Canadian Video Classifications - Overzealous? (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

Just trying to figure out how the ratings given to more than a few pre '70s films that I have either bought or noticed as having an 18A or even an R ratng apply when there are much worse tv programs out there. An example is Georgy Girl - the big R? And I noticed that Another Time Another Place is 18A. Seems to me that despite the subject matter it might be a bit overkill in today's world?

Even though it is a tv series I had to ask myself how a Western from 1958 - Wanted: Dead Or Alive - was given the big bad R. It just might turn some people away from purchasing a certain release if they decided it applied at the same level as a movie made today. On the other hand some films rated PG in the U.S. will get a 14A up here so it really seems to be
somewhat misleading at times. Any thoughts on this?

 

[ChadMcCallum]

I can't say I remember ever seeing a Canadian theatrical rating that was higher than the U.S. rating. Its usually lower. For example Episode III was PG in Canada, Alien vs. Predator was PG in Canada, South Park was 14A. However when a film makes its way to video it usually jumps up a rating. I'm not sure why they rate films the way they do.

Maybe they just pull the rating out of a toque?

 

[Ruz-El]

Ratings period don't really make sense to me, as I don't believe they actually work like people think they do, but that's a rant for another thread.

It's my understanding that "R" in the states means no one under 17 well be admtted with an adult, while our "R" equevelant is "No noe under 18 well be admited." So our 14A rating is pretty much what the Americal "R" is.

I remeber South Park being an "18A" in Edmonton, they were pretty diligent in keeping the teens out. I wonder if some of the ratings are based on the provicial film boards mucking about to protect us from our bad impulses.

I too don't recall a movie being rating higher here than in the states, other than "R" rated material regularly gets "18A" here in Canada, but not a PG film getting the "14A". The flip side to this is we often get hard "R" material uncut that would earn an NC-17 south of the boarder, or cut down to an US "R".

 

[Mark McLeod]

The theatrical rating in Canada is province specific. The home video rating apparently is an average of all the provincial ratings and yes there have been cases where things that were 14a theatrically in BC have been 18a on video. I had an argument with a Blockbuster manager over this before I was 18.

I think (and this is just off the top of my head) that Dogma was 18a in theaters here but 14a on video.

Doesn't really matter now that i'm 23.

M.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

It depends when the film was rated. Georgy Girl was rated X in the UK whe it was released, 15 and 12 thereafter. Chances are the Canadian rating is an old one, which is why the US is listed as unrated. I would assume that for a home video release most companies aren't going to resubmit the film unless they have to, and will just go with the original rating, or list it as unrated.

 

[DavidBC]

The one that always entertained me was "The Exorcist" DVD. The 25th anniversary special edition is rated R, but the Version You've Never Seen (which I have seen, thankyouverymuch), which has a little more gore thanks to the spider-walk, is rated 14A. Slightly inconsistent.