You clearly hear hammering during the relevant scene in JCSS. And besides he does get flogged, crowned with thorns and has to drag a cross. But as mentioned Passion Plays had been always a special case (heck since back in the Code days making it biblical was a special case, you could show or imply a lot of sin as long as there was some eventual smiting and salvation). But JCSS’s “G” rating as mentioned above was an artifact of the sensibilities of its time. Also, it reflects the MPAA’s still evolving vision of what the rating meant. JCSS’s “G” would come from a board deciding it is suitable for general audiences, not as an expectation of being acceptable to all audiences: they must have figured people may still be upset on theological grounds, but *that *was not in their mandate. Similarly Midnight Cowboy’s “X” would have meant “this is just entirely inappropriate for our children and young teens”, not “this is wank fodder”. It was only later on that MPAA defined G as “nothing that would offend parents for viewing by children” and X was taken over by porn.
(**their *children in *that *time and place, mind you)
That later definition of “G” is what essentially has rendered it a kiddie rating these days. Used to be that for instance in an action adventure movie (see ST:TMP) it would be understood there was peril and minor players might bite it or at the very least the Kid would punch the Big Bad in the face real hard, but that was not considered something offensive to portray.
According to the Wikipedia article on the matter three original tiers were trademarked in 1968: G / General audiences, M / Mature audiences – parental guidance advised, R / Restricted – admission limited to persons older than 16, unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian; and the non-trademarked “X” that could be applied by the MPAA or that the producers could self-rate. Apparently the X tier was requested by theater owners wanting a class where strictly adults-only admission could apply. Within 2 years “M” was redesignated GP and then PG (in order to avoid confusion with R as to content) and the R age limit raised to 17. This was the regime from 1972 to 1984. In 1984 they split PG into PG and PG13 and in 1990 they created NC17 to mean “adults only but not porn”.
A film like Topsy-Turvy - the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic - had a scene with utterly gratuitous nudity and a “fuck” thrown in just to dodge a PG-13. Which is a crying shame, because otherwise it would be a wonderful film to show in schools to introduce kids to their music.
Well, treading lightly, although I don’t think anyone who wears a cross (I don’t btw…) thinks about the violent nature of it constantly I think it’s obvious that a large part of the Christian cross’ symbolic power is related to this.
I can’t believe that movie is rated R!?! That film is so wonderfully sweet! Why on Earth did they want to avoid a PG so badly?!
The priest in my childhood parish had no problem with Superstar, and we were not one of those folk mass parishes (I think they served the Mass in Latin until they started serving it in Spanish as well as English.)
The symbolism of the suffering implied in the Crucifix is a bit complex, but suffice it to say the point is not the violence, but strength and redemption.
Some people don’t wear/display a cross, they wear/display a guy nailed to a couple of pieces of wood. My aunt had a particularly bloody one that, the first time my young self saw it, lead to me screaming and running out of the room. She was offended that I was horrified she had this bleeding guy nailed to her bedroom wall.
There was also that recent encounter I had with a Catholic priest who kept going on and on about how wonderful it was he ate the flesh and drank the blood of Christ every day. He had no clue that from outside it was pretty damn creepy. (Not to mention the irony that it wasn’t that long ago that some of his group was accusing the group my family came from of being cannibals).
That’s my point - the ones brought up in the church and with the symbolism don’t seem to get that from the outside this is pretty horrific stuff. There’s also the issue that far too many Christians take their religion as the default and just assume you’re one of them, and sometime don’t seem to grok that I’m not, and never have been a Christian (You weren’t baptized? Not ever? Are you sure? Maybe you don’t remember… Your parents are nice people, I 'm sure they had it done. Um… nope, pretty sure it never happened.)
The utlimate ratings WTF when I was growing up was Watership Down.
Allegedly, when the film was first submitted to the British Board of Film Classification, the BBFC passed the film with a ‘U’ certificate (suitable for all ages) (and, in at least one movie poster, the movie was deliberately marketed not only to children, but to young children).
I can’t remember how it was rated in Canada, but I remember it was definitely marketed for kids.
Although it is, basically, an animated movie about talking rabbits (and in my opinion a very good one), it contains much traumatizing material for young children - depictions (very graphic and surreal) of rabbit genocide by poisoin gas, much very realistic violence and gory death (in one case, screaming rabbits are torn apart by a dog on-screen), strongly implied organized rabbit-on-rabbit rape, etc. In one scene, one of the hero rabbits fights with a villian rabbit, and is covered in wounds - while bloody froth drips from his mouth. This, after the villian rabbit has torn the throat out of another one of the heros …
Makes some profanity and nudity appear positively uplifting. The movie even has profanity - but in rabbit language!
I can’t believe that movie is rated R!?! That film is so wonderfully sweet! Why on Earth did they want to avoid a PG so badly?!
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They had a scene of Sullivan consorting with a pair of French prostitutes, sans blouses, and Timothy Spall’s character yelling “fuck!”
As for why, I have no idea. Maybe the director just that nobody under the age of 18 would want to see it, or he wanted to assure theaters that this was a film for grownups, or he never even considered it. It is unlike most of his other films, which tend to be grindingly grim.
Sure, he wanted to establish that Sullivan was a sensualist, and that one of the actors was angry, but both could have been done without nudity or profanity.
But a G rating was the kiss of death to a couple of wonderful films by Carroll Ballard - Never Cry Wolf and Duma.
Some directors do feel that anything less than an R is a kiddie movie, and there are at least a few examples of them adding objectionable material specifically to get a less family-friendly rating.
Yes, Wathership Down was a victim of “cartoon = children” syndrome even though historically even general-audience American cartoons always included violent or disturbing content (Bambi) and sometimes not so thinly veiled mature content (Tex Avery’s Red Hot Riding Hood). With the redefinition of G as something expected to offend no parent, this has had a beneficial effect in allowing for a PG or PG13 rating for animated features and the awareness that there may be some parts that do merit the parental guidance.
The movie even has profanity - but in rabbit language!
You are correct; not a children’s film by any means. I’m already apprehensive about the live-action version in the works.