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Notes
from Austin: SPECIAL REPORT
THE
CLASH OF THE CINEMA TITANS PART 3 - "A Gun to Our Heads: Violence
and the MPAA Ratings System" By CINEMAD
In a Sept. 11th U.S. Newswire report is quoted as saying,
"The Federal Trade Commission report on the marketing of violence
to children lays bare the dark underbelly of a U.S. "entertainment"
industry which aggressively markets violent movies, video
games and music to our young children, according to a national
grassroots parents' organization.
"'The tobacco industry was forced to recognize the role
of targeted marketing efforts such as Joe Camel in addicting
children to cigarettes, and we now know the disease and death
which these products cause,' said Daphne White, executive
director of The Lion & Lamb Project. 'This new FTC report
demonstrates all too clearly that movie studios, video game
companies and music executives have abused the trust placed
in them by millions of parents by marketing violence to children
and young teens.'
"'If the value of the FTC's work is to be fully realized,
all concerned adults - including industry and government,
public health professionals and educators, parents and the
media -- must work together to ensure that adult-rated violence
is no longer marketed to children,' White said. The stakes
are high. Recently, six public health groups -- including
the American Medical Association, the American Psychological
Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- issued
a joint statement to Congress, concluding that 'Viewing entertainment
violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values
and behavior, particularly in children.'
"'This statement caps 40 years of research that clearly
demonstrates the link between violence on the screen and violence
in the streets; between shootings in the media and shootings
in our schools,' White said. 'The evidence is now in: viewing
or playing with violent media products is harmful to children's
health,' White said. 'The public health community has spoken,
the FTC has issued a report. The time is now ripe for action.
Parents are waiting to see what steps Congress will take to
follow up on the FTC report.'
"In the wake of the FTC report, Lion & Lamb laid out
an agenda for action: Industry must stop the deceptive advertising
practices documented in the FTC report, such as advertising
adult materials in media or locations where children are the
primary audience. For example, theaters should not advertise
R-rated or PG 13-rated movies at G-rated matinees. In addition,
the practice of cross- marketing adult brands -- such as violent
video game or movie characters -- as children's products (such
as toys and hand-held electronic games) should stop.
"Since industry has failed to provide meaningful ratings
for parents, Congress needs to appoint a truly independent
ratings board made up of educators, health and public safety
professionals, and parents. This blue-ribbon panel should
create one uniform ratings system for all "entertainment"
products, including: movies; video and arcade games; toys
based on videos or movies; and music. Since industry claims
it is up to parents to protect their children from violent
media, parents deserve a simple and honest ratings system
that clearly labels the violence levels in all "entertainment"
products.
"Industry needs to enforce the ratings system at the
retail level, so children can no longer buy or rent adult-rated
"entertainment" products. Just as Congress has mandated that
children cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol, it must protect
children from violent materials that are also dangerous to
their health.
"White applauded those retailers that have voluntarily
decided to prohibit the sale of adult-rated video games to
under-age children. 'I would expect these progressive retailers
to similarly place bans on the sale of adult-rated movies,
music and violent toys to our children,' White added. The
Lion & Lamb Project is a national grassroots initiative working
to stop the marketing of violence to children. Each holiday
season, Lion & Lamb releases a list of the Dirty Dozen violent
toys and the Top 20 Nonviolent toys."
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 09/11 10:45 Copyright 2000,
U.S. Newswire
Having worked in exhibition for many years, our contributing
yet anonymous author Cinemad has his own opinions and comments
on the ratings and their history. Exhibitor after exhibitor,
and we are speaking of the managers who run megaplexes here,
will tell you horror stories of dealing with parents who refuse
to conform to the ratings system when prompted only vaguely.
The true problem in this matter does not lie with exhibitors,
who are not "ratings cops," or filmmakers, who are artists,
or distributors, who are out to make a buck. Nope. And the
true problem here does not lie with concerned parents who
wish to responsibly regulate what their children watch. These
folks are always willing to be "rating's cops," as evidenced
in the story above. The true culprits here are the lazy, unconcerned,
disinterested, uneducated parents who consistently fight with
theater managers and employees when they try to enforce the
ratings system.
Go to your local theater the next time a major "R" rated
teen flick opens. Just hang out near the box office and listen
to the arguments and name calling that GROWN ADULTS engage
in with the theater's staff when their are not allowed to
buy a ticket for their minor to see the "R" rated film. It's
appalling.
What we have is a nation of uncaring, uninterested, slovenly
and stupid people who have reproduced and have no interest
in controlling their offspring, let alone rearing them to
be valuable, intelligent and hard working citizens.
The problem isn't the films. It isn't the exhibitors
or the distributors. It's parents themselves. And as we have
seen with the complete 180 this country has undergone in the
past 2 decades, there is no stopping it. That is, unless we
can somehow stop stupid, unqualified heterosexuals from breeding
and reproducing.
- lodger
THE CLASH
OF THE CINEMA TITANS PART 3 - "A Gun to Our Heads: Violence
and the MPAA Ratings System" By CINEMAD
The war of the MPAA ratings systems has been hot and cold
throughout out it's 32 year history. In the past year, following
the Columbine High School shootings, the industry has seen
President Bill Clinton calling upon theaters owners to "enforce
the movie rating code," namely the infamous "R" rating. So
the National Alliance of Theater Owners (NATO) accepted the
call with vigor and instructed their theater managers to "strictly
enforce" the "R" rating. The battle ground of the MPAA ratings
spreads across the country, into every cinema where mostly
"teenagers" (i.e multiplex employees) are required to follow
corporate policies of restricting films from those under the
age of 17.
The confrontations at the theater box office is most notable
by the "parents" who don't like being told what their kids
can or can not see. "Parents" is the key word here. Parents
are those who are seated to view by the MPAA as to determine
and anoint a film with one of the 5 rating guides. Parents
are also those who choose, if they are so inclined, what their
children watch on television, cable or video. Parents are
those who take small children to "R" rated movies that include
scene of sex, extreme violence (explosive or toward human),
drug use, gang activity, the occult, the most vulgar of language
and the destruction of property and human beings.
"The Cinema Titans," the theater chain owners, are those
who have sat back over the years and most have not regulated
or demanded complete compliance of the rating system by the
managers of their facilities. Why? One teenager, acting as
a "undercover teen" for NBC Dateline, reported that it is
for the "money" that theaters do not strictly enforce the
"R" rating.
"The MPAA", under the leadership of Jack Valenti, has lost
it's insight and integrity in it's management of the official
rating code. Over it's history, it has altered and modified
it's rating system, not once, but 4 times, due to the powerful
arm twisting of the motion picture distributors. Politics
plays a big role in what is rated and why it is rated the
way it is.
"The Motion Picture Distributors" are those who produce
and release some of the worst non-family film fare and pass
it off to the MPAA as releasable film entertainment. In the
past 14 months, 2 films have been released with an "R", that
should have been rated NC17. Even the powerful Mr. Valenti
was quoted as saying that "South Park: Bigger, Longer and
Uncut", should have been given the NC17 instead of the "neutral",
more marketable "R" rating. "Scary Movie" was given and released
with an "R" rating, and in this writer's opinion, is the other
worst "R" ever produced. Miramax and Paramount are the proud
owners of these 2 truly disgusting films that NO CHILD should
have been subjected to viewing.
The industry, in a recent government finding, has been targeted
as influencing the young minors of this country, violence
in movies, television and video games.
In 1968, Jack Valenti unveiled his rating system to ward
off all those "local community censors". The ratings were
"G" for general audiences, "M" for mature audiences, "R" for
restricted those over 17 unless accompanied by a parent or
adult guardian and "X" for no one under 18 admitted. It was
hailed as a breakthrough for artistic freedom. In 1970, the
"M" was replaced for the "GP" for parental guidance. This
has been altered again in favor of the "PG" rating, with the
same viewing advice. The early ratings were more consistent
with content and was usually safe. The system later began
to erode. A "G" rated film would be safe for children and
adults with no language, sex or violence. But the "G" was
contaminated early on with TRUE GRIT, where John Wayne called
Robert Duval a "son of a bitch", or AIRPORT that showed the
suicidal passenger and a bomb that severely injured many passengers
and a pregnant stewardess. Or the classic GONE WITH THE WIND
which depicted a child birth, a prostitute, a war time hospital
with a man losing his leg and a woman shooting a union soldier
in the face. How can these films be safe for viewing by a
child under 8?
An "M", "GP" or "PG" was usually deemed for the "mature
individual" and represented the rating for films with language
that included words such as "god damn, son of a bitch, shit
or piss". Female nudity was restricted to breasts and buttocks.
Male nudity was restricted to buttocks. Eventually the "fuck"
word would slip into these films in the early 1980's.
An "R" would deemed as adult fare, with reservations for
those under 18. These films would include the complete frontal
nudity of both male and female bodies, the "fuck" word with
all it's related connotations, suggested depictions of sexual
acts. A male could not have an erection in these films. The
1968 British film, IF, had to undergo some editing because
the MPAA felt that an all male school shower scene showed
to many penises.
An "X" was usually considered very adult and began to be
considered very marketable after United Artists requested
and got the rating for a film entitled MIDNIGHT COWBOY. A
film that won a Best Picture Oscar for 1969. Warner Brothers,
years later, released the "X" rated A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. By
the 1980's, "X" was no longer a marketing tool, but a nightmare
as theater owners refused to play "X" rated films and newspapers
would not run advertising for those films as well. The main
problem with this rating was that "adult" pornography, which,
in it's heyday, also showed at what could loosely be deemed
"theaters" in many communities, adopted the "X" rating in
it's advertising to entice viewers into it's realm. It acted
as much as an enticement as it did a warning for parents and
film goers.
Due to pressure in the early 1990's, the MPAA replaced the
"X" with NC17 because Universal did not want an "X" rating
on the HENRY AND JUNE, because "X" would suggest a film could
be pornographic and HENRY AND JUNE was not, just very adult.
After the release of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM,
the MPAA added a new rating "PG13". It's explanation was "may
be too intense for younger children". SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE
JUNGLE and TITANIC received this rating despite a complete
female nude shot. The "fuck" word is allowed in a PG13 film,
but a limit of 2 utterances is allowed. Over the years, many
have felt that some films have been improperly given a PG13,
instead of the "R" rating and on the other hand, several PG
films should have been rated "PG13".
Parents, over the years, have told me, in my job working
for a local theater, "how much the rating system is confusing
and untrustworthy". Many will ask for the content of films.
And what about those movie trailers that have the "green
band" that pro-claim that they are rated "G" and "Acceptable
for ALL audiences?" This is an insult to every parent and
movie goer. That has to be the biggest scam pulled off by
the MPAA: Trailers rated "G".
After the government released it's findings last month about
violence in the media, The Directors Guild of America called
for a revamping of the motion picture code and rating administration.
Last season, NBC Dateline did an undercover story on theaters
to see if they were compiling with the enforcement of the
"R" rating and of course, the theaters failed. The theaters
"caught on tape" were Clearview, Loews-Cineplex, United Artists
and AMC.
Even though the theaters were selective, some theater managers
DO go out of their way to enforce the rating, not only at
the box office, but also at the ticket takers position. The
reason is the blatant violation of the "R" rating policy and
it is PARENTS who are the biggest offenders to the enforcement
of this rating. I personally have been cursed, threatened,
and insulted by parents IN FRONT of their own kids because
I insisted on following the exact wording of the rating's
system and refused to allow minors to see films unless they
were "accompanied by a parent" into the film. This means the
parent must SIT AND WATCH the film with their child.
The MPAA needs to re-evaluate the value of the system. Insure
it's enforcement, not only at movie theaters, but video stores,
all stores who sell videos, public libraries who rent videos
at no cost, on-line film vendors, etc... It is now a system
that is no longer used as a "parental guide" for careful viewing,
but as a "content promoter" for ticket and video sales.
THE
CLASH OF THE TITANS PART 1 - by CINEMAD
THE
CLASH OF THE TITANS PART 2 - "Your Ad Here: Advertising at
the Multiplex" by CINEMAD
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