sorry but i'm actually doing a research on film censorship and this could have an impact on the local industry (singapore) if executed properly. so i just need a little favor here, and it would really help if you guys could just answer some questions honestly.

1. what are the different ratings in your country?
2. do you think it's too strict? if so, what areas ought to be changed?
3. name 3 controversial movies that have had their ratings debated about, in your country.

also, please include your country and age, and that will be all. (:
thank you so much!

cool! good luck with your project!

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1. what are the different ratings in your country?

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G (general - anyone can go)

PG (parental guidance recommended)

PG-13 (parental guidance needed for anyone under 13)

R (no one under 17 without an adult)

NC-17 (no one under 17 period)

here's the MPAA site.

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2. do you think it's too strict? if so, what areas ought to be changed?

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personally i think it's just about right. possibly less strict for PG than it should be. kids under 13 really would be better off not seeing half the stuff that gets into PG movies.

they were considering causing a higher rating for any movie in which smoking occurs (drug use already causes a higher rating) - but i think that's absurd! i don't smoke, but c'mon. it's not like you don't see it 20 times a day as it is.

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3. name 3 controversial movies that have had their ratings debated about, in your country.

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not sure about that one. i don't pay any attention

USA, i'm 18 in 2 months.

what're your ratings like?

for the most part i think it's fair. sometimes you'll be watching an r rated movie and wonder why its rated r.

Three movies would be in my opinion
-clockwork orange
-pulp fiction
-boogie nights?

im not sure about the last one but the other two were controversial movies where people thought they should be nc-17.

I think our rating system is all screwed up, For example:

Lord of the Rings was rated PG-13, not a single curse wrod, nudity or sex scene.
Then I watch some PG movies where they curse through the whole thing.

The movie conspiracy theory was rated R. Not a single curse word, nudity, or sex scene. The worst that happens is someone's nose gets bit off.

It seems to me that people want PG-13 and R rated films because the public assumes if its G or PG its all kiddie stuff.

One controversial film was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That film was rated PG, but there was a scene in which a man's beating heart was ripped from his chest. That caused a bit of controversy.

did The passion cause any debate?

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Originally posted by Forsakenproductions:Lord of the Rings was rated PG-13, not a single curse wrod, nudity or sex scene.

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true... but it was also waaay to intense for SOME (not all) young'ns. so, though that PG-13 dosn't seem to follow their normal rules, i actually think it was about right.

arent independent films judged much more harshly than studio films. I cnat think of any good examples, but iknow ive heard several stories where an indy film will get an R rating for something a studio film would get a pg-13 for.

lord of the rings did have a lot of violence though, lots of heads being chopped off and the like. i guess its ok though since there is no human blood, but it still deserved the pg13 rating. also big name directors can get away with a lot of things. like spielberg getting an r for saving private ryan which was intensely violent, but something like boondock saints having to cut some of its violence in order to recieve an r. also, nudity thats expressed even in a non sexual way ussually warrants an r rating, which is pretty crappy in my opinion. wasnt there a big deal about solaris almost gettting an r because clooney shows a little ass for a few moments?

Our movie ratings aren't usually too bad. The one fu**ed up controversy over ratings or whateven that I know of is Orgazmo. It got an NC-17 because of a dildo that was shown pretty much during the entire last half of the movie. Otherwise, we do pretty well with our rating systems. We pretty much know the rules and what not so we know how to bend the movie's content to our advantage for whatever rating we want. Our biggest problem with censorship has got to be television, but that's a whole other subject entirely.

Titanium- PG movies are fine, most PG movies have a couple of curse words here and there so that it can be a PG movie and recieve a larger audience than a G movie. A lot movies like Star Wars, Indy Jones, and now Sky Captain are adventure movies, which in turn are kind of just glorified stunt shows and are perfect PG ratings, because if I wasn't allowed to watch these movies when I was six, I'd be damned pissed today. And PG-13 movies are fine, I think the ratings boards are pretty good at determining if a movie is even going to hold the attention span of anyone under thirteen or too raunchy between 13 and 17 in most PG-13 comedies.

Forsaken- LOTR goes back to what I was saying not too many kids under thirteen (or people older than for that matter) are going to have the attention span or understandability for the movie, there was no problem with it being PG-13. As for these PG movies full of cursing, I want some examples.

Sara- If you're still reading this topic and it does change how Singapore looks at their system, let us know how it goes.

-Elliott

I don't have any examples right now, but I'll list 'em as soon as I get 'em. I just remember there was one that said the F word and it was PG. (I rented it, maybe it was jsut Blockbusters mistake).

But if you look back at SW, Return of the Jedi, the end part with the Emperor gets pretty intense. A hand gets chopped off, Luke gets a bad attitude, They show an Ewok get crisped, The emperor gets thrown down a hole, you see Vader's skeleton and his disfigured face. It gets pretty nasty and it only got a PG.
And LOTR got intense like that to.

I am not complaining about the ratings they got, but it seems the more "obscene" rating a movie gets, the more people will go see it, which is ridiculous. Just because a movie is G doesn't mean there are a bunch of singing animals.

And if you have seen Conspiracy Theory, if it was rated by the standards of SW, and LOTR it would get a PG and not an R. But it gets an R for an "audience."

talk about incorrect ratings - anyone see some of the old planet of the apes sequels. one was G i think, people were covered in blood for a lot of it, and two friends were forced to fighting each other in a spiky room, and a guy got plastered to a wall by machine gun spary right before he ended the world with a nuke.

in the old days they did not rate well!

does anyone happen to know when the rating system was put in place? before it was just straight censorship so i know there are movies between these two eras that recieved wierd ratings later on. like day of the jackal im pretty sure is pg or was, and has full frontal nudity in it. now days thats a definite r.

I think the original Airplane was PG. That had some nudity.

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Originally posted by JW:
I think the original Airplane was PG. That had some nudity.

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Yea but that came out before PG-13 was created in 1984. It was either that or R at that point. NC-17 didnt come into existence until the early nineties.

Check out the history here (interesting stuff!):

here

Interesting fact - PG was originally M for mature, then GP for general public. Then it became PG.

I believe the american rating systems Suck... look to europe(esp. sweeden and norway) and you will see full frontal condom ads in the middle of prime time.

Has that hurt their youth????

NO!!!!

the system may work for restricting younger audiences, however I believe that rating should be restricted to under 14s(gratuitous[sp] violence, language and sex), Porn (18+) and Open, with a recomendations stating purly the facts.

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Originally posted by jarmusawa:
does anyone happen to know when the rating system was put in place?

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actually, from what i -do- know, it seems it really first originated after societies began bringing suits as early as 1907. that's somewhat how everything evolved.

thanks for all the answer! i wasn't expecting such an overwhelming response, really. but is there anything you guys would really deem too severe for below 16-s to watch?

(and singapore's rating system is a little strange, we get nc-16 <no children below 16> just for sexual references such as the notebook.)

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I read somewhere that Speilberg actually created PG-13 in response to the Indiana Jones controversy. Apparently he went straight to Jack Valenti and suggested adding the rating, and it was shortly thereafter.

I think our system is as fair as it's going to get. Your always going to have examples of big name directors (e.g. James Cameron) buying a rating, like Titanic. But for the most part it's all good.

However there are two points I would like to make.

1. Ratings for films not only should be based on content, but on art.

2. Ratings should not allow the semi-use of cursing in childrens ratings.

What I'm saying, I am sure most would agree with. I think there is a wide difference between a sex scene that adds to the story and characters, and a sex scene that is soft porn. Personally I don't think it is right to allow nudity and sex like in Titanic and still give it a PG-13 rating. I think ANY nudity or sex needs to be given an R rating. Sex is for adults, not for children. And by not doing this we are promoting sex for teenagers.

Secondly, I have seen plenty of PG films that had more swearing than PG-13 films. This is ridiculous. G is for anyone; PG is for children eight and up; PG-13 is for 13 and up; R is for 17 and up; NC-17 is for 18 and up. Therefore this is how I believe they should rate films:
PG: has slightly intense scenes
PG-13: Has some violence, language, and sexual content
R:Has violence, explicit language, nudity, drug use,
NC-17:Has explicit violence, harsh language, explicit nudity and sexual content, explicit drug use.

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Originally posted by JW:
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I read somewhere that Speilberg actually created PG-13 in response to the Indiana Jones controversy. Apparently he went straight to Jack Valenti and suggested adding the rating, and it was shortly thereafter.

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Yup. thats true, its mentioned in the article i linked to earlier. I remember when i was a kid and first hearing about this new rating.