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The MPAA film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a Movie's suitability for certain audiences. It is one of various Motion Picture Rating Systems used to help patrons decide which movies may be appropriate for children and/or adolescents. In the United States, the MPAA rating system is the most recognized system for classifying potentially offensive content, but it is usually not used outside of the film industry because the MPAA has trademarks on each individual rating. The rating system has come under increasing criticism for the secrecy of its decision-making process,1 as well as a reportedly stricter emphasis on sex versus violence. RATINGS The current MPAA movie ratings consist of: If a film has not been submitted for a rating, the label NR ('''Not Rated''') is often used; however, NR is not an official MPAA classification. Films that have not yet received MPAA classification, but are expected to, are often advertised with the notice "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" or "Rating Pending." HISTORY Origins The MPAA film rating system was instituted on November 1 , 1968 , as a response to complaints about the presence of sexual content, graphic violence, and Profanity in American film following the MPAA revisions to the Production Code Of America in 1966. Although the revisions allowed a "SMA" (Suggested for Mature Audiences) advisory noting films with violence or mature themes, along with the Code seal, this warning was not very descriptive and its enforcement was far from standardized. (See Green Sheet for information about a related precursor to the ratings system.) The United States came rather late to motion picture rating, as many other countries had been using rating systems for decades. The erosion of the film production code had several effects: while it allowed for certain kinds of artistic movies like Alfred Hitchcock 's '' Psycho '' ( 1960 ) to be filmed, it also sparked a rise in low budget Exploitation Film s that became more and more explicit in their sexual and violent content. '' Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? '' in 1966 used the term "hump the hostess". In 1967 , two movies ('' Ulysses '' and '' I'll Never Forget What's'isname '') were released containing the word '' Fuck ''. This precipitated the public demand for the reintroduction of self-regulation. After a series of meetings with government representatives, the Motion Picture Association of America and National Association Of Theatre Owners (NATO) agreed to provide a uniform ratings system for all of its constituents' movies, a system that would be theoretically enforced by the film exhibitors. Film production companies that were not members of the MPAA were unaffected, and the ratings system had no official governmental enforceability due to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as interpreted in regards to matters of sexuality, violence, and profanity in the media dating back to 1952's '' Joseph Burstyn, Inc V. Wilson '' decision. However, two important Supreme Court cases in 1968, ''Ginsberg v. New York''2 and ''Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. Dallas''3, did lead to the creation of the MPAA rating system. Original ratings The original movie ratings (in use 1968–1970) consisted of:
Originally, the rating system was to have three classification levels ending with Restricted (similar to the rating system used in most Canadian Provinces at the time) however, pressure from theatre owners influenced the MPAA to create a film rating (X) exclusively for adults to protect theatre owners from complaints and legal procedures. Initially, the X rating wasn't trademarked: under the plan, anyone not submitting his or her film for rating could self-apply the X (or any other symbol or description, except one trademarked by the rating program). The M rating is replaced Many parents were confused as to whether M-rated films contained more mature content than those rated R. This was especially because during the pre-rating years of 1965 to 1968, an earlier form of crude classification allowed more graphic violence and mature themes to be included as long as the film bore the advisory "Suggested for Mature Audiences" ("SMA"). This confusion led to its replacement, announced in January 1970 ,4 by the designation GP, for General Patronage:
The G in GP was meant to designate that the film had no age restrictions on audience admissions (as in the G rating, "All Ages Admitted"), while the P was to inform audiences that although no ages would be restricted, the discretion of parents was suggested. The change from M to GP took effect on March 1, 1970.5 (The auditory similarity between G and GP soon caused this designation to be further revised into the PG rating, an acronym of ''Parental Guidance''.) Age problems with the R and X ratings At the same time in 1970 as the M rating was changed to GP, the ages on the R and X ratings were increased from 16 to 17 (where the R rating has remained ever since). However, the age on the X rating would still vary in certain jurisdictions until it was officially changed to an NC-17. Some newspaper advertisements clearly show that ages on advertising even for R- and X-rated films would occasionally be altered to read 18 instead of 17. Other local boards involved in the early negotiations of the rating system even wished to classify the age as high as 21. The GP rating is replaced
Today the rating reads:
By this time, the familiar standardized boxes with boldfaced text, the MPAA logo, and the explanatory message underneath were in common use. From the adoption of the system through the mid-1970s, it was common for mainstream films with slight adult content such as '''' to be released with G ratings, but by 1978 (with increasing use of the phrase "children" rather than "pre-teenagers" on the PG rating), the G rating had become increasingly associated with films intended specifically for children, while the PG rating became increasingly acceptable for designating "family" films. Most of the G-rated films from the early years of the rating system contain content equivalent to that of more strongly rated (PG and PG-13) films of later years. Some G-rated films such as, '' Romeo And Juliet '' were later changed to PG. There have been some rating choices which, in retrospect, can be considered odd, though it must be remembered that the rating system standards were considerably different at the time. Violence, mild suggestive content, male nudity and mild profanity were more acceptable in lower rating categories while sexuality and female nudity were not. A rating also depended on the opinion of the individual committee members at the time. For example, the 1967 G-rated film '''' (1987; Direct-to-video )) both received R ratings. All three ''Alive'' films were banned in Finland under that country's rating system. Also, the film '' The Thomas Crown Affair '' received an R rating despite the violence being no more graphic than the average James Bond Film at the time. It is believed that the only reason the film received this rating and not M was due to some sexual tension during a chess game. A rather unusual wording of the PG rating accompanied the TV commercials for '' Jaws '' in 1975. The phrase ''May Be Too Intense For Younger Children'' was part of the rating. By the late 1970s, the PG ratings on some films were reworded, with the word ''pre-teenagers'' being increasingly substituted with the word ''children''. An analysis of the proportion of films rated G and PG at this time (corresponding with a stricter shift in the rating standards) shows that fewer G ratings were issued while more family films were rated as PG with the less restrictive-sounding "children" label. No clear system of applying either label was known to be a part of MPAA policy during the late 1970s, but by the early 1980s, the phrase "pre-teenagers" became little used, and in 1984, the PG-13 rating (see '' in December 1979, what was probably the end of mainstream (heavily marketed, non-animated) big studio films with a G rating (although the director's cut received a PG rating for sci-fi action and mild language). Ever since, such productions would be released with at least a PG rating. This period of transition was also the time when live-action Disney productions, such as '' The Black Hole '', '' The Watcher In The Woods '', and '' The Devil And Max Devlin '', began to routinely receive PG ratings. The addition of the PG-13 rating Prior to July 1 , 1984 , there was a minor trend of films straddling the PG and R ratings (as shown by the MPAA records of appeals board decisions of the early 1980s). This suggested that there needed to be a middle ground between PG and R. The summer of 1982 featured '' Poltergeist '', which was originally rated R (for intensity and a scene of drug use) but then re-rated PG on appeal. Disney's '' Dragonslayer '' (although PG without appeal, and a co-production with Paramount Pictures ) alarmed many parents with scenes of explicit violence and gore. A larger percentage of films were allowed a PG rating despite limited use of strong language ('' Tootsie '', '' Terms Of Endearment '', '' Sixteen Candles '', '' Footloose '') that initially had warranted an R rating until the appeals board changed their ratings to PG (thanks in large measure to precedents set in the 1970s, with '' All The President's Men '' at their forefront). 7 Its should be noted that if those films were released after 1984 they most likely would have received the PG-13 rating due to the content in the films. Violent scenes in the 1984 PG-rated films '' Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom '', which Spielberg directed and '' Gremlins '', which he produced, were the final straws. Public outcry about the violence led Spielberg to suggest a new rating called PG-14 to MPAA president Jack Valenti . Mr. Valenti and the MPAA decided instead on PG-13, conferred with theater owners and then introduced the new rating on July 1 . The rating still allowed children under 13 to be admitted without a parent or guardian, but it cautions parents about potentially shocking violence or other offensive content, although not as offensive as an R rating. It is the highest Unrestricted rating. The first movie to gain widespread theatrical release with a PG-13 rating was 1984 's '' Red Dawn '' (although the first to receive the classification was '' The Flamingo Kid ''). It took a year for the PG-13 logo to shift into its current form. The initial rating, instead of using a line of boldface text followed by explanatory description below, bore the wording from 1984 to 1986:
Today the rating reads:
With the PG rating still being used without a change, it was unclear to some parents at first whether PG or PG-13 films were intended for older viewers. Until 1990, some of the same content that prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating was still being observed in some PG films. For example '' Big '', '' Spies Like Us '', and '' Nothing In Common '' were three late 1980s PG releases that contained more PG-13-rated innuendos (two of which contained the word ''fuck'' in their dialogue.) The ratings board reacted quickly to parental protests, and over the next couple of years, PG-13 films finally outnumbered PG releases, as standards were tightened for PG classification. Around the turn of that decade, standards were also tightened for PG-13 films, at least for violence, as the ratings board became more likely to issue an R rating for violence that involved bloodshed and/or the slaying of policemen. Except for a brief reversal in 1994, the number of PG-13 films has outnumbered the number of PG films ever since, and the proportion of R-rated films (starting with the boom of home video in the late 1980s) has generally increased at the expense of unrestricted films. Only within the last two years has there been an indication that the proportion of restricted films has started to decrease slightly as a trend. X is replaced by NC-17 In the early years of the ratings system, '' were released featuring very strong sexual and violent content. Neither one was able to get approved for an R rating so they were left as unrated with limited release. It was around this time that the MPAA decided to re-think the current rating system. It was earlier suggested by director David Lynch (who wrote and directed the controversial and explicit film '' Blue Velvet '') to establish a double RR rating for more explicit films. The MPAA introduced the NC-17 (No Children Under 17 Admitted) rating on September 27 , 1990 , to finally make an official and standardized classification that could allow adult oriented films to be distributed with the MPAA seal. Part of this calculation was that the adult XXX markets tended to have no reason to pay the fee to submit their product by that point (since the films were distributed either through independent theaters or simply direct to video), and a differentiation could therefore be inferred by viewers that MPAA rated NC-17 films were intended for adult audiences and not necessarily "obscene" or "pornographic", which would be the decision of the courts. Some media outlets that refused ads for X-rated titles viewed ads for NC-17-rated films as equally unsuitable, despite studio claims, and thus simply transferred that policy to NC-17 titles, as did many theater landlords. A number of social conservative groups placed pressure on large video chains including Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video , as a result of which these chains do not stock NC-17 titles. However, similar and even more controversial sexual and violent product is often carried by these chains so long as no such rating was officially connected with its packaging. Later, in 1996, the age for the NC-17 category was subtly increased by one year by changing the wording from "No Children Under 17 Admitted" to "No One 17 And Under Admitted." The label NC-17 stayed even though the letters no longer stand for anything, as the word "children" was replaced by "one". While A Number Of Movies have been released with the NC-17 rating, none of them has been a major box office hit. In a bold attempt to broaden the acceptance of NC-17-rated films towards the moviegoing public, United Artists marketed its big budget '' Showgirls '' heavily, with splashy TV and print ads. The film became the first (and, to date, only) NC-17-rated film to open in Wide Release , on 1,388 screens. But the Critically Savaged film's poor box office performance created only a larger stigma towards the rating, deeming any film rated NC-17 as being "box office poison." An acclaimed film, '' Requiem For A Dream '' in which the lead actress, Ellen Burstyn , was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Actress in the 2000 Academy Awards , was released unrated rather than go out with the stigma of an NC-17 rating. The MPAA threatened to give the film the NC-17 rating due to a montage at the climax of the film involving a graphic orgy/party scene. Although the scene is quite explicit, many protested it was very necessary to the entire message of the movie. Even though the purpose of the film was to show the realities of drug addiction, the MPAA stood by their decision by refusing to give the film an R rating on appeal. The NC-17 rating has more recently been limited to films considered to appeal to a limited " Art House " audience, where the limited distribution and advertising of such films is not considered a major obstacle. The majority of NC-17 fare is still released theatrically either in an edited R-rated version, or with its rating surrendered. Periodically a mainstream NC-17 release, such as '' The Dreamers '', will be attempted by a large studio. However, more commonly when the original cut of a movie is labeled NC-17, the studio will release a sanitized R version for theaters. Later, both the R-rated theatre version and the original Director's Cut will be released to the home theatre and rental markets. The Director's Cut will often be labeled as such, and marked either NC-17 or left unrated. NC-17 movie may also get released uncut overseas, depending on the country and their rating systems. Comic-Con recently rejected a preview of '' Saw IV '' for being too violent, and limited its preview to a much shorter clip. The film later received an NC-17 rating. However, the film now has an R rating for "sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language".http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0890870/ The most recent major-studio film to receive an NC-17 rating is Focus Features ' '' Lust, Caution '', about an assassination conspiracy in World War II -era Shanghai . The film's pervasive erotic content was cited as the reason for the rating. Director Ang Lee will not try to modify the film.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i5259606488c5ad20cc20a5480de02cdc RATING PROCESS Although the MPAA does not publish an official list of all the exact words, actions, and exposed body parts used to determine a movie's rating, and one of the strongest criticism against the current rating system is the alleged inconsistency, some guidelines can be derived based on the MPAA's actual rating decisions:
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