The Problem With The Film Rating System
R-Rated films like “Dazed and Confused” are just as popular with teenagers as they are with adults. R-Rated films could be improved if the rating allowed 15 and 16-year-olds to see them in theaters.
As we all try to return to the cinemas, there is one element of filmgoing that I find to be increasingly irrelevant and badly in need of an update: the rating system by the Motion Picture Association. Nowadays, American films can be rated five ways: G (General Audiences), PG (Parental Guidance Suggested), PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned for Those Under 13), R (Restricted for Those Under 17) and NC-17 (Adults Only). This modern system, in place since the mid-1980s, is incredibly flawed and, in my opinion, would benefit if the MPA reverted back to the old system of G, PG and R.
The old system worked incredibly well with many G films that were meant for families still having an edge with either mature themes or some scary imagery. Nothing like an R-rated film mind you, but something that could challenge people who saw them. Even films like the original “True Grit” and “The Haunting” were rated G.
PG was where a lot of the messed up films and blockbusters fit nicely: something that most audiences could see but there was knowledge that it would be a bit more adult or full of action. Films like “Star Wars,” “Jaws,” “Hair” and “Rocky” all were rated PG because, even though they had violence or scares, they were still meant for all ages.
R was where you had to either be an adult or with the company of one and this is where all the classic horror films, dramas and more violent films came in. Films like “Taxi Driver,” “Alien,” “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” all fit neatly.
But then the 1980s gave birth to PG-13 and the 2000s got really greedy with the PG rating to the point where all of the ratings are now completely messed up.
The G rating essentially means nothing because it’s seen as films for little kids. Family films are now all going for the PG rating even though nothing in the film warrants it. What about “Frozen,” “Inside Out” or “Encanto” screams PG? Sure there are some intense scenes but they’re still acceptable for young children, especially when compared to the intensity of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Bambi.”
PG meanwhile is overused to the point where it also doesn’t mean anything. I don’t think too many parents or filmgoers really take the whole “parental guidance” thing too seriously when a film like “Onward” is rated that. If your five-year-old can watch the film and not be scarred, I think the PG rating is overkill.
The oversaturated market of PG-13 is also ridiculous with films that clearly would be just PG back in the 1970s and 1980s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, young people are the biggest consumers of PG-13 films. When I went to see “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” a very good PG-13 film, there were more children in the audience than adults and a lot of them were under 13.
The only type of film I think earns its rating are R-rated films and even then there are problems with it. For the longest time I have wondered why the cut-off age is 17-years-old when it’s not so different from being 16 or 15. To be honest, I think that the R-rating could benefit if it was reduced to 15-year-olds because many of the R-rated films of the past and present can be of great service to teenagers, as someone who was a teenager not too long ago.
As much as older people want to believe that teenagers should live in a PG-13 world, they don’t. It’s very R-rated for, at the very least, language and a lot of good rated R films capture that.
Films like “The Breakfast Club,” “Almost Famous,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Baby Driver,” “Across the Universe,” “Superbad,” “Booksmart,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “The Edge of Seventeen,” “Dazed and Confused” and “The Big Lebowski” are all films where there’s just as much of a teenage following as there is for adults.
Hell, my parents showed me “Dazed and Confused,” a film with lots of swearing, underage drinking and pot smoking, when I was nine or ten and it was fine. I didn’t start smoking pot, but I did start using “man” a lot more in my vocabulary and listening to more music from the 1970s. My parents thought that I could handle the film, but they were also sharing something with me that they enjoyed in their youth.
Now, do I think that all kids should be watching R-rated films? Depends on the kid and the film, but why should the teenage demographic be denied certain films when so many of them can really appeal to young people.
At the end of the day, the way films are rated is incredibly obsolete and should revert to a basic three class system:
G: For General Audiences
PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
R: Restricted for Anyone Under the Age of 15
While it’s not perfect and there will still be problems with it, anything is better than we got right now.
