I know I've only made a few posts but I'm mad. MAD! I tell ya.
You know what done it? Finding out that the new Alien V Predator movie was a PG-13. A f****n' PG-13! Check
here if you don't believe me.
I just thought what the hell is going in Hollywood today? A film that could be a possible franchise based on dark, scary and gory movies has been turned into a desperately teenage friendly movie, designed to catch as many 13 and 14 year old as possible! The people at FOX should be ashamed of themselves!
The same thing happened with King Arthur. The script was written by David Franzoni, who wrote Ridley Scott's Gladiator, which practically revived the swords 'n' sandals epics and I'm sure the film was shot to be more graphic than it was.
Even in an interview, Jerry Bruckheimer promised not to hold back on the gore and sexuality... but lo and behold, the movie is a PG-13 with rumours ALREADY going around that Antoine Fuqua was hinting at doing an R-Rated Director's Cut on DVD. Makes you sick doesn't it?
Every year, but particularly in the Summer it happens, movies that are obviously meant for adults, that deal with sex, violence or strong language are heavily edited for the "kids" or "target demographic".
Damn, what happened to the producers' and directors' vision, where a film was just made, submitted for a rating and whatever it got that was it and it got released! Films with heavy sex, violence and strong language (and those "themes") were R and films without that were PG/PG-13!
Sometimes I look back to the '70s and '80s and think at least we had execs and producers with balls back then!
We had Die Hard, Predator, Commando, Rambo, Lethal Weapon, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Wild Bunch, The Shining, A Nightmare On Elm Street, etc... yes, those films may have been of varying quality, but at least the filmmakers believed in giving ADULTS at good night out!
That's why sometimes I thank God I live in England, because we have the
BBFC. The British rating board is SO MUCH better than the MPAA it's unreal!
A quick history though. In the late '70s and '80s, a guy called James Ferman was in charge of the BBFC, much like your Jack Valenti, unfortunately, he was very conservative and observed the 'video nasty' craze at the time (cheap and nasty exploitation flicks made quickly and released straight to video, before ratings existed) and blocked a lot of movies from coming out. Controversial movies were heavily cut and others were simply banned. Unusually, he was in charge for 15+ years which is longer than a Director is supposed to be...
After he left in the late 1990s - IMPORTANT - a guy called Andreas Whittam Smith took over and was far more liberal (now Robin Duval is the new Director and he is similar to Mr Smith). Under his reign, many banned and heavily cut movies were re-submitted and PASSED! Among others, The Exorcist, Evil Dead 1 AND 2 were released again alongside the so called 'video nasties' which were let through with only 'minor cuts' than before and all new genre & boundary breaking movies were passed UNCUT like IRREVERSIBLE...
As well as the above the British ratings were relaxed and the 12 and 12A (similar to the PG-13) categories were introduced. They were primarily used for comic-book movies & summer blockbusters so producers & directors could push slightly harder with the action and set pieces for Spider-Man, X-Men, The Hulk, etc...
The MAIN reason why I love the British rating system (and just not because I live here
) is that it follows
common sense:
Our U is equal to your 'G'
Our PG is equal to your 'PG'
Our 12 is debatable: over 90% of the time it matches your 'PG-13'... BUT YOUR 'PG-13's can sometimes be slightly too violent and become a...
(Our) 15, which is where you should pay attention. A 15 would match your 'R' because it would most likely have plenty of strong language (f-words, s-words, a LIMITED amount of m-fs and very FEW c-words). 15's are mostly applied to general action movies (The Rock) and thrillers (Spartan, Patriot Games), sex comedies (American Pie movies), martial arts (Mortal Kombat, Romeo Must Die) and strangely enough 'ghetto' movies (Friday). Then there is the 'final' rating...
Our 18, which ALSO matches your 'R'. In James Ferman's days most 18's were cut, but nowadays they are rarely. '18's in the UK are always more graphic adult movies, with more sex, nudity, violence or swearing (your typical '80s movie night out!
) They range from Blade 2 to Battle Royale to Pulp Fiction to Basic Instinct to Sexy Beast to Freddy V Jason to Goodfellas, etc...
Now here is a main point to American moviefans and Hollywood: THERE IS NO SHAME IN AN ADULT
('18') RATING! If a film is given an 18, then so be it! In England, 18-year-olds and above go to the movie theatre/cinema and just watch it! The film doesn't suffer from a stigma around an 'adult' rating, that's just the audience it's intended for! The Hollywood producers AND execs need to get a grip on this
'NC-17' nonsense!
"Oh, our movie got an NC-17, that means we can't get the teenage audience we want!" Boo-hoo! (Teenagers make up to the majority of the moviegoing 'demographic - any movie they go (or their parents take them) to = $$$$$!)
Even around Europe people respect and understand their country's movie ratings systems and it's no suprise that producers normally release 'International Extended/Uncut' versions over here...
And because of all this and the advent of DVD, it means that (studios want?) producers and/or directors frequently choose to submit and release a PG-13 OR light 'R' rated movie at the movie theatre/cinema and then IN ADVANCE announce that they will release a 'hard R' or 'Unrated' version on DVD. Is that spineless, or what? Unsurprisingly, the extra versions always have only small changes to the movie...
I wonder how many more movies will be released on DVD this year and next as 'Director's Cuts', 'Unrated' or 'The Parts You Could Never See!' (sound familiar?)...
Until the Hollywood big heads come clean, the MPAA applies some common sense and the Studios, Producers & Directors stop being so cowardly, WE should all view ANY big-budget/big-star movie with sceptism...
End of rant...
