What's up with the MPAA?

The Motion Picture Association of America has two goals in mind whenever their board of ten to thirteen members meet: "to encourage artistic expression by expanding creative freedom" and "to insure that the freedom which encourages the artistic remains responsible and sensitive to the standards of the larger society." (Leff 274)

Take the classic movie Jaws which came to theatres in 1975. Jaws was one of the first films by Steven Spielberg and the first TRUE blockbuster of the century. To top it off, it was rated PG. Now, for those of you who have actually seen Jaws, you will find that the moments of terror, brief graphic violence, and slight language is not something a child should see. Hell, the audience wasn't even ready for in in '75! Although I could not find it, there is a clip of the audience in one of the first screenings of Jaws. And in this clip, it shows the audience's reaction to when the shark first appears. (when Roy Scheider is dumping bloody fish in the water) That reaction was priceless! In the film people get eaten and (Spoiler alert) the shark blows up. All that and it is still PG.

Take Raiders of the Lost Ark, another Steven Speilberg film. This classic film was almost rated R because of one scene. (Spoiler alert) In the last scene when the Belloq and the Nazi's open the Ark of the Covenant, all kinds of crazy things happen. Spirits fly out, Belloq's head catches fire and shoots molten blots of light/fire to kill all the Nazis, a couple of faces melt... you know, the works. But the specific scene in question is when Belloq's head explodes. Now, the MPAA told Spielberg that if he uses the scene where his head explodes, the film would have to be rated R. The very smart Spielberg basically said, "What if the explosion is covered up?" The MPAA said that that would be fine. And so, Spielberg had Belloq's head complete engulfed in flames when his head exploded. So what is the difference between an exploding head, and a exploding head masked in flame? A whole MPAA rating. (at the time it went from PG to R)

Back to the Future Part II was directed by Robert Zemeckis. I will not go into too much detail, but basically, the movie is full of questionable language, suggestive themes, and some violence. It was rated to be PG. So when I saw it when I was eight, my father was slightly concerned that I may imitate the many "bad words" (5 of the basic 7) that were in the film. I didn't, but I agree that it should have been rated PG-13.

Here is some evidence that is actually relevant to the question. When I was on a cruise, I saw the movie Running with Scissors. I would not recommend seeing it because I thought it was a crappy movie and provided almost no entertainment to me. Anyway, the movie is about a teen boy who has a crazy drugged-up mother and is forced to live in his mother's supposed doctor's house. It is about this boy discovering that he is gay. Now, I saw this movie. I saw it and did not like it. There was a little bit of language issues, sexual innuendo, and the classic laying-in-bed-smoking-a-cigarette-after-sex-scene. But there was nothing in this movie that caused it to be rated R. PG-13 yes, but not R. I read most of the "Crosstalk: Does the MPAA Ratings Board Get a Bad Rap?" by Noel Murray and Scott Tobias. Noel saw Kirby Dick's documentary: This Film is Not Yet Rated and I agree what Noel wrote about Dick's claim that the MPAA is "frighteningly homophobic." If this is true, than it makes sense why the MPAA gave Running with Scissors an R rating, when it probably should have been PG-13.

If this is true, than the MPAA is biased. "There are many factors considered by the ratings board when assigning ratings to a movie including sex, violence, nudity, language, adult topics, and drug use. The ratings board watches the film and as a parent would, determines in the end which rating the movie should have in accordance with the depiction of these elements in the content of the movie." This quote was from the MPAA website under the Ratings Appraisal tab. So if the MPAA views movies as a parent would, would the MPAA take into consideration that there are gay couples? (Like in The Birdcage) And what about movies like Pineapple Express? Don't get me wrong. I love that movie. But the whole movie is about marijuana. Smoking marijuana, dealing marijuana, the dangers that marijuana bring and the joys that marijuana can bring. Marijuana is still illegal. I want to know exactly how this movie was allowed to be shown in theatres. It violates what the Federal Government stands for. But hey, thanks to the MPAA, I was allowed to see that hilarious and entertaining film.

Upon reading Leff's Dame in the Kimono, I learned how the rating system has changed. I learned that even though PG means "Parental Guidance", I learned that in the 70's, film producers gave it the underlying definition of "Pretty Gory."(276) This would explain why films were rated like they were in the past. The biases of the MPAA are not too extreme in my opinion, and just like Noel wrote, "rating-wise, the MPAA gets it right 90 to 95 percent of the time."