Not Surprised. But This Reminds Me…

Apparently mentioning hell or death makes you R-rated.

Which reminds me that the MPAA’s rating systems are a load of bullshit anyway. Some random yahoos who don’t even fit the criteria, and who have made careers out of rating films inconsistently and in stupid terms, do not constitute a representation of the culture in general. Far better if filmmakers were simply expected to “tag” films with content that potential viewers might be attracted to or  might find objectionable. I mean, if a film is tagged <lesbian love scene>, you’re gonna pick up way more viewers than you’re going to lose. And parents could even have set permissions tags set for their kids, if we’re going to actually play that game of make believe where ratings ever prevent anyone from seeing a movie.  (You know, pretending as if DVDs and older-looking friends or permissive elder siblings or slack-assed rental shop employees or movie piracy don’t exist in this world.)

Anyway, I’m amused that mentioning hell and death get me an R rating. Oh, and one mention of the word “porn” in the section discussing inexplicable keyword search terms that brought people to my site. Huh. Well how about that.

6 thoughts on “Not Surprised. But This Reminds Me…

  1. Maybe it’s a good thing to have something like an MPAA around. It’s handy sometimes to have a politically, ethically, and artistically bankrupt self-appointed cadre devoted to telling me what films I can safely avoid by labelling them “G” or “PG” and so on.

  2. Grin. I suppose. My impression, though, is that the anticipation of ratings in turn affects the kind of greenlighting and funding that projects get, and can prevent good films from being made at all. (Say, films where gay people are allowed a happy sex life, or films where obviously junkie characters obviously use drugs.) And since the ratings seem to be artificially tougher on independent films, it’s even more stifling.

    It’s an impression garnered from a polemic against the MPAA, the docco This FIlm Has Not Yet Been Rated, but still…

  3. There’s a solution for this problem, at least. :)

    Unfortunately, it involves a big airplane, a bunch of idiots interested in free transportation nationwide to a big pro-MPAA rally, and an ocean.

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