Thread to complain about the MPAA rating system

[BitBuster]

...I was a Communications major, and I'm as liberal as you can get when it comes to social things, so let's just say that I don't favour censorship in any manner whatsoever, particularly when it's as indirect (and therefore insidious) as the MPAA system.

The whole "protect the children" doctrine is absolutely ridiculous. You can't solve social problems by denying that they exist. That's just silly.

[Flareon350]

Before I comment on anything, there's just one thing I need to ask:

What the f*** is the MPAA?

[BitBuster]

Motion Picture Association of America. Responsible for the rating system and the accordant indirect censorship of the movie industry.

[Flareon350]

Ah ok. Well I have to think about what movies have horrible ratings first...

[AdrenalinDragon]

Well, if you say the "F" word more than once, you get an R rating I think. Also, nudity is worse than violence with the MPAA.

[BitBuster]

^Yeah. Exactly. I think the cap for "the 'f' word" might actually be two or three, but the point still stands...

[geodave]

1. The rating system allows way too much violence before assigning higher ratings.

2. For some reason, the system seems to think that teenagers don't know about sex.

3. The human body can be a beautiful thing -- unfortunately the rating system makes it hard to make money on movies that do this properly.

4. Don't pretend that nudity doesn't link to sex in your head. You know if does.

[BitBuster]

Maybe nudity wouldn't automatically link to sex if our culture (perhaps spearheaded by movies) didn't equate the two. There are cultures where women walk around topless all the time; do you think the heterosexual males in those cultures are perpetually distracted by thoughts of sex (I mean more than they'd usually be)?

I know Cameron had to argue with the MPAA over the nude scene in Titanic; he eventually convinced them that it was artistic. Frankly, when I saw that film (at eight years old), I was far more traumatized by the scenes of people getting trapped in rooms that were rapidly filling up with water...

But hey. That was just me.

[geodave]

Yeah, I thought Titanic was kind of a stupid movie, but that was artistic. I think Kate's topless scene in Hideous Kinky was better -- more natural.

The movie High Art, which is considered an "art" movie, did a good job. But these movies don't get major play.

My favorite movie, Bufallo '66, had just a bit of nudity, but even the preview was rated R. Stupid.