Movie ratings

No, I'm not talking about two thumbs up, four out of five stars, or "if you only see one movie this year..." type comments, I really don't care about movie reviews and how good some lazy slobs opinion of a movie is. Honestly, what do I have in common with some loud-mouth who sits around all day stuffing his face and coming up with new ways of saying that latest formulaic action/comedy/romance/drama movie is a must see. Now if you could find another rural raised, cycling obsessed, metrosexual chemist with an often dark sense of humour who writes movie reviews, then I might care what he has to say.

No what I want to discuss is how movies are rated, you know G, PG-13, R and so on. Now I don't really want to go into how it seems kind of pointless to rate movies by the viewers age. I mean hell, the kids out there these days are less likely to be disturbed by sex and violence than the Baby Boomers will be. The reality is that life experience and not age is more likely to determine how you are affected by a movie. Let's face it, the kid who lives in the suburbs and is home-schooled is going to react differently than the inner-city kid who's brother was killed in a drive-by last year.

But there is no measure for maturity, just look around at all the asinine things that adults do out of pettiness. So we resort to age the criteria that needs to be meet to see certain movies. Yet how is it decided what movie gets what rating? Well in the US it is determined by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) . More specifically it's a group of parents, actually in reading this excerpt "members must have a shared parenthood experience, must be possessed of an intelligent maturity" it sounds to me as though single-parents wouldn't be admitted. In Canada the movies are actually reviewed by each province, each with their own rating codes and guidelines.

The differences in the rating systems first came to my attention with the South Park movie. Yes that quality piece of animation which is responsible for introducing Americans to Canadian culture, and of course the song "Blame Canada". No beyond that, what I noticed when I sat down in the theater, after leaving a bar a beers heavier, was that my ticket stub was marked 13+. I've got to say I was a bit shocked, particularly after the song "Uncle Fucker" which I think opened up the movie. But looking at IMDB you'll notice that the rating given to South Park was an R rating in the US.

Now take a look at what the qualifications are for each rating:

Quebec 13+ :

13 years and over
May be viewed, rented or purchased by persons 13 years of age or over. Children 12 years of age and under may be admitted to a public showing of the film, but only if accompanied by an adult.

Guidelines
When rating a film as "13 years and over", the examiners consider:

* certain manifestations of violence (senseless destruction, physical harm, graphic violence, etc.);
* the representation of sexuality (extremely detailed intimate scenes, sexual relationships promoting dominance or disturbing situations, etc.); certain themes (suicide, family break-ups, mental instability, marginal behaviour, etc.).

MPAA R :

In the opinion of the Rating Board, this film definitely contains some adult material. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about this film before they allow their children to accompany them. An R-rated film may include strong language, violence, nudity, drug abuse, other elements, or a combination of the above, so parents are counseled in advance to take this advisory rating very seriously.

Interesting how the two ratings are about the same. But what I find most interesting is that the Quebec rating is much more clear as to what it is allowing. The R rating however is very ambiguous, hell it even contains the clause "other elements" which makes me think the whole thing is highly subjective.

And if you wanted any proof of just how subjective the rating are, the movie Brokeback Mountain was given an R rating. Now, that movie had less foul language, sexual content (yes it was a sexual topic, but it was not displayed very much at all, hell you can see more skin in any action movie) the only reason I can see for it having an R rating is the mysterious "other elements". Meaning that the conservative parents are afraid of talking about homosexuality. Because in all honesty, this was one of the best love stories I have seen in a long time. It wasn't some sappy Hugh Grant vehicle, it was an actual love story with all the joys and pains. But it was between two men, so that's not allowable.

I am happy to say that it was given a 13+ rating in Quebec (14A in the rest of Canada). But then again, Canada allows gay marriage and doesn't want to change to constitution to outlaw it.

Blame Canada!