This Film Is Not Yet Rated -- 2006 -- NC-17 (Rating Surrendered)

This is a documentary about the MPAA and the ratings system. More specifically, it concerns how and why films are rated in an attempt to get to the bottom of why some films get an R while others get a PG-13 and while others get NC-17 when films that have the same scenes get an R. It also delves into the inner sanctum of the MPAA via guerilla filmmaking to find out who the mysteriouos film raters are. It makes for an interesting documentary, and it's very informative, so rather than comment on how the documentary is made (what's the point?), I'll kind of talk about some of its opinions.

One point it repeatedly tries to drive home is the idea that the MPAA equals censorship, and blames this organization for getting content cut from their films because they give it a high rating. It is a fact that NC-17 spells death for any film because of marketing and sales, but when you get right down to it, is that the fault of the MPAA? A brief point was made that was brushed off of the true culprits of censorship, and they aren't the MPAA.

The purpose of the MPAA which was stated in the midst of the documentary is that ratings are given to inform parents of the state of the film's content. The ratings are well known: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 (formerly X). They each have their place on films, and to those of us who are over the age of 17, these ratings mean nothing...absolutely nothing. We can watch anything we want. Some people use them as a means to decide whether they want the type of content the ratings imply, but at the end of the day, the purpose of the ratings are exactly the same: to allow the viewer a quick insight to the film's content as it relates to children.

Where does the censorship come in? They hit it in the doc. Marketing, sales, movie theatre owners, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster... They stated Wal-Mart and Blockbuster (who purchase 40% of the video sales collectively) will not buy or carry NC-17 films. You can't run trailers for R or NC-17 films on TV. So should we picketing for censorship? The MPAA only gives the ratings. It is those who are using those ratings for decision making that are practicing the censorship. 

Ironically, I got this from the public library. Since the film surrendered its NC-17 rating that it got from the MPAA, it is now Not Rated at all. I guess that means it can be purchased.

This is not to say that the MPAA is not without its problems and inconsistencies. I've seen R rated movies that confound me as to why they're R (PG-13 would make more sense). I've also seen PG or PG-13 movies that are better placed as R (Amityville 3-D immediately springs to mind as it has some rather sick scenes, yet it got a PG rating, getting rated just before the PG-13 rating came out; I suspect Poltergeist had something to do with that as Spielberg fought Poltergeist's R rating initially and got it a PG). They apparently don't provide any notes as to why a movie gets a rating to some people, but to others, they provide details as to which scenes and moments should be cut. It was really strange, and while I know the slant of the documentary was against the MPAA, they made some solid points to their problems.

Personally, I think the purpose of the MPAA is legit, but the information the MPAA provides has been abused by marketing, retailers, and others to practice the censorship that the MPAA was created to avoid. The point of the ratings system was to allow the filmmaker to make the film they want to and let the viewer know ahead of time what kind of film they were in for and whether the children should come. I do feel that films should receive equal treatment regardless of their ratings and the parents should be given the choice of whether kids could watch it or not. Unfortunately, some parents don't want to take any responsibility for anything causing retailers like Wal-Mart to think for them and censor films they don't think are family friendly based on the rating alone. But if these films can be cut down to R, aren't you getting the same thing without the 3 seconds of content that sent it over the fence? In fact, one film made a "neuter version" of their film so they could exhibit the original NC-17 version, and sell the film in some form through Wal-Mart.

If enough films got NC-17 ratings and pushed for their inclusion (apparently A LOT of films get NC-17 for a variety of reasons in their first go round through the MPAA; the Friday the 13th series, I hear, has gotten either X or NC-17 every single time it goes through the first time for violence), we'd get some changes to what gets censored. But since everyone feels victimized and folds to the system, the system maintains their stranglehold.