I may be the only one but I thought there was a pretty clear way as to how movies are rated. But after going through both the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the film ratings sites, I learned this is not the case. I understand that there are a lot of subjective ideas used to decide the films ratings. This includes a group of parents that are supposed to rate the movie in a way that they “believe” a majority of fellow parents would rate the film. Also, this group only consists of 8 to 13 parents! I don’t know if this is enough to establish a clear rating especially in the jumps from each rating. Below is the answer to Who Decides the ratings from the MPAA website…
Parents decide the ratings. An independent board of parents rates each film. Their job is not to determine if a movie is "good" or "bad," but to rate each film as they believe a majority of their fellow parents would rate the film — taking into account sexuality, violence, language and other factors. The purpose of the ratings system is to provide clear, concise advance information to parents about film content so parents can determine what movies are appropriate for their kids while preserving freedom of expression for filmmakers and the film industry.
The only part of this rating system I agree with is the fact that it is concise and a parent can quickly decide that a movie may not be good for their child or maybe even one that they may enjoy themselves. A rating system is in a place but with the subjective process of it I don’t really know if it is doing the job it needs to be doing.
The system provides a good starting point but there are definitely some inconsistencies. Particularly when comparing the ratings of older movies to newer ones.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of different places on the internet that parents can go to get a detailed description of a movie’s content so being a starting point is probably good enough.
I think that the movie rating system is ok however like you pointed out the system is flawed. Those flaws are why I think there should not be laws based on the rating system. In my opinion it is inhibiting of freedom of speech/press that people younger than 17 can't watch an R rated movie. My parents allowed me to watch R rated movies long before I was 17, what gives the government the right to tell me what I can/can't watch. What do you think about it?
ReplyDeleteI think the rating also change over time. There are some PG 13 movies that, in my opinion, are border-line R. I know kids hear the F word in middle school and probably in elementary but I think the use of it in movies should be kept to R. There are some PG13 movies that are almost uncomfortable to watch with other adults (or parents). And parents are all different, some swear around their 3-yr old and some will never say a word worse than dang-it. A board of 10 parents is a terrible way to rate it.
ReplyDeleteA great documentary about this is the film Unrated, if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see you connect this comment back to Disney in some way. As a parent, I almost never look at ratings, because they seem so haphazard. We've started plenty of movies in our house that we've had to turn off half way through. It's pretty frustrating.