What's the deal with Airplane! having a PG rating but having breastal nudity?

Yeah…

Airplane is awsome?

Years ago the rating system was different. The PG-13 rating was non-existing as was AFAIK the R rating. There was pretty much the G, PG, and X. The PG was roughly equivalent to today’s R rating. In those days (ok, I wasn’t actually alive in those days, but I pick up these things after working at a video store of a year) Parental Guidence was a bit more serious than it is now. Thus, many PG rated movies from the 70s and early 80s contain material that would now be considered unsuitable for such a rating.

Well, I mean, that’s a given. What kind of people did they show this movie to that it was given PG? Was it a bunch of 17 year old males?

Ohhh…thanks for the answer. I guess I can now sleep at nights.

A spin-off question… how come someone doesn’t reevaluate the ratings on all those older movies?

At the time that Airplane! was made, 1980, there were G, PG, R, and X ratings in the MPAA system. Since that time, PG-13 has been added and X has been replaced with NC-17.

I don’t remember the film that well, but wasn’t the nudity very brief and non-sexual in nature? There’s not some simple rule that bare breasts = R rating. A lot of language, too, will warrant a different rating depending on whether it’s used in a sexual context.

It’s the same as with the Planet of the Apes movies. Most of them were rated G, even though the first two had some gruesome (but with no Hollywood blood) depictions: fellow astronaut had crude brain surgury, guard got impaled on spiked gate, gunfire aplenty. And the third had Zera killing her baby’s doppelganger. I don’t think those would be even PG today.

There was definitely an “R” rating back in the seventies. And there were even non-pornographic “X”-rated movies then too. The “X” rating didn’t have the same stigma as it does today; in fact an “X”-rated movie was even nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award! Then the porn industry grabbed the “X” rating and slapped it over all their products, forever ruining the usefulness of it as a rating for legitimate films.

But back to your question…like Achernar said, there’s no “rule” that says “bare breasts”=“R” rating…it has to do with it’s context. It’s basically a value judgement from the people who happen to be rating the movie at the time.

the only “breasts” I remember in that movie were on an infalatable doll. That alone would explain there not being an R rating for it. Cartoons and drawings and similar depictions are not subject to the same kind of ratings as the actual display of the human body. Also if the “exposure” was not sexual in nature or violent, then the rating may not apply.
For instance showing a birth on television is not illegal or rated as other shows might be even though they show the vagina and breasts, because it is in a setting that is not intended to stimulate arousal or shown solely for that purpose.

Airplane! did in fact have actual real bare breasts, but as described above it was on screen for about one second and not within a sexual context. Today that movie probably would have earned a PG-13, but even back then it was too tame to earn an R.

I thought the baby double was killed by the crazy anti-ape fanatic Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden).

I don’t know how widespread the practice is but films are or can be re-rated. An example being Midnight Cowboy. As noted it was originally rated X but was re-rated R in 1971. According to the Motion Picture Association of America producers and distributors can appeal ratings decisions but I find no mention as to whether there is a “statute of limitations” as to how long after the initial rating the decision can be appealed. A filmmaker can also resubmit edited films for re-rating.

I didn’t see anything on the MPAA site about how movies made prior to the institution of the ratings system are handled for theatrical distribution but they are rated according to the guidelines for TV ratings when broadcast. Since the ratings system is completely voluntary and has no legal effect in and of itself most people showing films from pre-ratings days probably don’t care that much about it.

I remember the boobie shot in Airplane! as being included in a panicky passenger scene. They were real human breasts, not a doll or cartoon.

Titanic had boobs and was PG-13.

Dragonslayer had a nude scene with Caitlin Clarke’s breasts and pretty much all of Peter MacNichol: it was PG-13 and made by Disney. It was also quite snide about Christianity.

The world was a different place in 1981.

Regards,
Agback

I don’t believe this is exactly the case. Films that are rated “NC-17” still are reviewed by the MPAA. It’s the MPAA that assigns that particular rating.
“X” is a rating that film companies can assign to films themselves, without any review by the MPAA. If you go into a porn shop all the films will be rated X, not NC-17.

Just a slight hijack…Did you know Siskell and Ebert reviewed the X rated film Debbie Does Dallas? They really did! Tough gig, tough gig!:wink:

Well, I mean, it used to be that X was an MPAA rating as well. They stopped using it because it carried a pornographic connotation, and they wanted to avoid confusion.

pkbites is correct. X does not equal NC-17.

All of the ratings are trademarks of the MPAA. You can’t use them without explicit permission. X was the exception. It was roughly equivalent to movies being released Unrated today. If you didn’t want a movie reviewed by the MPAA you slapped an X on it. But an X was also like the NC-17 in that the MPAA could give a movie an X.

[Here’s what I was basing my claim on:

Right, that’s what I was saying too. But the difference between X and the rest is that only the MPAA can give out the rest. X could be placed on any movie without MPAA review. When the porn industry snapped up the X the MPAA didn’t want their rating only associated with hardcore sex so they created the NC-17, which is copyright like the rest and can only be given by the MPAA.

X = today’s Unrated

The difference between pre-1990 X and today’s Unrated is that the MPAA actually assigned X to films that they thought were beyond R. Today, if a movie is beyond R they assign it NC-17. So maybe pre-1990 X = today’s Unrated + today’s NC-17.