Added: 01/13/2006 |
Movie ratingHere are some facts one should know about movie rating system.
Nowadays for the movie making industry there are left almost no taboos about what filmmakers can or cannot show in their movies.
So while all over the world there's much discussion about sex and violence on TV-screens, movies widely using this topics are being released almost every week. Very many parents wouldn't like their children to see some of those movies, but when a movie is new or they haven't watched it yet parents can get some information about the movie content from it's rating to decide after that whether they should or shouldn't let their children watch it.
It's a totally voluntary system organised and sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theatre Owners.
The movies are watched and voted by the rating board which consists of the common fathers and mothers. They watch a movie altogether, discuss it and after it rate it. The criteria are the topic of a movie, the amount of violence shown, presence of nudity, sex scenes, scenes of drug use. All those components aren't somehow strictly measured or classified. It's all about the general impression after the film. The main idea is what a kid will see in a movie and how it'll influence his/her mind. The board decides whether a film is too adult and if it is then since what age the children should be let to attend it.
People who rate the movies aren't critics so they don't value the quality of a movie as of a work of art. Their task is only to find out if the content OK for a child to get aquatinted with it.
Movie can be supplied with five rating symbols. They are ' G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17. Let's see what they all mean.
G mean General Auditory. This is the rating of the most of Disney and family movies. Both parents and children of all ages are welcome to watch these movies. No bad language, no sex scenes, no violence (if there are some then very few and very restrained), no drug use and so on.
PG means Parents Guidance Suggested. This means than before you will let your 5-year old kiddo watch this movie you should check up what it's about. If you consider your child's soul to young and innocent to accept that content you'd better keep the baby away from the TV-set or from the cinema. Although this doesn't mean that the movies of this category really contain anything violent or obscure. In fact nothing than children older then 13 shouldn't watch.
PG-13 means Parents Strongly Cautioned. We've finally reached 13-year old children. This means that about the films in this category the board decided that pre-teenagers should grow a couple years older to watch it. Still no rough violence, sex scenes, but probably a little bit of drug use shown and some bad words are spoken.
R means Restricted under 17. Some violence, some sex, some drug use, some explicit language ' some adult content in general. The board recommend to accompany a teenager under 17 to the cinema if he/she wants to watch a movie of this category. There adults probably can tell their children to close the eyes while some of those adult scenes are shown.
R-17 means No One 17 or Under Admitted. In fact this means ' adults only. Yet this doesn't mean that a movie is pornographic or something. The R-17 movies show explicit sex, rough violence and etc that shouldn't be seen by the teens who haven't reach the appropriate age.
All these ratings aren't a low. They are only recommendations that will help to care about kid's mental health. It's the filmmakers who decide whether they want their movies to be rated. Most of them choose to submit movies for rating. The decision of the rating board can be changed only if a producer decides to re-edit a movie and submit it once more.
To use or not use all those suggestions and recommendations is only up to parents.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
