Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Movie Ratings

I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR today and Terry Gross interviewed Kirby Dick, the director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated. I had previously seen clips of the film on IFC. It was pretty interesting. While I do not necessary agree with Mr. Dick's conclusions, it is interesting how arbitrarily it seems how films are rated. I do agree with him that perhaps it would be more valuable to have rating that actually describe the content rather than whether some unknown people think that a kids should be able to see.

One movie that really intrigues me is Big Fish directed by Tim Burton. The film is great and I would put it as one of the cleanest films I have seen in a while and I have no idea why it got an R rating. There is a mermaidish woman and at one ocasion I think you can see crack. The film is not exactly a children's movie I guess the topics it covers include death, father-son relationships, marital relationships, etc. To me it is a classic PG film in the line of Terms of Endearment except less of a tear jerker.

I also have noticed that older movies with content appealing to adult audiences had received G ratings. Today the only movies that get G ratings are cartoons and movies that probably should not have been made because they are so bad. Also some of those cartoons have content so that if the film was live action film, it would probably earn a PG-13.

I have tried to come with my own personal rating system for about 30 minutes and I haven't come up with anything.

2 comments:

Jody said...

I am pretty sure "Telladega Nights"
A) should have received an R rating
and
B) should never have been made.

Jamie said...

I loved Big Fish. But then, I'm totally in movie star love with Daddy Warbucks and Jessica Lange. Billy Crudup ain't too shabby either.

I love Tim Burton, though, and that movie was just so freakin' cool.