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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: This Film is Not Yet Rated (2006)
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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 04-01-2007 10:26 AM
Just as the documentary Super Size Me takes great pains to point out the blatantly obvious, so does This Film Is Not Yet Rated point out something which has been known for many, many years. In the end, This Film Is Not Yet Rated is miles ahead of Morgan Spurlock's movie. It has a more compelling foundation. It's put together better and, obviously, the research aspect is immeasurably better.
The problem with both movies is that the people who are really angry about the underlying problem shouldn't be so surprised. But the audience walks away feeling angry, muttering words like "There ought to be a law!" And this kind of thinking ignores the greatest achievement of the current rating system. Beginning in the late 1960s, it did allow filmmakers to shoot whatever they wanted and eliminated any real system of local or national, government censorship boards.
Now, you'll argue that the rating system is, in effect, its own form of censorship. Fair enough... If you want a movie to have increased box office potential. But Free Speech doesn't guarantee commercial success. And Hollywood studios have lost the power to suppress the indie filmmakers. Note that This Film Is Not Yet Rated was shown on a channel which comes into my parents' satellite box. And, while they're not activists about their viewing habits, I'm sure that if I'd gone over to watch it on their TV last night they'd be surprised to know they're paying to receive such explicit material.
The filmmaker (video maker?) talks to a lot of people who've had "unfair" dealings with the MPAA. But all of those people, near as I can tell, were trying to push the envelope... to work in that area which teeters between the R and NC-17 ratings without going "too far." Then they whine about getting an NC-17 rating. Why am I not crying along with them? They complain that, with an NC-17 rating, they won't have commercial success. Again, they're working in the indie realm where filmmakers are often proud that "commercial success" is an oxymoron. They made their beds. Now they're complaining that they can't sleep comfortably.
Millions of Americans have dealt with the MPAA on an ongoing basis. The movie seems to ignore them. If they wanted to make an air-tight case they might have interviewed a better variety of parents at average American multiplexes. I know that's not entertaining cinema. But they would also find that many "average parents" are complaining that the current system allows too much to be included in a PG-13 or an R-rated movie, and that the system should be tougher. Meanwhile, the indie filmmakers seem to want kids to see more of what might be called "adult material." And I ask... to what end? Just so that indie filmmakers can make more money? Is it really about money for them? That would make them just as bad as the evil corporations which control the media!
It's all well and good that we, as adults, can complain about inconsistencies in the ratings, but who's really talking about kids anymore?
There's a telling moment in "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" where someone from the MPAA (voice re-enacted) confronts the filmmaker about whether he thinks he should show his movie to a child. His reply is "It depends on the child." Exactly! So should the rating system be lenient, based on the most mature child who can process this stuff, or should it be an advocate for less-well-armed children and their parents?
To quote another review... "Folks who care won't learn anything and folks who don't, can't."
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