JohnDoe
Bryn
BrentonThis Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)- Trailer Included
March 6th 2007 00:00
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Have not found and Australian release date for this, but it is available on DVD from the U.S.A.
US DVD Cover-Unreleased in Australia
Genre: Documentary
“I don't care if you call it AO for Adults Only, or Chopped Liver or Father Goose. Your movie will still have the stigma of being in a category that's going to be inhabited by the very worst of pictures” – Jack Valenti
Did you know that the members names on the US MPAA censorship board are secret? Me neither. Supposedly to protect them from outside influences and pressure, yet they meet with studio heads and marketing departments as part of their job description.
Award winning Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist, Derrida) turns his sites on exposing the names of those who inflict their own morality on the cinema world and control what we see.
Hiring a private investigator to track em down, this informative and hilarious documentary illustrates the flawed system and exposes the hypocritical morality that governs it.
For 38 years one man, Jack Valenti was head of the Motion Picture Association of America. In that time he and his lackeys have taken it upon themselves to judge what is unsuitable for the obviously immature and fragile masses. (Read censorship boards opinion of the viewing public)
Rating films according to content, movies that receive a G, PG and R Rating can get mass distribution, TV advertising and all the other hoopla that goes with. The dreaded NC-17 classification dooms challenging cinema to limited release, zero exposure and even less studio attention than the latest release from Pauly Shore. Meanwhile, the MPAA maintains that ratings have no effect on box office or exposure.
The basic guidelines they follow are completely backwards. Fantasy violence without any repercussions or blood is suitable for children (Eg Pierce Brosnan James Bonds). While films that show the seriousness and ugliness of hurting others is deemed adult content. Death without consequence get a PG rating while realistic, heartfelt depictions of violence that essentially shows it as a bad thing, get hit with an R or NC 17. (Depending how much money the producers have invested in the film)
There is nothing more offensive than pleasurable sex in the board’s eyes. Even though for thousands of years children saw their parents mating in tribes and knew it was just part of natural life like eating or sleeping. Instead, adopting a puritanical view stigmatises it into something forbidden, mysterious and enticing, to be hidden away and not discussed.
Revelling in its subject This Film is Not Yet Rated is interested in educating about the state of the industry. The nepotism and rampant nihilism of having the same people who own the Picture studios also monopolize 90% of all mass media including newspapers and TV. It’s about controlling the flow of information, conglomerates too powerful to bring down because of the governments reliance on their product for brainwashing the average schmoe.
And that’s what it comes down to, brainwashing. War is heroic, patriotic and a male bonding experience (See Top Gun PG) and objectifying woman and men is all sex is about (See Coyote Ugly PG).
A Brief History of Censorship
Before the 1930’s in the US there was an idyllic time where filmmakers did not have to worry about censorship, or opening numbers. Violence and sexuality were used to tell a story and not judged out of context.
Then the release of the controversial family film Tarzan and his Mate (1934) featuring a butt naked Jane frolicking with the Lord of the apes and the barbaric murder of natives. So confrontational at the time it is often credited as the straw that broke the camels, or is that the chimps back.
Enter Will H Hays, instigator of the now notorious Hayes Code of conduct for film. Plaguing the golden age of cinema, the strict code was ignorant to sexuality (Eg: Elia Kazan’s Streetcar named Desire) and opposed to violence that hurt.
Operating with blinders to the real world, this was an effort to keep movies as purely escapist entertainment with no bearing on the real world or the murderous wars that were happening at the time.
For a brief period in the late 1960’s and early 70’s cinema was freed by the sexual revolution and the Directors control over the industry. Then, the return of the dark ages with the system that runs still to this day.
John Doe says:
Self serving, close minded, corporate fed fascists take it upon themselves to dictate what gets seen by the public, it’s wrong. How dare one small, anonymous group decide that parents aren’t responsible for how children act and instead make it the medias job. But they do maintain they are unbiased and impartial.
This Film is Not Yet Rated is about naming names, putting a face to the mysterious few that protect us from the evils of voyeurism.
The investigative filmmakers get great joy out of not just observing the situation but putting themselves right in the maelstrom by submitting their film for approval. We get to go through the process and learn there is nothing more threatening and damaging to the general public than real life.
The Jack Valenti method seems to be: create a cartoon bubble for children and force adults to live in it. The truth or alternate perspectives to the mainstream are often restricted, documentaries on the Iraq war are rated R, while the bullshit, flag waving rewrites of history like Pearl Harbour are PG.
Now to be objective for a moment, ratings can come in handy if they are actually designed to help, rather than promote ignorance. The way it works is the less understanding and life experience you have, the more suitable you are to glamorized violence and airbrushed, idealised sex, retarding the culture. Making killing look easy and fun, without any strings is for your kids, while non superficial fucking and genuine loving are intolerable. (My only use of the F word this review which deems it a PG)
Can you tell this riled up JD’s sense of civil outrage?
The doco offers more than just laughs at the warped logic of a destructive nation that is sexually repressed, over run with meaningless killing and a green god called money.
The US DVD
Transfer: Widescreen/Dolby Digital 2.0
Extras: Commentary, Filmmaker Q&A plus Deleted Scenes and trailer.
Check out the trailer here
Below you can giggle at the ratings definitions for each classification in the US. (G,PG,R, NC-17)
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Comment by David
Purler of a Post ... Makes me want to see it ...
David ...
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Hi Luke,
The doco does bring up fraustration and anger but laces it with humour and takes an investigative approach rather than historical...not sure when its coming out here anyway...now thats frustrating
Thanks for dropping by.
Comment by Theresa
Today's World
So true. The censors have always ruled that sex is more dangerous than violence.
(Because it's more available? More important? Less controllable, offscreen?)
Definitely want to see this documentary....thx for posting it.
Theresa
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
You said:
A miserable rating system, but one I grew up on, I guess.
Luckily, in Canada, the TV networks are less childish about sex on TV, so I've managed to see some great movies on free TV. In French Canada, they're even more relaxed, and a movie with nudity can still be rated suitable for children. Brilliant, no?
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
The logic behind the ratings system makes no sense to me either.
I have never understood the fear of nudity in our culture. Ironically censors were a lot less uptight back in the late 60's to early 70's, though Midnight Cowboy was still X rated for homosexual content. (The ratings board hates gay sex it seems)
Films like Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch etc broke down the doors on fantasy violence in film, showing that death is not as simple as bang, bang..
But non pornographic sexual explicitness within emotional context seems exclusively the European domain in the world of cinema....
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Viva aberrational behaviour!!!
Even the Ratings Board here in Australia has weirdass criteria ... I've seen some films which mentioned "drug use" and some background character at a party is smoking a joint, then another movie and characters have a line of something, and drug use is not mentioned in the censor's warning. I don't understand.
Don't get me started on censorship.
Great review and summary though.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
The Australian censors aren't much better and blindly follow the same credo laid out by their U.S counterparts.....reality is bad, eductation is bad, sex is evil......violence without a price, now thats for your kids.