MPAA Ratings

[MacGuffin]

R-Rating Sought in Some Smoking Films  

LOS ANGELES - If Nicolas Cage lights a cigarette in a movie, Hollywood's ratings board should respond as if he used a profanity, according to authors of a new study that criticizes glamorous images of smoking in movies rated for children under 17.

Nearly 80 percent of movies rated PG-13 feature some form of tobacco use, while 50 percent of G and PG rated films depict smoking, said Stanton Glantz, co-author of the study, which examined 775 U.S. movies over the past five years.

"No one is saying there should never be any smoking in the movies," Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said Tuesday at a press conference at Hollywood High School. "What we're simply asking for is that smoking be treated by Hollywood as seriously as it treats offensive language."

He'd like to see more PG-13 movies that feature smoking - like "Matchstick Men," "Seabiscuit" and the Oscar-winning "Chicago" - get slapped with an R rating.

Since R-rated films typically earn less money because they are not open to most teenagers, Glantz said he hoped such a policy would discourage filmmakers from depicting unnecessary smoking, such as the nicotine-addicted worm aliens in "Men in Black."

The proposal includes an exception for historical figures who actually smoked as part of their public life, Glantz added. "For example, if they wanted to make a movie about Winston Churchill, they could show him with a cigar without triggering an R-rating, but the number of movies where that actually happens is very small."

The study was funded by the charitable foundation The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the National Cancer Institute.

Glantz singled out The Walt Disney Co. for smoking in the PG-rated "Holes" and G-rated "102 Dalmatians," Time Warner for its PG "Secondhand Lions" and "What a Girl Wants" and Sony Pictures Entertainment for its PG "Master of Disguise."

The Motion Picture Association of America, which rates films, did not immediately return calls for comment on the study or the ratings proposal.

[grand theft sparrow]

Well, I guess that means that Alice in Wonderland is going to get an R-rating now...

This is stupid.  Like fat-people-suing-McDonald's-for-making-them-fat stupid.

[Thrindle]

Well, I guess that means that Alice in Wonderland is going to get an R-rating now...

I agree completely.  

I have always been under the impression that movies are an art form.  Characters are depictions of feeling and emotion.  We censor so much as it is anyways.  In REAL life people laugh, they cry, they fuck, they fight, they rejoice...  Are movie moguls trying to somehow censor us into believing that humanity is different than it actually is?  Come on now, where is the art and honesty in that?  Personally, I don't see the point in censoring something you can go to the neighbourhood Starbucks to see.

[grand theft sparrow]

Personally, I don't see the point in censoring something you can go to the neighbourhood Starbucks to see.

Which makes me wonder how long it'll be before they ban coffee drinking in movies too.  Caffeine is bad for kids too.

And the problem with this is that they're not censoring anything.  They're just changing the acceptability of it.  Of course, this is NOT going to keep kids from smoking.

But the studios would stand to lose money in product placement if they have to take out smoking to maintain a PG-13 rating.  So maybe artistic expression will win... even if it's for the wrong reasons.  

[MacGuffin]

Valenti to Retire From Film Association

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Jack Valenti, who oversaw the creation of Hollywood's movie-ratings system in the 1960s, said Tuesday he will step down as head of the Motion Picture Association of America, possibly within three months.

Valenti, 82, has hinted at retirement over the last two years. He made it official at ShoWest, an annual convention of theater owners. May will mark Valenti's 38th anniversary in the job.

"I look at this with mixed emotions, because when you've done something so long, it's difficult to tear yourself away from it,'' Valenti told reporters before announcing retirement plans to theater owners in an address to open the convention. "But also, in any job, you want to leave before people ask you to leave.''

Valenti, who received a standing ovation from a crowd of about 1,200 theater owners, said he hopes to give up the job in two to three months if a successor can be found that quickly.

MPAA has hired media recruiter Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new leader for the trade group, which represents Hollywood's top seven studios - Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and MGM.

The job had been offered to U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, but he declined last January.

A former advertising and political consultant, Valenti was a speechwriter and congressional liaison for President Johnson before becoming head of the MPAA in 1966. The group implemented the ratings system two years later to replace a hodgepodge of government boards that censored movie content.

Critics have harped on the ratings system for decades, with some saying the ratings board is too loose on violence and overly prudish on sexuality.

But the system has stood largely unchanged from the G, PG, R and X ratings it began with. In the 1980s, a PG-13 category was added for movies inappropriate for preteens to attend on their own, while the NC-17 designation replaced the X rating for adult movies in the early 1990s.

Last year, the MPAA's annual poll of about 2,600 movie-goers found that 76 percent of parents with children younger than 13 found the ratings system useful, Valenti said.

"Jack Valenti has been a consummate leader of this industry for 38 years,'' said John Fithian, who heads the National Association of Theatre Owners. "And we're not sure what we're going to do without him.''

As home-video and digital technology has advanced, Valenti has become involved in studio efforts to fight film piracy, which he said costs the industry about $3.5 billion a year as bootleggers duplicate movies on video tape and DVD or make them available on the Internet.

One anti-piracy attempt backfired last year, as Valenti took the lead on a studio-backed plan to ban so-called "awards screeners,'' video copies of new movies sent to Academy Awards voters and those who pick other Hollywood honors so they can watch the films in their homes.

Those screener copies had been a source of counterfeit videotapes, DVDs and Internet downloads, Valenti said.

Small film outfits and independent producers objected, saying awards screeners allowed their movies to compete for Oscars with big-studio films that have huge marketing budgets.

Opponents sued, and the ban on awards screeners was lifted by a federal judge. Valenti said Tuesday that in the future, it will be up to individual studios and film distributors to decide if they want to send screener copies of their awards contenders.

Valenti said he will maintain an "umbilical relationship'' with the MPAA and Hollywood, though he was not certain what that role would be.

"I've been blessed with some genetic energy, so I'm not going to fade away,'' Valenti said.

[ono]

*uncorks the champag-ne*  Thanks for the great news, Mac!

[Jeremy Blackman]

Well, Hamas just replaced their spiritual leader with an extremist... I wonder what MPAA will do.

[Stefen]

$10 says it's Michael Powell.

[cine]

Well, Hamas just replaced their spiritual leader with an extremist... I wonder what MPAA will do.

[Ghostboy]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

How about Bill Clinton?

[monodynamic]

wow. you people have no love for the Valenti.

You think the rating system is bad today? Think about the code that existed many years ago. If it wasn't for the MPAA, the government would have seen fit to regulate the "filth" coming from the cinema, just imagine what the controlling government would do.

Oh... oh wait... the FCC and our main man Michael Powell seemed to see it as their duty to regulate the radio industry and infringe on their right of free speech on the grounds of indecency (ie. Stern).... while public airwaves are not the same as a theatrical release, just think how the government would screw the pooch.

Valenti has been a major supporter of the right for filmmakers to say what they want over his 38 years, and I think he has done well for the film industry. The MPAA serves as a protection for the film industry, self censorship, which overtime, I hope alters its standards.
BUT THAT WON'T HAPPEN UNTIL SOCIETY HERE IN AMERICA DECIDES TO MATURE.

[Ravi]

$10 says it's Michael Powell.

$20 says it is Emeric Pressburger.

The MPAA is better than the government rating films, but it is not without its problems.  Can anyone really say that The Dreamers has worse content than Passion of the Christ? Unless The Dreamers features two gruesome crucifixions or something.

[Chest Rockwell]

Illinois Theaters Issuing "R-Cards"

An Illinois-based theater chain, GKC Theatres, has begun issuing special "R-Cards" to teenagers, which allows them to see R-rated movies, ABC News reported Tuesday. In order to receive one of the cards, an adult guardian must come to the box office, fill out a form in which they say they approve of the teenager's attending an R-rated film, and pay a $2 fee. But outgoing MPAA President Jack Valenti has expressed opposition to the cards, saying: "I think it distorts and ruptures the intent of this voluntary film ratings system. All R-rated films are not alike."

[ono]

"All R-rated films are not alike."

Well, duh.  What a jackass.  That he would perpetuate this insipid system for so long and then come right out and debunk its fidelity -- though he probably didn't realize that that's exactly what he's doing when he said this.  Not that anyone else will notice either.  The R-card is obviously a stupid idea, but so is the MPAA rating system.  Lousy lazy parents.

[UncleJoey]

In order to receive one of the cards, an adult guardian must come to the box office, fill out a form in which they say they approve of the teenager's attending an R-rated film, and pay a $2 fee.

$2 fee? That's disgraceful. Forcing people to get these lame cards is bad enough, but charging them for it, too? Wow . . .