Chuck Anstey
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Nov 10, 1998
- Messages
- 1,640
- Real Name
- Chuck Anstey
I have been rewatching a bunch of '80s R-rated movies I had seen in my youth at the theater or on HBO and they really don't make them like they used to. Specifically profanity and naked/nude shots.
Profanity was in constant use during most '80s action movies and comedies but it seems like most of today's movies rarely swear and it seems like there is more profanity in PG-13 movies trying to be edgier than in an R-rated movie where they could use it with abandon. Examples would be any Arnie action movie, Die Hard, and Used Cars. There are some movies made recently that come close to '80s level profanity like 40 Year Old Virgin and South Park: BLU made fun of it but they are pretty rare. Now as a parent I am concerned with profanity in PG and PG-13 movies, especially when it is gratuitous because it is easily repeated by my children as opposed to some crazy action scene but if it is R-rated then you know what you are in for. I'm curious if people (adults) in general prefer less swearing in movies or there is some other reason.
However, the biggest change has been in nude frontal shots, especially of women since even in the '80s a full frontal male was a no-no. Take "classics" like Porky's, Cat People, and the ultimate, Life Force. Hell, even the PG Clash of the Titans has two lingering front shots. Today there is usually only a super brief frontal shot or simply side shots. Basically if The Breakup was made in the '80s, it would have been rated R and we would have seen all of Jennifer Aniston for the entire walk. In the past, people actually made love with no clothes on and you could clearly see they didn't have any. The only time you see people naked in today's movies is right before they are about to be torture-porned to death. So we have upped the violence and cut back on the nudity. I was thinking why this change might have occurred and I came up with 3 potential reasons.
1. People don't want really want to see it or have easily accessed internet porn for the "real" stuff.
2. External groups rally/boycott against it.
3. Actresses don't want to do it any longer for various reasons, one of which might be because with today's internet their image will be everywhere forever.
I'm curious what anyone else thinks of the changes of R-rated of the past and present. I know that PG-13 has really changed the face of R-ratings but it seems like it is in the opposite direction than expected. Since PG-13 has become what used to be considered a light R-rated movie, you would think that actual R-rated movies would have moved up to pretty hardcore. Other than a few torture porn or extreme violence movies, R-rated movies seem tamer today than in the past although maybe that is nostalgia talking and not really the case.
Another thing is that in the '80s an R-rated movies made just as much money, if not more in some instances (like action movies) than a PG movie. The slasher-comedy movie Student Bodies made fun of that fact. Now an R-rating pretty much guarantees a loss of revenue compared to hacking up the movie to get a PG-13 (light R) rating. When I was growing up in the '80s, once you were 14+ you could get into nearly any R-rated movie without parent/guardian and there wasn't a backlash against it by parent / external groups like what happened about 10 years ago. I wonder if that has something to do with it but again that would seem to imply that if you are going to get an R-rating anyway then there is no reason to tone it down because there is no notion of a "light R" any longer. The was some rock n roll movie a few years ago that got hurt by the lack of that notion but I cannot remember the name of it.
Profanity was in constant use during most '80s action movies and comedies but it seems like most of today's movies rarely swear and it seems like there is more profanity in PG-13 movies trying to be edgier than in an R-rated movie where they could use it with abandon. Examples would be any Arnie action movie, Die Hard, and Used Cars. There are some movies made recently that come close to '80s level profanity like 40 Year Old Virgin and South Park: BLU made fun of it but they are pretty rare. Now as a parent I am concerned with profanity in PG and PG-13 movies, especially when it is gratuitous because it is easily repeated by my children as opposed to some crazy action scene but if it is R-rated then you know what you are in for. I'm curious if people (adults) in general prefer less swearing in movies or there is some other reason.
However, the biggest change has been in nude frontal shots, especially of women since even in the '80s a full frontal male was a no-no. Take "classics" like Porky's, Cat People, and the ultimate, Life Force. Hell, even the PG Clash of the Titans has two lingering front shots. Today there is usually only a super brief frontal shot or simply side shots. Basically if The Breakup was made in the '80s, it would have been rated R and we would have seen all of Jennifer Aniston for the entire walk. In the past, people actually made love with no clothes on and you could clearly see they didn't have any. The only time you see people naked in today's movies is right before they are about to be torture-porned to death. So we have upped the violence and cut back on the nudity. I was thinking why this change might have occurred and I came up with 3 potential reasons.
1. People don't want really want to see it or have easily accessed internet porn for the "real" stuff.
2. External groups rally/boycott against it.
3. Actresses don't want to do it any longer for various reasons, one of which might be because with today's internet their image will be everywhere forever.
I'm curious what anyone else thinks of the changes of R-rated of the past and present. I know that PG-13 has really changed the face of R-ratings but it seems like it is in the opposite direction than expected. Since PG-13 has become what used to be considered a light R-rated movie, you would think that actual R-rated movies would have moved up to pretty hardcore. Other than a few torture porn or extreme violence movies, R-rated movies seem tamer today than in the past although maybe that is nostalgia talking and not really the case.
Another thing is that in the '80s an R-rated movies made just as much money, if not more in some instances (like action movies) than a PG movie. The slasher-comedy movie Student Bodies made fun of that fact. Now an R-rating pretty much guarantees a loss of revenue compared to hacking up the movie to get a PG-13 (light R) rating. When I was growing up in the '80s, once you were 14+ you could get into nearly any R-rated movie without parent/guardian and there wasn't a backlash against it by parent / external groups like what happened about 10 years ago. I wonder if that has something to do with it but again that would seem to imply that if you are going to get an R-rating anyway then there is no reason to tone it down because there is no notion of a "light R" any longer. The was some rock n roll movie a few years ago that got hurt by the lack of that notion but I cannot remember the name of it.