Movie rating (going OT)

[GulPlum]

At 15:12 17/02/03 , ArtsyLynda at aol.com wrote:
>GulPlum wrote:
>
> > CoS gets a "PG" rating, despite 4 out of 5
> > elements being rated "U".
>
>Erm. . .what's a "U" rating?  I've never heard of that one.  Thanks for
>educating this Yank!  ;->

It stands for "Universal audience" and is the equivalent of the US "G" (for 
"General audiences"). We also have a very rarely used "Uc" rating which is 
reserved for films appropriate for pre-schoolers (the "c" standing for 
"children"). I honestly can't remember when I last saw that rating on a 
movie, although it's frequently seen on commercial videos of TV shows made 
for that audience (Tellytubbies, etc).

To complete the picture, the US rating system has a "PG-13", which in the 
UK is split into "12" (nobody under 12 may be admitted; the first movie 
which had this rating was Batman - the rating was invented for that movie, 
but the video is a 15!) and "12A" ("A for "Advisory", which means that kids 
under 12  must be accompanied by an adult; it is always accompanied by an 
explanation of what caused the Board to issue the advisory: e.g. "The 
Hours" has "Contains single use of strong language and suicide theme"; all 
advertising of the film *must* include the advisory without changing the 
phrasing). The 12A was invented for Spider-Man, because there was a major 
noise from parents about kids not being able to see it - this way, the 
responsibility is placed completely on the parents. Since then, it's been 
used very frequently.

Our equivalent of "R" is "15", which is what it sounds like: nobody under 
15 may be admitted; and NC-17 which is a huge taboo in the US movie 
industry is a simple "18" (nobody under 18 admitted). UK cinemas and 
distributors don't really mind movies which get this rating - UK 
cinema-going demographics are a bit different to US ones, and the kind of 
films which get "18" ratings are unlikely to appeal to younger teenagers 
anyway.

TV stations don't mind either, as they are allowed to show such movies 
after 9pm. Generally speaking, British TV is a lot more grown up than the 
US networks about what can and can't be shown (or heard). TV chat shows are 
most amusing when American movie stars are on and look gobsmacked when 
somebody says "sh*t". Dustin Hoffman almost fell out of his chair during 
one last year when another guest used the f-word! (the chat show was aimed 
for transmission after 10pm - no kids should be watching TV at that time!). 
He then delighted in using the word in almost every sentence, and told some 
particularly risque anecdotes! :-)

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, aware that has gone way OT but is always happy to 
"educate the Yanks". :-)