# Your first R-rated movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819 "2019-07-29T17:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/101 "2019-07-31T19:43:27Z")
_Chinatown_. I was ~9, it was a drive-in theater, and I barely watched the movie. The first one I remember was _Monty Python & the Holy Grail_, the next year. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/102 "2019-08-01T16:10:42Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Hmm. Thought it was going to be _Damnation Alley_, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/horror film starring George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and some flesh-eating mutant cockroaches. But IMDb tells me that was only PG-13. Still, one scene of a character being forced into a car full of said carnivorous roaches revisited me for several nights. Ya know… I was going to take a date to that, but there was an issue because it was R-rated and we were both under 18. We wound up seeing _Bobby Deerfield_ instead. I think IMDB just gives the current ratings, not the ratings upon first release. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/103 "2019-08-01T16:20:46Z")
First R? Probably back in College in the 1970’s, saw a double feature of the “Women in Prison” motif, with naked boobies and faked sex. Only thing I remember is that they starred Pam Grier, who later went on to much better things. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/104 "2019-08-01T16:25:49Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Ya know… I was going to take a date to that, but there was an issue because it was R-rated and we were both under 18. We wound up seeing _Bobby Deerfield_ instead. I think IMDB just gives the current ratings, not the ratings upon first release. I’m not disputing the IMDb current vs. original ratings argument, but newspaper ads (just checked) verify that it was rated PG when it ran in theaters here in Charlotte. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/105 "2019-08-01T16:27:24Z")
A double feature no less - Mark of the Devil (1970) paired with Spirits of the Dead (1968). But the showing was in 1972. I was 13. I got my brother to take me. I seem to recall there was some gratuitous nudity in both movies. Mark of the Devil was marketed as a horror movie so vile that they gave you a vomit bag when you entered the theatre. I kept that stupid thing for 45+ years. It got so ripped up and ragged I tossed it. I checked ebay to make sure the dumb thing wasn’t actually valuable (or a desirable collectible). ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/106 "2019-08-01T18:05:44Z")
I know I had seen some R-rated stuff at my Dad’s (he had cable with HBO) flipping through channels, but I couldn’t name any particular movie. However, I very much recall the first R-rated movie I ever saw in the theater. **The Blue Lagoon**. My dad took my sister and me to see it. I was 11; sister was 9. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/107 "2019-08-01T18:32:03Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I don’t know where you got the 13 from [but its IMDb page states “United States:PG (MPAA rating)”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075909/reference). [This appears to be an original ad for the movie and also has “PG”.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/11/f9/4511f9875a26454e5af34e7bdacd390a.jpg) I saw the original poster on the IMDb page for _Damnation Alley_, but I couldn’t resolve the image well enough on my crappy little iPhone 5 to read the rating. I remember it being disturbingly violent, which is why I assumed it was R. But I was nine when I saw it, and had different standards for “disturbing”. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/108 "2019-08-01T18:39:45Z")
**The Wild Bunch** 1969 My dad loved Westerns, my mom and sister didn’t. So dad and I would go see them when they showed at the local theater. Dad was kind of against me seeing any nudity or extreme violence…unless of course it was in the old west. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/109 "2019-08-01T18:53:47Z")
Tough one, as I’m not usually a big enough fan of movies that get R ratings to go see them in theaters. Probably _South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut_. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/110 "2019-08-01T18:57:58Z")
Ah, I just remembered one of the ones I would have seen on HBO, prior to seeing The Blue Lagoon. **Death Race 2000**. It was like my Dad’s favorite movie at the time, so when we watched it together (father-son bonding time!), it would have been a year or so prior to TBL. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/111 "2019-08-02T00:27:56Z")
Little Darlings. I think I went with my sister but I remember our mother had to give permission for us to see it. I was probably 15. It was also a heck of a lot tamer than some of the PG movies I saw.The only one I ever snuck into was Rocky Horror on the Halloween 5 days before my 17th birthday. Our area was very slow to get cable so there weren’t any unedited on TV to watch. I was certainly a lot more traumatized by some of the PG movies I saw when I was younger (looking at you Towering Inferno and Phantom of the Paradise). ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/112 "2019-08-02T05:24:42Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > _The Blue Lagoon_. Boy, was I disappointed. +1 My first was\* One Flew over the Cukoo’s Nest\*, which I saw with my mother. She has been very strict about my not being allowed to see PG movies until I was 10, so I’d just seen my first one the year before, the '76\* King Kong\*, then suddenly a year later, she is taking me to this movie (yes, it came out in '75, but a rerun theater was showing it in '77 for $1, and my mother had never seen it and wanted to). Maybe she felt guilty, because she let my 4-year-old brother see _Star Wars_, and had not held him to the excruciating 10-yr-old rule. I was the only kid in the 3rd grade who didn’t get to see _Jaws_. The first one I saw without an adult was _Victor/Victoria_. I was 15, and no one blinked. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/113 "2019-08-02T05:36:37Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Tough one, as I’m not usually a big enough fan of movies that get R ratings to go see them in theaters. > > Probably _South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut_. “[I farted once on the set of Blue Lagoon!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DNyLD2SRjA&feature=youtu.be&t=34s)” ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/114 "2019-08-04T05:26:41Z")
Mine was **One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest**. I was 10 or 11, and I felt so grown-up that my parents let me see an R-rated movie in the theater. I remember enjoying (if that’s really the right word) the movie, and talked proudly about it with my friends the next day in school. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/115 "2019-08-04T12:14:00Z")
On video, I don’t remember. At a theater, it was Aliens. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/116 "2019-08-04T12:55:54Z")
Alien, I think. I also grew up before cable, VCRs and DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/117 "2019-08-04T13:08:21Z")
The first one I have any memory of was Terminator. The first one with any significant amount of sex and nudity that I remember was Risky Business. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/118 "2019-08-04T13:42:01Z")
_The Reincarnation of Peter Proud_ Either that, or _The Romantic Englishwoman_ Those came out in 1975 and I saw them in the theater. I turned 14 that summer. It might have been something, also in the 1970s, with Faye Dunaway in it. She was always taking her top off. I didn’t see the appeal but I bet my dad did. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819/119 "2019-08-04T15:07:19Z")
I couldn’t begin to tell you. Mom paid little to no attention to where I was when she was watching R-rated movies on HBO. I almost certainly saw _The Exorcist_ at home, likely R-rated stuff before that. The first R-rated movie that I paid to rent was _Blame It On Rio_ (at age 12-13). The first R-rated movie that I paid to see at the theater was _Revenge of the Nerds_ (at age 13-14). My friend and I bought tickets to _Ghostbusters_ and snuck into RotN. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-r-rated-movie/837819.md?page=5)