Mpaa's (Motion Picture Association of America)'s modern film rating system is 46 years old! On November 1, 1968, the film rating system adopted by mpaa came into effect. Since then, films that have been rated R or NC-17 have either fought back or tried to create controversial topics around the crazy rating decisions of mpaa. Because according to the analysis of many scholars, the rating of the film has a profound impact on box office revenue and its possible scope of dissemination.
About the grading system of MPAA:
G-level: Popular, anyone can watch
PG: Tutoring level, some of the content in this level of movies may not be suitable for children to watch
PG-13 level: Special counseling level, children under 13 years old especially should be accompanied by parents to watch, some content is very inappropriate for children
R: Restricted, under 17 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to watch
NC-17 Level: Restricted, prohibited viewing by viewers under 17 years of age (including 17 years old) (from a business point of view, it will lose the entire teen audience)
nr/or: Refers to unrated movies
m/x/p rating: Films that are not allowed to be screened in theaters
In order to celebrate the birthday of the film rating system, let's take stock of ten unlucky movies that have been misclassified, from the Oscar for Best Picture to the independent erotic films, and the grading committee has a time to look away.
1. The American Psycho (2000)
Anyone who has seen the novel "The Mentally Ill man in America" can tell you that Brett Easton Ellis's figurative and controversial satire of '80s Wall Street culture makes director Mary Harlan's film adaptation seem much plainer in comparison. An adaptation that was completely faithful to the original would have made the film unpublished, so Harlan chose to downplay the violence and pornography in the novel. Still, mpaa's rating board rated the film NC-17 after their initial viewing.
Harlan initially thought the rating was based on violent scenes from the film (face-cutting with an axe, chainsaw cutting, etc.), but the real culprit was a "three-person party" scene between the male protagonist and two prostitutes played by Christian Bell.
The decision highlights a trend in mpaa to turn a blind eye to violence in films, but to keep pornography under control. Harlan reluctantly agreed to the grading board's request, cutting out a few seconds of sex scenes to keep an R-rating. But in the DVD release of the film, the original clip was retained.
2. Natural Born Killers (1994)
Oliver Stone's 1994 film about a serial killer couple (played by Woody Harrison and Juliet Lewis) travels in a frenzied adventure to kill while fleeing, is perhaps the controversial director's most notorious work.
The film was initially rated NC-17, but it was caught up in a long-term struggle with mpaa in order to fight for an R-rated. Since the film is about a serial killer, the film is bound to be filled with violent images, which the rating committee strongly opposes.
The protagonists, Mickey and Mallory, are heavily exposed in the news in the film, and Stone's intention is to satirize the recent unrestrained coverage of violent crimes in the American media, but this precisely affects the grading process of the film. The horrific Simpson murders that occurred two months before the film's release may be why the ratings board was so harsh on the film, fearing to see similar incidents presented to the public in such extreme ways.
In the end, Stone had to delete the four-minute clip before Mpaa changed its rating to become an R-rated film, and Warner Bros. agreed to release the film.
3. "Blue is the Warmest Color" (2013)
Abu dai Kosciuszc's Cannes Palme d'Or award-winning "Adele's Life" was rated NC-17 for its straightforward and long depiction of same-sex sex scenes, but that didn't stop the IFC Center in New York from allowing teenagers under the age of 17 to watch.
John Vanke, senior vice president of the IFC Center, explained in a statement to The New York Times: "This is not a movie for children, but we believe that their immaturity is just our own judgment, questioning the adolescents who are about to face the emotional crisis and opportunities that adults have." ”
In France, The Life of Adele is classified in 12th grade, almost equivalent to pg-13 in the United States.
4. Blue Valentine (2010)
Weinstein managed to earn Blue Valentine an R-rated, despite the sex scenes of the two main characters (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) – which would have been an nc-17 shot. Moreover, Weinstein also chose to use a very provocative scene as a movie poster, and pornography is good to sell anyway.
5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Contractually obligated, in order to get Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eye Opener, an R rating, Warner Bros. used digital technology to add cloak shadows to the infamous scene, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
Warner Bros. infuriated many of Kubrick's fans, including famed film critic Roger Albert. He harshly accused the incident in film critics: "This symbolizes the moral hypocrisy of the classification system, forcing a great director to compromise on his artistic vision, just so that his adult films can be seen by more young audiences." ”
After all, this is the director who released "Clockwork Orange" on an X-scale basis. To be sure, Kubrick himself would certainly not mind the NC-17.
6. The King's Speech (2010)
Perhaps the most modest film on this list is Oscar winner The King's Speech. In the course of Weinstein's appeal for Blue Valentine, they also launched a "battle" under the name "The King's Speech."
Mpaa rated the film r only because of the profanity in the film (presumably because the Duke of Yorkshire, played by Colin Fez, kept saying f-words). If it is r-rated, then all people under the age of 17 in the United States must be accompanied by an adult to watch the film; but at the same time, the British rating of the film is 12a, which means that anyone over the age of 12 can watch The King's Speech.
The mpaa ignored Weinstein's appeal, so they had to release another version without profanity. Interestingly, that "clean version" only grossed three million dollars, while the restricted version grossed $135 million.
7. Philomena (2013)
Judy Dench, Steve Coogan and Weinstein won their formal appeals, successfully revising the rating of the film Philomena from R to pg-13. The reason why it was previously rated as restricted was because the film appeared in more than one place with the use of "harsh sexual derivative words" as profanity.
Weinstein says based on the film's subject matter, which is about a journalist helping a former nun find her long-lost son, Philomena should deserve a more family-friendly rating. They later posted a short film on the hilarious website fun-or-die that played a spoof of the mpaa rating system, using another character played by Judy Dench, the m in the James Bond series.
Director Stephen Frese said: "We think mpaa made a wrong judgment in rating this film, which is a film that does not contain violence and pornography at all, only a very small amount of adult language. I'm glad they revised the final rating to give more families the opportunity to see the film together. ”
8. Requiem for a dream (2000)
Darren Aronofsky's second work, Requiem for Dreams, after The Code of Death (π), was rated nc-17 by the mpaa because a sex scene performed by Jennifer Connery near the end was described as "uncomfortable to watch.".
Publisher Artisan Entertainment declined to make the cut, saying the MPAA rating was "neither correct nor unfair." In a film about drug addiction and the fears it brings (Jared Leto's character has also had his leg amputated), it's worth noting that it's one scene where mpaa picks out the problem. The appeal was eventually dismissed and Arisan Entertainment chose to release it without rating.
9. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)
Time and time again we've heard people complain about how hard restrictive romances and fantasy films are to sell, especially R-rated animation. So, can you imagine an nc-17 level cartoon?
Neither Paramount nor South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone could have imagined it. The film's creative team released a series of fax notes to show their humorous negotiations with mpaa, filled with various requests for changes to specific vocabulary and content. Finally, the film's song "Blame Canada" was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song.
10. Boyhood (2014)
Richard Linklater's twelve-year-old sword-sharpening work Boyhood was rated R in the United States.
Why? We dare not jump to conclusions, supposedly because of a brief set of footage of underage boys reading pornographic magazines. But "Boyhood" is a movie worth watching for people of that age it portrays, namely teenagers. The IFC Center in New York thought the same thing, so they announced that admission was allowed "at the discretion of high school students." This move has undoubtedly boosted theater profits, but the reason we support it is that Richard Linklater's great achievement deserves to be appreciated by more people on the big screen.
Author: Compiler/Sailor Say Editor: Small A