semi-OT - Movie Ratings

[Brooks A. Rowlett]

No: HPFGUIDX 1021

The ORIGINAL US movie rating scheme when introduced was:

G - General Audiences
M- Mature Audiences
R- Restricted - non-one under 18 unless accompanied by parent or guardian
X- No one under 18 admitted at all.
   True pornography quickly adopted an unofficial "Triple X" rating.  A
few serious movies with heavy sexual content in their plots were also
given X ratings;_Midnight Cowboy_ and _Last Tango in Paris_ being
examples (At least the former has been re-released re-rated 'R' with no
edits, indicating how standads have relaxd in recent years)

Note this made an easy set of letters, GMRX, which could easily be a
Pontiac brand autombile. :-)

Within only a few years of the creation of the systems, M was felt to be
unclear, and PG for "Parental Guidance Suggested" was substituted. 
_Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_ was given a PG rating but was
felt to be really intense for pre-teens and was a key to splitting the
PG rating into PG and PG-13 which is never enforced as a restriction in
the theater that I have seen, only as a piece of information for parents.

Finally, there was pressure for some 'serious and artisitic but very
sexual and very much rude language without having explicit sex' to get
something other than an X rating.  X was a box office 'kiss of death' as
many theaters would, as a matter of policy, never show an 'X'.  So the
NC-17  - No Children under 17 - rating was created.

So now the system is
G / PG / PG-13 / R / NC-17 / X / (XXX unofficial)

Easy, right?  Yeah sure.

-Brooks