h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's actually a lot of material I didn't cover in this piece, which I meant to research in more detail. I just wanted to get the general overview to start with, but there's more to it. Believe me, there's a lot more to this puppy than meets the eye. It's a complex political and economic thing. In a round about way, you and I have ASKED for the ratings system. It was a public outcry that initialized it. We just didn't ask for it the way it is. The MPAA has attempted to please EVERYONE with this, and the end result is a watered down useless system.

That's just my opinion of course, but I was hoping for more time to research it so I could back that claim up. I simply don't have the resources.

Some other interesting footnotes, the movie that inspired the PG-13 rating was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Before that movie everything was either R or PG. Temple of Doom fell somewhere in between. It wasn't for little kids, but it still had many elements that would appeal to families with teenagers, or at least that was the plan. So Spielberg and Lucas went before the MPAA board and Jack Valenti. They presented an alternative for a rating between R and PG with reasons why it was necessary, and they got it. PG-13 would not exist if not for the creators of Star Wars and Jaws.

I don't recall if I mention this in the entry or not. Contrary to popular belief, the primary reason for the ratings system is for parents. It's not intended for children and it's not intended for anyone without kids. It's only for parents to use as a guideline. And it really shouldn't even be illegal to take kids to see an X rated movie, except for the fact that there are laws about contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Taking a kid to see a porn film is like handing him a beer.

If you don't have children though, the ratings system works in reverse, and it's not as useful. You probably won't want to see a G rated film, and will aim more towards R or NC-17 for yourself. However, that puts movies like "Babe" in a sad place, because adults should see that movie more than kids. The categories are generally defined on purpose, and yet over the decades people have pigeonholed them until they're rather absurd.

It kinda reminds me of the Ten Commandments. How there's the story of Moses coming down from the mountain with these stone tablets. Yay. Ten commandments. Rather simple. Then there's the books of the bible that came after that. Leviticus and Numbers and countless other sources which look at those ten commandments and add ammendments to them and try to describe what's acceptable and what's not until everything gets so convoluted. You can carry up to a bushel of weight on the Sabbath but not any more than that, because more than a bushel is considered "working." It just gets silly.

But how do you make an industry wide rating system without starting with the basics and then redefining it with every new product that comes along until you paint yourselves into a corner?

This whole thing has given me a new appreciation for movie critics. Without them we'd have no idea what we were getting into before we see a film. Even if you disagree with a critic, if s/he describes what kind of movie it is, s/he's helping you to make up your own mind what's right for you.

And that's what the ratings system is really all about.