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The creation of a monster
In July, 1984 the Motion Picture Association of America created a beast which would destroy the quality of films for decades to come. The beast was a new rating, called PG-13. But before I get into my hatred for this rating, let me explain some history behind the rating as a whole. Before July, 1984, the MPAA had been having problems with their overly broad ratings scale and determining which movies should be rated PG or R. This is illustrated by Stephen Spielberg’s horrifying blockbuster ‘Jaws’ receiving a PG rating when there are quite a few brutal death scenes and brutal shots throughout the film.
The MPAA needed some kind of middle ground between what was rated R and what was rated PG. They were receiving too much criticism from parents and others all over the globe who were unhappy with the movie that was shown to someone who is not an adult. The MPAA also became aware that these criticisms were warranted as movies like ‘Jaws,’ where there is no sex or nudity but gore and strong violence, were given the PG rating because they simply did not contain enough adult material to warrant an R rating but they had too much adult material to warrant a PG rating. Ultimately the MPAA was forced to make a choice that they did not want to have to make. They realized that they needed a middle ground, some rating that sat in between PG and R so that films like ‘Jaws’ could be properly rated and so that parents could know what they were getting themselves and their children into with a certain film.
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Thus, on July 1, 1984 the MPAA created the PG-13 rating. The first film to receive the rating was a 1984 film titled ‘Red Dawn’ starring Patrick Swayze. Many at the time were happy with the new rating as it allowed them to be more aware of the material contained within a film before they sat it. In short, many considered the adoption of this new rating as a victory for the MPAA. But since then times have changed and people all over the globe have begun to get tired of this newer rating. You may be wondering how such a large group of people could get upset over something as simple as the rating of a movie, well allow me to explain.
A wider audience equals more money
The main criticism that the PG-13 rating faces today comes from those who believe that the genre is targeted too often by film studios who are looking to open their films up to the widest audience possible while leaving some expletives and other inappropriate content behind in order to secure the rating. The math behind this is pretty simple but I will go into detail on it regardless. It is no secret that a film studio’s main goal is to make money, plain and simple. They make that money by having as many people see their films as they can. Also, it is no secret that film studios are willing to sacrifice some of the more artistic aspects of their films in order to secure more money. This is where the PG-13 rating comes in.
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You see, studios nowadays attempt to achieve the lowest tier of rating feasibly possible and for many films this is the PG-13 rating. Nearly every PG-13 film on the market today could have been an R rated film quite easily had a few more aspects of sex, nudity, language, or violence been included. While this may seem obvious it is still important to consider. Art is dangerous. It is not meant to be confined to a safe sphere. However, this is exactly what film studios are doing when they remove certain aspects that could have been in a film in order to secure a PG-13 rating. Film studios are actively killing the art that is their pictures in order to make more money. This is a massive problem and it all stems from the PG-13.
What can be done about it?
I believe that the clearest solution to this problem is for film studios to make films as they were intended to be created. If this is done and a film is still PG-13 then that is fantastic. However, film studios should not remove aspects that the original creators of a project wanted in order to simply secure a more kid-friendly rating for their film. Film studios need to grasp and understand that it is not all about the money. These days it seems that all Hollywood and the film studios within it care about is making the big bucks, and no care is given to what is actually being produced by these enterprises or the people who create them who want to see their projects carried out to complete fruition.
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Some art cannot hold a PG-13 rating and that is alright. Like I mentioned previously, art is certainly not a safe force and something that should be confined or restricted. But this is what film studios are doing with their film projects. Art is one of, if not the single most important, outlet in society and should never be held back, especially for the sake of simply making more money. This must be understood by film studios in the near future or the artform of mainstream filmmaking as we know it may take a dive that it cannot recover from.
While the PG-13 rating may have been introduced into the filmmaking world by the MPAA with good intentions, overall it has had a negative effect on the art of filmmaking. Film studios have been abusing films for years by chopping out content that would have made a film better just to secure a lower age rating on the film. This needs to stop soon or else the art of filmmaking may never again be what it once was. Art is dangerous. This is a phrase that film studios across America must become comfortable with and accept or movies as we know and love them may never be the same
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By: Nathaniel Lee
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