This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Okay, so think of a secret organization. Anything is fine. What did you come up with? Skulls & Crossbones? Freemasons? The Illuminati? Whatever one they talk about in National Treasure?
How about the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America?
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a documentary by Kirby Dick solely about the MPAA, and it's hilarious, infuriating, sad and altogether intriguing.
If you're not familiar, the MPAA is the organization in the United States that puts ratings on all the movies we see. Everything from Shrek the Third to Videodrome, if you saw it in the theater, a panel of "average parents" have seen it and decided who they think it's appropriate for.
Now this all sounds well and good. I mean, it sounds favorable to know what to expect from a movie content-wise, especially if you're a parent. The problem, however comes in with the dreaded NC-17 rating. If your film is rated (or "slapped with," as Kevin Smith points out) NC-17, distributors won't put it out and theaters won't play it. It becomes unreleasable. That, in conjunction with the fact that the members on the MPAA, these supposed "average parents" are secret. Their names are not in the public domain. So now we have these mysterious people, a handful, really, deciding, basically, what you can and cannot see.
Another idea that gets explored in this documentary is the difference between violence and sexual content. As stories about different movies get told, you start to see that violence is fine - show blood, get R. However, when there's as much sexual content in one movie as there is violence in another movie, NC-17 - your movie is unreleasable. Take, for example, the film American Psycho, in one scene, Patrick Bateman drops a chainsaw from the top of his staircase and it lands in a woman. In another scene, he films himself having sex with two prostitutes. What garnered the original NC-17? The sex scene, of course.
Intercut with interviews from filmmakers and film critics is a separate story. In it, Kirby Dick, the director of this documentary, hires a Private Investigator to track down and expose the MPAA raters. This portion in itself could be stretched to an entirely separate film in itself.
Also discussed in this film are the appeals process, which actually include two members of the clergy, for some reason, and a portion in which Kirby Dick submits this film, in which he exposes all the lies and hypocritical nonsense of the MPAA, to that very organization to receive a rating. What rating did he get? Well, I think you know.
Please see this film.
How about the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America?
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a documentary by Kirby Dick solely about the MPAA, and it's hilarious, infuriating, sad and altogether intriguing.
If you're not familiar, the MPAA is the organization in the United States that puts ratings on all the movies we see. Everything from Shrek the Third to Videodrome, if you saw it in the theater, a panel of "average parents" have seen it and decided who they think it's appropriate for.
Now this all sounds well and good. I mean, it sounds favorable to know what to expect from a movie content-wise, especially if you're a parent. The problem, however comes in with the dreaded NC-17 rating. If your film is rated (or "slapped with," as Kevin Smith points out) NC-17, distributors won't put it out and theaters won't play it. It becomes unreleasable. That, in conjunction with the fact that the members on the MPAA, these supposed "average parents" are secret. Their names are not in the public domain. So now we have these mysterious people, a handful, really, deciding, basically, what you can and cannot see.
Another idea that gets explored in this documentary is the difference between violence and sexual content. As stories about different movies get told, you start to see that violence is fine - show blood, get R. However, when there's as much sexual content in one movie as there is violence in another movie, NC-17 - your movie is unreleasable. Take, for example, the film American Psycho, in one scene, Patrick Bateman drops a chainsaw from the top of his staircase and it lands in a woman. In another scene, he films himself having sex with two prostitutes. What garnered the original NC-17? The sex scene, of course.
Intercut with interviews from filmmakers and film critics is a separate story. In it, Kirby Dick, the director of this documentary, hires a Private Investigator to track down and expose the MPAA raters. This portion in itself could be stretched to an entirely separate film in itself.
Also discussed in this film are the appeals process, which actually include two members of the clergy, for some reason, and a portion in which Kirby Dick submits this film, in which he exposes all the lies and hypocritical nonsense of the MPAA, to that very organization to receive a rating. What rating did he get? Well, I think you know.
Please see this film.
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
