This Film Is Not Yet Rated- Melissa Colbert
After watching the movie This Film Is Not Yet Rated, I now have a new perspective on American films. Being somewhat unfamiliar with how movie ratings were established before I saw this movie, it was interesting to see how much influence very few people have in such an important aspect of the film industry. What this movie did very well was expose the flaws in the film rating system put into place by Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Although it is true that many Americans would rather have some kind of system to ensure that audiences view age appropriate material only, it seems that some standards of the system have been put into place arbitrarily. One example shown in the movie was the lack of restriction of violent content in films and the hypersensitivity to films with sexual content, especially if it is homoerotic in any way. Many feel that this imbalance stems from political tensions found in American society. One part of the movie in particular laid out how equally sexually explicit scenes featuring homosexual and heterosexual couples are rated differently, with NC-17 being the rating trend for films with “alternative� content and R for films whose characters are more “socially acceptable�. The lack of restriction of violence in movies has worried many Americans as well. At a very young age, children have a difficult time associating the “cool� death scenes in movies with the effects that those actions would have in real life, and with things such as school shootings and violence on the rise, Americans need to realize how film can effect their children. While I do agree that there should be some guidelines that filmmakers should follow, there needs to be significant change in the regulations that are used today.