Posted by Erik! at uslink-dms1-148.uslink.net on May 14, 2000 at 09:39:29:
In Reply to: "Are you not entertained?" MPAA = Satan's tool? posted by Isis on May 14, 2000 at 08:04:13:
"Ridley Scott; the man is a master of the visual medium."
I still take issue with the overuse of the shakycam. Confusion in battle is one thing; giving me a fucking headache another. Sheesh.
Now onto the ratings system. Basically, it doesn't have so much with the content itself as it does how much of the content is presented. Swearing, sex, and violence become more "wrong" the younger you go. Now, an R isn't saying that Clerks' language and Gladiator's violence are in the same ballpark, they just both feature high levels of "the bad stuff." So there you go.
"Also, does the MPAA provide filmmakers with any sort of guidelines prior to filming a project as to what might or might not garner which rating or do you just have to submit a finished product and cross your fingers that they approve?"
From what I've heard, there aren't any guidelines. (Although I think you're upgraded from PG-13 to R if you use the word 'fuck' more than once... that seems to be the only thing even sort of consistent that I've noticed just by watching... and I could be wrong.)
"And, I'd appreciate any insight from this crowd, the rating system is supposedly voluntary but is it really?"
Of course it's voluntary (It's also not cheap, again from what I heard.) The thing is, though, say you have a movie and you don't get it rated. Well, that hurts theatrical distribution, because it could be a happy fuzzy family film or hardcore porn. Why take the chance of booking it without an overview of the content? Patrons will be pissed if they don't know what level a movie is at. So it hurts movies in that way. Direct to video, it probably makes no nevermind. I've seen a good many unrated DTVs.
"I mean, do you have a chance in hell of getting your movie shown anywhere if its unrated or are all movie chains pretty much the same in demanding a movie be rated before they'll pick it up?"
Like I said, you've a better chance of Kevin randomly picking a board member to star in his next flick. A rating means the moviegoer takes responsibility for going to see the flick, knowing what level it's at.
"I'm not even complaining about censorship, I think the rating system is not a bad idea; it helps parents to monitor their kids' environments and it helps those looking for titillating material to find it easily. But it all seems rather arbitrary."
It's pretty much just there to prevent any federally mandated guidelines, same as your comics code, video game and TV ratings systems.
(And to answer one of the Kev questions, I'm pretty sure Clerks miraculously skated from NC-17 to R with no cutting.)
-Erik!
Art Askew magnate in a ton of pain