What was the last film rated G by the MPAA that was aimed primarily at adults?
Once upon a time, films like Airport, The Green Berets, Sweet Charity, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Funny Girl, The Odd Couple, Marooned, Darling Lili, and Tora! Tora! Tora! were made for primarily adult audiences, but were given a G rating. The last I remember that happening was for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.
Any later examples?
U2: 3D?
Foul! There was no rating system until November 1968. Your list includes:
2001: A Space Odyssey - April 1968
The Odd Couple - May 1968
The Green Berets - July 1968
The others all came out in 69 or 70. All (or at least most) of them show PG ratings in other countries, and some even show USA:G and USA TV:PG. So I think it’s disingenuous to present these movies as rated G.
G-type movies targeted at adults stopped being made when it was no longer mandatory under the Hays Code. The ones you mention are close enough to the cutoff that they may have already been in production when the codes were still in effect.
Many Pixar movies are rated G. For example “Wall-E”, from 2008. Whether Pixar movies are aimed primarily for adults is a good question.
Ed
The Straight Story from 1999. And that was a David Lynch film, too, making the G rating all the more surprising. Great movie.
The Production Code underwent a major revision in September 1966, allowing profanity and nudity. The letter ratings system began in November 1968.
There was The Rookie released in 2002. The main character is an adult, and the movie follows his life story as he tries to make into Major League Baseball despite being in his mid-30s.
You’re going to have to define better what you consider to be a film aimed at adults. Here are the 14 films that came out last year that got G ratings:
Here are the 20 films that did best at the box office last year that got PG ratings:
You tell us which among these you consider among these to be a film aimed at adults and we can answer your question.
I would consider the documentary Encounters at the End of the World, the re-issue of François Truffaut’s The Wild Child (1970), the comedy College Road Trip, and probably WALL-E, to be films aimed primarily at adults.
Really? College Road trip? W/ Disney’s Raven Symone as the star??
:shrug: alright…
Of those I’d only count Wild child and End of the World, the U2 one is a concert film and shouldn’t really count.
I’ve long heard rumors the makers of The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) went back and reedited one scene to include the word “fuck” when they were threatened with a G rating. It was certainly an adult film (ya’know: actual plot, politics, character development).
The Blues Brothershad a similar fate, a surprising rating for a fairly clean film marketed to adults.
I believe the version of Jane Austen’s Emma, with Gwenyth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam did the same thing. They added a couple of "damn"s to get a PG rating.
Apparently a G rating would turn some people off, or make them dismiss it as a “kid’s movie.”
How about Mr. Bean’s Holiday?
According to Box Office Mojo, there have not been a lot of G rated movies period–in 2008, there were 14 G, 42 PG, 142 PG-13, and 194 R. And, I might add, exactly 0 NC-17 movies. As you go back to 1982, the numbers for G and PG stay more or less constant, while the R and especially the PG-13 (and the total) diminish.
Each year a couple of that handful of G rated films are aimed at grownups, and a few are documentaries.
Agreed. Great movie. Who knew David Lynch could make a movie so gentle and touching.