The movie ratings system is a system that is owned and operated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It is intended to inform parents of any objectionable content a particular movie might have. I happen to believe that it does not accomplish its purpose. In this essay I shall explain why I think the ratings system is flawed.
First off, what are the ratings? They have changed over the years, but the ratings as of today are G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. I believe that the only rating that really accomplish it’s purpose is G, because you know what you get when you see a G-rated movie. The PG rating usually works, the only problem is the PG-13 rating was not invented until 1984, which means that every PG-rated film before that have a lot more objectionable material than PG-rated films now. Besides that even with PG-rated films made after 1984, you’re still not entirely sure about what is in it. Sometimes even with recent PG-rated movies there can be some violent scenes, some rather crude moments and even some foul language. The problem is parents get used to PG movies being as innocent as the Incredibles or Enchanted, that they really don’t realize what you can find in some of these PG movies, especially some of the older ones.
The PG-13 rating and the R rating have the same problem. They have too much range. Sometimes a PG-13 movie will contain very little objectionable material. Maybe there will be some language, some cartoonish or mild violence, some inappropriate references, or even just contain scenes that would be frightening to young children; but will not have that much else. Other times a PG-13 movie could contain large amounts of brutal violence, pervasive language, obscene and crude talk, or scenes of sexuality. You don’t really know for sure. An R rating can make a parent stop and think, “Is it really a good idea to let my child see this?” However, some parents can get used to PG-13 movies that are fairly harmless and assume all PG-13 movies are like that; and therefore not really pay attention to what they get as long as it isn’t R.
Which brings me to the R rating. As I said it has the same problem as PG-13. The content of an R starts out as the strong end of PG-13 and morphs from there. In some R-rated movies you can see graphic violence, very strong language, or some very strong sexual content. Sometimes just one of those, sometimes all of those, and sometimes none of those are present in an R-rated movie. The ultimate proof of the ineffectiveness of the R rating is Hostel Part II (just one of many movies like it) In this movie amidst strong pervasive language and graphic torture sequences; This movie has the same rating as Appaloosa, a movie that contains some (PG-13) language and a few people being shot (non-graphically) I think it is obvious that the ratings are not doing the job they are supposed to do.
And then there is the NC-17 rating. My only real problem with this rating is that they never use it. Think of the movie Hostel Part II and realize there is a rating higher than R, they just didn’t use it. You know why? Because to give a movie an NC-17 rating nowadays is spell out a death sentence for it. Some theaters refuse to show them, some renting stores refuse to rent them to people, and some stores even refuse to sell them. All because of that rating. So studios will do anything (and pay any amount of money) to make sure that doesn’t happen. The meaning that this rating has taken on has completely defeated the purpose of the rating.
Another one of my problems with the ratings PG-13, R, and NC-17 is that they assign an age as mature enough to watch the movie. First of all I already told you about their range. Some of these movies are innocent enough for a 10 year old to watch some of them aren’t even appropriate for the teenagers that they target. Second of all children’s maturity and ability to handle certain things come at different ages for different children. There isn’t a set age for a child to be mature enough to handle a particular movie. And finally, different parents have different standards. While some parents might find Men in Black okay for their 10-year-old, other parents might prefer to wait until the child is 13 or 14.
So now you see how truly inefficient and useless this ratings system is. The system is flawed and does not accomplish it’s main purpose, to inform parents of the objectionable material in movies. Parents should do more research about films instead of just blindly trusting the decisions of the ratings board.
