I work with a lot of movies(1), and I’ve noticed something a little disturbing.
There are almost no “G” rated movies any more. Some of that is that the movie rating system (in America, this is, other nations ratings run along different yardsticks) has changed in the last 40 years or so(2). Some of it though…
How can a movie that is classified as “comedy/family” possibly be rated PG? How do those two things go together?
They don’t. I don’t think they do…
50 years ago the standards for what “young people” could watch were quite different. On the other hand, movies were quite different. To take a classic example, the old Elizabeth Taylor movie Cleopatra had this famous scene in it — the “nude scene.” Only she isn’t nude. She’s (almost) completely covered, lying under a sheet, but apparently unclothed under that sheet. That scene caused a lot of uproar.
Really.
That’s how much things have changed.
The 1995 movie Jumanji is rated PG. The 2019 sequel is rated PG-13. Quiz: can you positively define the precise meaning of “PG” vs “PG-13?” Not a lot of people actually can(3), though you figure there’s a dividing line around age 13, right?
In which direction? Is PG or PG-13 the more stringent?
Does the movie rating system even work? (A better question: did it ever? And an even better one yet: what was it really for?)
Did you know more and more movies are coming out “unrated?” Look through the DVDs at your favorite general purpose store and look at the backs of them. You’ll find “NOT RATED” as a common rating. Partly that’s a marketing ploy, to get you to buy this “new version” of the movie, which in fact might be no different at all. Sometimes the “not rated” mark is related to non movie material included in this edition, not to the movie itself, like interviews and such.
Even PIXAR movies tend to be PG or PG-13.
Can’t you build a movie any more that isn’t violence, innuendo or both? Or is it just that the yardstick for measuring these things has changed so much?
Does it reflect changes in society? Yes, of course it does, but what changes? In what direction? Is it a greater awareness of these issues, or is it a greater prudishness?(4)
Is that a good thing?
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(1) Among other things. I agree with Robert Heinlein:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert Heinlein
(2) Especially since the “slasher” films started and Hollywood realized that disgust and gore cost a lot less than a well written script does. Also since the Indiana Jones movies and such launched a new level of Action and Suspense, on the well-written side of the fence.
(3) Per informal survey of my own
(4) NO! Those are not the same thing.