The latest frontier in the battle of freedom vs community standards is the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) Film Classification System, commonly called the "Rating System." In my time working at the theater it has become clear to me that many people out their do not comprehend the entire system so here it is in brief.

G - General audiences admitted
Means that nothing about the movie was deemed objectionable by the ratings board, no cussing, no sex, no violence. Anyone of any age can buy a ticket to a G rated movie.

PG - Parental guidance suggested
The movie may have a little cussing (damn, hell) some violence (generally with no blood) and light sexual situations (people dressed provocatively or seriously making out) Anyone can buy a ticket to a PG movie.

PG-13 - Parental Guidance strongly cautioned
Contrary to popular belief it is not an age restriction. Anyone of any age can buy a ticket. If the parents of a 10 year old were to drop him off at the mall and he goes to the theater and asks for a ticket; he will not be denied admittance to a PG-13 film. The 13 is simply an advisory, the general consensus is that if the child is mature enough to go to the theater without adult supervision he is mature enough to see this film. A film like this may have more cussing than a PG (Shit, SOB, maybe 1 or 2 uses of the word fuck) stronger violence than a PG (but usually with very little blood), sexual situations (maybe 2 people rolling around in a bed but a sheet covering the "good stuff") or brief nudity (a quick boob or butt shot that does not occur during sex.)

R - Restricted
A person under the age of 17 require the permission of an adult legal guardian to see this film. A film like this may have lots of violence and blood, strong language (the kind you might hear in a bar, or a high school) strong sexual content (2 naked people rolling around on top of each other) and of course nudity that lasts for more than 8 seconds

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted to this movie
Was once called the X rating was changed because porn producers took X as a badge of honor (i.e. XXX video sold here) and people began thinking that anything with an X was porn. A movie like this may have extreme violence or gore (exactly where the line is between gore that should be R rated and NC-17 rated can and is always debated) The same goes for sex, the only thing that everyone can agree on is showing penetration, oral, and the so called "money shot" (if you don't know what the "money shot" is go ask a 16 year old guy, he'll know)

Now that we are clear on exactly what the rating system is; here's my problems with it. I am against an adults only rating for 2 reasons.

1. It says that the ratings board, composed of a bunch of people who you have never met, know what is right for your kid better than you do. If you think that your kid is mature enough to handle a movie the ratings board basically says, we don't and we supersede your parental authority. It is elitism at it's worst to say that one group of people is so much more advanced that they can tell you how to parent. It is the kind of thing that conservatives rally against if say a school is trying to teach your kids about birth control or evolution; or if someone is going to tell you that your 14 year old isn't mature enough to handle a rifle to go hunting.

2. It is also unworkable in this day and age. In the days when movies played only in theaters or edited-for-television on one of the 4 TV networks it was easy to say no one under 17 is going to see this. Now in this age of VCR, DVD, and Pay-Per-View if a parent wants to allow their kid to see an "Adults Only" movie, they can. In fact Roger Ebert, one of the biggest proponents of an "Adults Only" rating even said as much. He said that we should have a workable adults only rating than if parents want to allow their kids to see an adults only movie they can still see it on home video. What kind of logic is that? If you have no problem with under 17 people seeing the movie on video what does it matter if they see it in the theater or not.

   I'll bet that a lot of you are saying that my reasoning is too theoretical; what parent would allow their child to see some adults only movie you ask. How about this? A father and 14 year old son want to go see one of George Romero's Living Dead films (Dawn Of the Dead (which many critics consider one of the greatest horror films ever made) or Day of the Dead) or Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films. (I swear I didn't plan for all of these titles to have the word "dead" in them;) Say that some theater is having a midnight showing of them in October or something, even though they may have seen these films multiple times on video should this boy not be allowed to accompany his father to experience these films on the big screen.

The rest of the ratings are out of touch with the parents of today. I can't tell you how many times I have heard parents (both at the theater and on USENET groups) say that they thought that some R rated movie was going to be OK for their 13 year old and found out that it was worse than they though it would be. They say that the movie should be rated higher than R. Why should it? R means that no one under 17 gets in without parental permission, is that not strict enough? The real problem is why did the parent assume that an R rated film would be OK for their kids? Because lots of movies that are not that bad get put in the R rated category so than when a movie that should be R gets one people are shocked at it's content. One of the big things that I think gets over classified is language. Using the F word a few times will get you an R rating but all school kids can hear it at school many times a day.

Another problem that I have with the ratings board is that it is censorship. Jack Vanetti can claim that it is completely voluntary all that he wants but the truth is while it is not written in any law books to have a profitable mainstream American movie you must go through the MPAA board. In order to get a rating a movie must be submitted to the ratings board. The distributor must pay a fee and the board will screen the movie and choose a rating. If the distributor is unhappy with the rating he may appeal the decision and explain why he thinks that the movie should get a lower rating. With a few exceptions (Clerks) the appeal usual accomplishes nothing. The only other option is to edit the movie differently. The distributor my take something out of the film and re-submit it and if the board thinks that the changes are sufficient than they can issue a new rating.

If the distributor wishes they may drop the rating entirely and release the film as "unrated". Vanetti will claim the option to release without an MPAA rating proves that the system is voluntary but the fact is if you release an unrated film many theaters will not show it and many news papers and TV stations will not advertise it as happened when Larry Clark dropped the rating from his movie Kids (1995).

A Modest Proposal:

I think that some people need to get together and make up a new rating system. I know that many directors are unhappy with the ratings that their films get; I also have read that the directors guild has publicly stated that they think the rating system needs to be reworked. I think that they should get together with some others who want a new system and make one independent of the MPAA. The theater companies would not like it at first but if some of the big name directors like Wes Craven, Brian DePalma, or Oliver Stone were to use the new rating on their films the theaters would have to accept the new system. I mention those 3 because they have all been needlessly hassled by the ratings board in films that they have made.

I think that their needs to be more or a levels between R rated films (and I mean one's that should be rated R) and PG films (which are all but the littlest kids). Having one stop between them (PG-13) is not enough. Perhaps you could have something like PG-10 and PG-14. The ratings are copyrighted by the MPAA so you can't just call something PG anything so you would have to call it something else like PA (Parental Advisory.) PA-10 would be movies that are above PG level movies. They would me movies like Men in Black and Lost In Space where the action is less graphic and the language is not too bad. Movies that are more intense or sexual but hardly deserving of an R rating like Terminator 2, The Matrix or Bring It On could be PA-14.