to “protect minor” (274). Leff also shows the inconstancy of the raters as time goes on: “The Rating Administration allowed what had been “X” to become “R”, and what had been “R” to become “PG”” (276). As the society becomes accustomed to these graphic images, they become acceptable and directors have to try harder to push the limit, and as the raters of today come from a more relaxed viewpoint than the previous generation the trend continues as time goes on. The rating boards of the 1970s also had trouble finding a group of raters that actually reflected the general population. As Leff said, “Jack Valenti wanted to rejuvenate and professionalize the board much as the Catholics had done with the Legion of Decency some years before” but it was hard as many of the current members at the time “trusted no one over thirty” (277).

Another major controversy about the rating system is that no one really knows who the raters are. In the documentary This Film is not Yet Rated, producers and directors hire private investigators in an attempt to break into the ring of secrecy. In the film, the group seeks to uncover the secret identity of the 10 LA parents that set the ratings for Hollywood. Individual biases are also brought into the rating structures: “Films with a gay theme may get a harsher rating”. This makes films with these biases in them more likely to receive a more restricting rating and possibly the NC-17 rating which will ultimately destroy the film.

Kirby’s This Film is not Yet Rated, also had in impact in effecting how others look at the sex v. violence fight. In the write up of the Crossfire interview Noel brings up homophobic tendencies in the MPAA present in the film, but he also still acknowledges that much of the public still does not really understand the MPAA and how they rate. As Noel says, “my argument here boils down to three points:

1. Ratings-wise, the MPAA gets it right 90 to 95 percent of the time.

2. When they get it wrong, the injury caused is negligible.

3. When people complain about the MPAA's decisions, they're most often really complaining about something that the MPAA doesn't control.”

It seems that though the MPAA is easily and fast critizised by many in the population, much of the blame on the MPAA comes from ignorance on what they really do.

David Scully