# The best movies are rated G **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973 "2003-06-10T22:10:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/1 "2003-06-10T22:10:02Z")
I’m a lover of screen violence, gore, mayhem, cursing, nudity, and all the great stuff that R rated movies have to offer. However, I’ve noticed that the movies I enjoy the best tend to be rated G. And I’m not talking about Disney crap, I’m talking about real movies. And not old movies or foreign films without ratings, I’m talking modern, American films that were actually rated G. Here are the great G movies I’ve seen, I may be forgetting a few: 2001 The Straight Story Koyaanisqatsi OK, it’s only 3, but I’d say out of my 10 favorite movies of those that have been submitted to the ratings board, most are rated G. Anything other great G movies out there? ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/2 "2003-06-10T22:14:48Z")
Wasn’t Fiddler on the Roof G? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/3 "2003-06-10T23:34:35Z")
How about Tora! Tora! Tora! ? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/4 "2003-06-10T23:48:08Z")
Everything by Pixar. (And anyone who calls their stuff “Disney crap” will have to answer to my Mighty Two-By-Four Of Smiting ™ 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![skaterboarder87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@skaterboarder87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaterboarder87)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/5 "2003-06-10T23:49:13Z")
Btw, I doubt 2001 would get away with a G rating in this day and age anyway. A PG rating would most certainly be guaranteed. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/6 "2003-06-11T02:06:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Everything by Pixar. > > (And anyone who calls their stuff “Disney crap” will have to answer to my Mighty Two-By-Four Of Smiting ™ 😉 ) \*\* Yeah, the OP wants no “Disney crap,” but only “real movies.” Like [The Straight Story](http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/familyfilm/shelves/thestraightstory/index.html). :rolleyes: Try again, **Avumede**. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/7 "2003-06-11T02:11:11Z")
I recently saw what had to be the “hardest” G rating ever given: _Sweet Charity_ (1969), starring Shirley MacLaine as a dance hall hostess and occasional prostitute. This is the one where a line of slutty, grim looking dance hall girls sing, “Hey big spender, spend a little time with me,” and Sammy Davis, Jr. plays a new-age evangelist presiding over a congregation of pot smoking hipsters. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/8 "2003-06-11T02:47:46Z")
Some more fine movies for adults that were rated G: **1968** : Finian’s Rainbow, For Love of Ivy, Funny Girl, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Hot Millions, Ice Station Zebra, Oliver!, Paper Lion, Shoes of the Fisherman, The Subject Was Roses, Support Your Local Sheriff!, Yellow Submarine, The Young Girls of Rochefort. **1969** : Airport, Darling Lili, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Hello Dolly!, Krakatoa, East Of Java, Marooned, Oh! What a Lovely War, The Out-of-Towners, Ring of Bright Water, Salesman, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Trilogy, True Grit, The Wild Child. **1970** : The Andromeda Strain, The Battle of Neretva, Cromwell, Let It Be, A New Leaf, Scrooge, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Necromancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@Necromancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necromancer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/9 "2003-06-11T02:54:10Z")
I like some Disney movies. **Walloon** has listed some real gems. I guess it just goes to show a movie can be aimed at all ages and doesn’t need sex and violence to make it entertaining for adults. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/10 "2003-06-11T02:54:32Z")
_The Green Berets_, John Wayne’s Vietnam propaganda film fiasco was rated G. It might give _Sweet Charity_ a run for its money in the hardest G film race. No telling what the body count is, but there’s one relatively gruesome impaling death that I don’t see how anybody could give it less than a PG. But I wouldn’t call it a great film (or even a good one), G rated or otherwise. _Head_, the Monkees’ nail in the career coffin of a movie also had a G rating. Strange considering the drug inspired scattershot motif of the film, the group attempting suicide by jumping off a bridge (shown twice), some cute references to pot when the boys are stuck inside a vacuum cleaner and find the roach of an “El Zoom-o” as they call it, and use of footage from the infamous Saigon street execution of a Viet Cong prisoner by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/11 "2003-06-11T03:01:02Z")
**1971** : The Boyfriend, The Clowns, The Hellstrom Chronicle, The Ra Expeditions, Traffic. **1972** : 1776, Silent Running, Sounder, What’s Up, Doc? ---
**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/12 "2003-06-11T04:02:09Z")
Not sure of the year, by My Fair Lady? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/13 "2003-06-11T04:44:32Z")
The Motion Picture Association of America began its letter ratings system in 1968, four years after _My Fair Lady_ was released. Dozens of movies released before 1968 were given an MPAA letter rating when they were reissued after the ratings system was implemented. _My Fair Lady_ did receive a G rating when it was reissued theatrically in 1970. Trivia: The oldest movie to receive an R rating was the sexually themed _Baby Doll_ (1956), starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, and Eli Wallach, upon its reissue in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/14 "2003-06-11T13:28:07Z")
The ratings system back then (late 60’s – 70’s) was much more lax. I remember seeing the PG rated Tommy. Which featured sex, drugs and of course rock and roll. PG films in the 70’s could have nudity. The MPAA standards change with standards of the time but once a film is rated the rating stays that way forever. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/15 "2003-06-11T15:11:14Z")
Chicken Run ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/16 "2003-06-11T18:13:20Z")
Babe - Should have won Best Picture, instead of Braveheart. I think that was the last G movie to be nominated for Best Picture. Some movies have been rerated more strictly on re-release. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was originally G, (despite the climax featuring some guy boinking an android), but the DVD Special Edition got a PG, because the reworked soundtrack was more “menacing” And count me in with those who love everything Pixar had done so far. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/17 "2003-06-11T18:37:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SolGrundy \* > \*\*Yeah, the OP wants no “Disney crap,” but only “real movies.” Like [The Straight Story](http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/familyfilm/shelves/thestraightstory/index.html). :rolleyes: Try again, **Avumede**. \*\* I meant “Disney crap” as a shorthand for “movies made for kids”, which is what Disney is known for. The “crap” is a bit exaggerated, I tend to think most Disney kid’s movies are good for what they are. The Straight Story might be a Disney film, but it is not made for kids. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/18 "2003-06-11T19:29:11Z")
My Neighbor Totoro ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/19 "2003-06-17T00:00:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > \*\*The MPAA standards change with standards of the time but once a film is rated the rating stays that way forever. \*\* [Midnight Cowboy](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0064665) went from X to R. Maybe someday it’ll make it to G. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973/20 "2003-06-17T02:14:56Z")
The MPAA rating changes only if the film’s distributor resubmits the film for rating. An example of the rating moving in the other direction was _The Wild Bunch_ (1969), originally rated R. When it was resubmitted to the MPAA a few years ago, it received an NC-17 rating for violence. The distributor decided to keep the old MPAA rating. When Fox Home Video submitted several Shirley Temple movies from the 1930s to the MPAA for rating (Blockbuster will not stock unrated movies), two of them received PG ratings! Meanwhile, _Sweet Charity_, _Planet of the Apes_, and _The Green Berets_ are rated G. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-are-rated-g/180973.md?page=2)