The MPAA has all their ratings copyrighted so no one can use them without permission.
Except for the X rating. This was deliberate, so they didn’t have to screen porn films.
Note, too, the other ratings were displayed in boxes; X was displayed in a circle.
IIRC A Clockwork Orange was rated “X” in its original release, and re-cut down to “R” later.
And PG stood for pretty good.
Those are often the same thing. Except for a handful, most constructors aim at Baby Boomer and older audiences.
The new Toy Story movie is rated G.
Even after the NC-17 rating came out, in part due to Roger Ebert and others calling for a “non-porn Adults Only rating,” Ebert kept calling for an “A” rating for “non-pornograghy,” citing Showgirls as an example of why NC-17 wasn’t doing this. My response was, “What stops the same thing from happening with the A rating? What then - AO? Then what - OA? Meanwhile, what they really need is something like NC-13, but how do you enforce it, given that very few 13-year-olds carry identification that indicates their age?”)
It didn’t last very long, but I definitely remember at least one GP-rated film. I think it got changed because people didn’t understand that it was a replacement for M and were confused by the fact that it started with G.
I do! M came before GP. if I recal correctly. The first movie I saw with that rating was :Paint Your Wagon.
Examples of movies rated G but would not be G today:
Gone with the Wind
Ben-Hur
What’s up, Doc?
True Grit
2001
Funny Girl
Odd Couple
Freaky Friday
Not that any of these are really offensive, just that G would not be used now, to signify they have adult themes and aren’t really intended for a child audience.
Would Midnight Cowboy even be R now? I don’t recall the level of foul language.
Everybody knows when you go to the show
You can’t take the kids along
You’ve gotta read the paper and know the code
Of G, GP and R and X
You gotta know what the movie’s about
Before you even go
Tex Ritter’s gone and Disney’s dead
The screen is filled with sex.
And as I recall, “Chariots of Fire” included some gratutious bad language so that it wouldn’t get a “G” rating. Because the producers believed that if it had a G rating, no adult would go to see it.
Purists know, whether in movies or real life, there is NO substitute for butter.
Actually it was the other way around. It was so studios wouldn’t have to submit their movies to the MPAA for a screening. By allowing studios the option of rating their movie an X without it having to be reviewed, they avoided the argument that they were compelling studios to use their services. (Many people are unaware that the MPAA charges up to $25,000 to review a movie.)
Standards have changed in movies and TV, so viewers need to keep up and find a reviewer that shares their worldview so that they don’t need to rely on MPAA, who allow politics to color their ratings.