This was a very interesting watch. This documentary chronicles the struggles of getting your film a satisfactory rating, that will not ruin your domestic box office draw. In the United States, directors and filmmakers must submit their projects to the governing body for review, The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) in order to receive a rating that is supposed to guide the public on who should be allowed to view your movie, based upon the movie’s content.The thing is,that the MPAA is not comprised of film industry professionals. In fact, the governing body is a secret panel made up of “average parents”, who are all but hand picked by the association’s Czar,Jack Valenti (1966-2004).
The film makers in the story struggle with the fact that under the direction of Valenti, the association appeared to be arbitrarily handing out ratings that weren’t necessarily tied to content, but more so to political leanings and moral values of the raters involved. The were several instances pointed out in the film where it was illustrated that the MPAA had been very heavy handed when rating films that depicted homosexuality and women’s sexuality in general. The films receive their ratings based on an apparent checklist the counts the type and amount of curse words, violence and how it’s depicted,sexuality and whether or not it is considered acceptable by the Raters of the MPAA. The MPAA is also accused of being unreasonably harsh in it’s dealings with independent film makers as well.
I can’t say that I am completely set on whether or not I would even like to make films, but after seeing this one I can say that I am NOT interested in dealing with the American system of rating and would probably look to release internationally.
omegaruth 