Sex, Drugs, Violence, Language

All of the topics in this post's header are terms often used by both the MPAA and BBFC (check my previous post if you are unaware of these organizations) to rate and classify films that are ready for distribution. If you have been keeping up with me you will know my thoughts on how the BBFC is somehow becoming more progressive and the MPAA goes the other direction.

I have another paper to write regarding this topic and am having a hard time deciding the exact direction to take it. There are so many things I have noticed while doing research but a short academic paper could never encompass everything. At first I wanted to write this paper because of an article I read last year that got me thinking. Written by Brendon Connelly, it ran on SlashFilm and discussed the BBFC and MPAA in relation to Lars von Trier's film Antichrist. Check out the article here: Comparing the BBFC and the MPAA, and How Antichrist Illustrates The Differences. The article did not necessarily bring up anything new, or that I had not noticed before, but it laid out the argument in all the right words. Connelly used examples to show how in recent years the BBFC has given films with graphic violence a harder time than the MPAA, while the opposite has been done with graphic sexuality. He then leaves it up to the reader to "Infer from those details what you will about the gulf between UK and US society." Since reading this I have wanted to research the causes of that gulf. But I can't seem to stick to just violence and sex on screen, it involves so much more than that.

The Ratings Systems

Remembering that I am a film major and an Anglophile it should come as no surprise that I love anything to do with a combination of the two. Accordingly I am fascinated by the rating systems in place in both countries and how they are often divergent. (If you have been reading my blog from the beginning you may note that I am now finally broaching this subject, as I mentioned it in my very first post!) I began looking into the topic because the British seem to be becoming more and more progressive, as the Americans are going the other direction in terms of censoring films. I have been working on some essays regarding these differences, doing research to try and find some explanations. I plan to bring you some of my findings in the future, but for now I thought it might be useful to lay out the rules of the ratings, with a little more detail than you might get off their website. 

The American film ratings system, as we know it today, has been around since 1968. The Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) gives the ratings and they began as follows: G for general audiences, M for mature audiences, R for restricted audiences and X for adult audiences only. Two years after the system was implemented, PG was added and PG-13 came out in 1984 when it was determined that PG movies had become too violent and inappropriate for younger viewers. X rated films were acceptable to audiences, one going as far as to win the Best Picture Academy Award in 1969 (Midnight Cowboy) but over time the porn industry adopted the symbol and the sophistication factor of the X rated film disappeared. 1990 brought the final change that most directly clashes with the British system and that perhaps has had the greatest affect on adult films. It even makes it hard to use the term “adult film” because now that commonly only refers to pornography. In 1990 the X rating was officially changed to NC-17 but the damage had already been done. Few distributors or exhibitors wanted to show films that were NC-17 and while it is not illegal for a film to be released unrated it is uncommon because of economic pressures.