The Dreamers is one of Weinberg junior Caroline Blitz’s favorite movies, despite its NC-17 rating. Blitz said she had never really thought about its rating until seeing This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a recent documentary screened by A&O Productions last Sunday about the Motion Picture Association of America ratings system.
“It really isn’t as horrible as some of those R-rated movies,” she said. “It’s actually not that shocking of a movie [by comparison].”
This Film is Not Yet Rated, directed by Kirby Dick, takes a scathing look at the movie ratings system, from its inconsistent ratings to the secrecy of the MPAA board members. The film debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival before being released (unrated, of course) in select theaters and broadcast on IFC. It’s been sending shockwaves through Hollywood since debuting, even prompting some changes in the MPAA rating system.
Medill freshman Chris Gonzalez saw the film when it was released in theaters and said he thought it brought up some good points. Especially important to Gonzalez was the fact that studios often pressure to directors to cut or re-edit scenes to secure a better rating, which the film equated to censorship.
“I thought this was a problem before I saw the movie,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t think that it was fair for the studios to make artists change their work.”
The film also makes note of the controversial regulations for violence. For example, films that show violence without blood are given a PG-13 rating, while blood practically guarantees an R rating. One filmmaker interviewed in Rated argued that was backwards, since children should be able to see the gruesome results of violence to deter them from violent acts.
The fact that sexuality is often judged much more harshly than violence surprised Gonzalez.
“Violence is allowed, but if they show sexuality, even just female pubic hair, [the raters] just go crazy,” he said.
Gonzalez also said that the MPAA places a lot of thought on the context of a particular scene, allowing certain things in some movies that can’t be show in others.
“They’re more willing to take a transvestite in a comedy than a transvestite in a drama,” he said.
Much of the movie chronicled Dick’s attempts to unshroud the secrecy of the MPAA process, especially the members of the ratings board. The MPAA keeps the board members, all parents, kept under wraps to avoid outside influence. After hiring a private investigator, tailing cars outside the MPAA building and digging through peoples’ trash, Dick manages to out the members. In response, the MPAA has said that they will reveal more information, including posting the ratings rules and information about the demographics of the board on its website (the identities will still remain secret).
Blitz said he was surprised by the secrecy of the board, but also said it was likely to be skewed in its ratings.
“The only reason a random person would work for them is because of their own opinions,” she said. “They must already know what they want kids not to see.”
The MPAA will also reform the appeals process, allowing filmmakers to reference other films in their appeals for a lower rating. This comes in response to a particularly damning sequence, where he pairs up sex scenes from R- and NC-17-rated films to show the hypocrisy of the ratings.
The ratings system has long been a contentious topic in Hollywood, with filmmakers and critics arguing that some R-rated movie should be shown to teenagers (see Roger Ebert’s review of “Almost Famous”). In response, the MPAA will now release a “harder” R rating, to denote movies that teenagers really shouldn’t see.
Blitz said This Film Is Not Yet Rated could do some good and help reform the system, but that it didn’t have a wide enough impact.
“I don’t think anybody really heard of it,” she said. “I think that when a film gets released without a rating it doesn’t really get advertised.”