I just watched Back to the Future (I and II) and I couldn’t help but notice that every other word seemed to be “shit,” and “asshole” and “bastard” seemed to pop up over and over again as well. I couldn’t believe it - the movies were rated PG.
I just cannot imagine PG movies now having that much swearing in them. Have the ratings gotten much stricter since then or something?
There are no ‘set’ guidelines. The movie is watched by a panel and they vote a rating. Watch some PG films from the 70’s with the nudity. (OK topless wome
Plus, in 84, the PG-13 rating was introduced. That might have led to movies that previously would have been rated PG moved into the new category.
Watch Sheena. It was PG when it came out. A lot of nudity with a good does of violence.
I would say that the ratings are tighter now then in the 80’s.
Jim
Consider two 1984 movies, both rated PG, both displaying full-frontal nudity of beautiful actresses: Sheena (Tanya Roberts) and The Woman in Red (Kelly LeBrock).
I’ve always thought it was an industry trend. For years a ‘G’ rating was the kiss of death for box office receipts (and still is for many movies that don’t have “Disney” or “Pixar” in their names). With the introduction of PG-13, that gave an outlet for those movies which weren’t quite ‘R’ rated (maybe a flash of boobie, a little gore, a little language) to be segregated from those PG films that might disturb a very young child, but generally make 8-year-olds go “Cool!”. It did take a few years for PG-13 to be ramped up and studios and the ratings board to get a feel as to what would be classified as what.
Just doing an IMDB search, there are 28 PG-13 movies released in 1984, 73 in 1985 (the year BttF was released). It started topping 100 in 1990, and by 2004 was well over 200 movies per year rated PG-13. Of course, part of these numbers may be direct-to-video releases as well, which also were on the increase during the same time period, but I think the point is still valid - it took time for the PG-13 parameters to be felt out.
I believe that during this period the studios realized that PG could be the new G. If they threw just enough stuff in to bump a G to PG, they could significantly raise the box-office revenue as those people (mainly tweens and early teens) who wouldn’t be caught dead in a G rated film would happily drop their cash for a PG film, while still being almost G enough for parents to take their kids to without discomfort - the best of both worlds for the studios.
Hit enter too soon forgot a bit.
" …the best of both worlds for the studios. With this shift PG-13 brought the cachet of being ever-so-slightly-forbidden that it would be an irresistable lure for those kids that didn’t have the guts to try to buy tickets for an R-rated flick.
So yes, I agree that ratings have gotten stricter, but my personal opinion is that they have gotten stricter just to make more money for the studios, and not from any desire by the Ratings Board to ‘protect America’s youth’ or anything like that."
The ratings are stricter. The whiners and crybabies and busybodies are more organized now.
For a blast from the past, I remember when the ratings system first got going, and the movies had a little blurb about it before every movie.
(Phonetic) “GemREX? What is GemRex?”
“GemRex is the new rating system…G is for—, M is for --, R is for --, and X is for—.”
That was it back then, G,M,R,X.
“What the hey?” questions about MPAA ratings is an ongoing topic in Roger Ebert’s Answer Man column. Here’s a recent one. Apparently “quirky” is bad for children.
It is a horribly flawed system and getting worse.