This Film is Not Yet Rated

When I was five or something I pretended to sleep through the film Alien. I was terrified. But today, it's probably my favourite film. When I was ten or something I saw Silence of the Lambs; the only thing that scared me was the moth. I snuck in to Eyes Wide Shut when I was sixteen, but I left because I was too young and stupid to find it interesting. However, if I was living in Iceland (14+), Quebec (13+), Finland (16+), Denmark (15+), France (Anybody), Germany (16+), Italy (14+), Netherlands (12+), Norway (15+), Sweden (15+), or Switzerland (16+), it wouldn't have been a big deal for me to see the film. But here in the United States, we have what is called the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and their autocratic rating system - a cornerstone of Hollywood's success and a stronghold for socially conservative bread-basket whores.

The MPAA is funded by the major Hollywood studios. In addition to establishing a ratings system, the organization also lobbies for copyright protection and establishing digital rights management consensus in the industry. I don't have a problem with their anti-piracy lobbying, but I do have a problem when it comes to their ratings system. First of all, the Hollywood studios have made it a monopoly. Although other ratings systems exist for christian groups and more progressive parents, they don't have any impact because the studios and theaters have agreed to only use the MPAA system. Hence, 95% of films distributed in the United States are rated by a board of seven people. Seven.

Because the MPAA's rating methods are veiled in secrecy - it was all but impossible to find out who was rating more than 95% of distributed movies. That is, until the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated decided to investigate. What they found was that none of the board members are trained before they start rating the films, none of them are versed in film technique, and none are educated in child psychology or any other kind of child development. They are just a random sample of whites (and two Asians) that live in the Los Angeles area. These people are paid $30,000 a year to watch movies and point out obscenities. Even though the Supreme Court of the United States hasn't really defined obscenity, the MPAA feels like they have a good idea.

After watching the documentary, it's obvious that the MPAA ratings system is worthless and is used as a device to keep big Hollywood studios in control of what the public watches. The ideal situation would be a ratings system that represented all social groups. It would also be nice if the MPAA divulged the questionable parts of movies, instead of "R for language and violence." What kind of violence? What kind of language? The best ratings system I've come across is the Common Sense Media organization. My favourite part of their ratings system is they have a category for commercialism/ product placement (let's not brainwash the kids into becoming whores to consumerism.) Netflix uses their ratings on many of their popular movies, and every review will point out certain scenes that a parent might want to know about before letting their child watch it. After looking at their ratings system, a concerned parent might wonder why the MPAA is still in power. Well, if they want to know, they should rent This Film is Not Yet Rated (distributed by Netflix), a vital film that is, of course, unrated.

Illustration credit: FunKinki