The first, and to date only, movie I was ever carded for was Mulholland Falls from 1996. It was a detective noir movie set in 1950s Los Angeles and was about the last movie any underaged kid was going to be interested in seeing and I was twenty at the time. I wasn’t offended that I was carded I just couldn’t believe it was happening.
I’m not absolutely sure but I think it might have been “Rosemary’s Baby,” released in the summer of 1968 and one of the earlier films given an R rating.
I worked at a movie theater later that year and saw two films there (over and over again) which both were rather graphic for the time but were only given the “M” rating (“Suggested for Mature Audiences”): “The Boston Strangler” and “Coogan’s Bluff.”
“M” later became “PG” (Parental Guidance.)
Carrie (1976)
My parents rarely went to the movies, so seeing an ‘R’-rated film was impossible for me until I was allowed to borrow the car.
My wife gets upset when I put my own spin on the title of that movie. Apparently, it’s not supposed to be “The Big RED One.” Perhaps any movie with that title might be more harshly rated than ‘R’!
For me it was Animal House. I was about to turn 14, was pretty much my full height, and had facial hair. I bought a ticket to another movie and went. I believe I had originally planned to see the Sgt. Pepper movie, but it sold out. My Dad saw me come out of Animal House, but wasn’t upset about it.
In the theater was Trading Places- I guess I was about 13? With my parents.
I was nine when my parents took me to see M-A-S-H at a drive-in (we almost always saw movies as a family at drive-ins, because my dad detested regular theaters). It was my first time seeing pubes. A few months later, we went to see it again, this time with my older brother who had been away at camp when the rest of us first saw it. At the critical scene, I started cracking up and shouting to my brother: “I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU!” I carried a crush on Sally Kellerman for years.
Alice’s Restaurant. It really didn’t deserve to be rated R, but there was a scene where a teeny-bopper (the actress was an adult) was trying to seduce Arlo, and there were boobies, so I guess that was enough.
In '71 Mum took this 7 y.o. to see “Light of the Edge of the World” because it’s possible she had a Kirk Douglas thing going, and figured why not show me a pirate movie. Surprised to find out it was just PG-13, with all the bloody violence, including a woman getting stabbed in the breast as blood gushes out, and dude strung up on a mast getting scraped by some pronged thingie attached to a long pole weilded by Yul Bruynner.
When I was 15 in '80 the old man and I checked out “Halloween” and “The Shining” - can’t remember which was first.
Shampoo. Boring. My mom was scandalized.
PG-13 did not exist in 1971.
PG-13 became a thing in July, 1984.
Maybe Light of the Edge of the World has gotten a new rating more recently.
That’s my first one, too!
The funny thing is I had gone to the cinema at Henderson Hall Marine Barracks (we lived just a couple of blocks down the street from it) to see some Disney flick. As it turned out, the film had not been delivered so the projectionist put in the next available one in the stack. No age verification involved so I was quite impressed.
It’s still one of my favorite movies.
IMDB says that it got a “GP” rating. The initial MPAA rating system had “M” for the rating in between G and R, then renamed it “GP” in 1970, before renaming it (again) to “PG” in 1972.
First such rated movie was Red Dawn, which was probably still in the theaters when I saw Revenge of the Nerds. I know my parents would have been far happier with the R rated Revenge of the Nerds than the PG-13 Red Dawn, because some language, drinking, sex[1], and nudity was far preferable to them than violence.
As a society, we had not yet come to the correct conclusion that RotN is on the wrong side of the “don’t rape people” line. ↩︎
Probably Ten in 1979. My aunt told my father it was a sweet movie. And he took the whole family to see it Christmas eve. I was in high school. My little sister was in elementary school. In addition to us, my brothers, and my parents, my great aunt (who had never married and may well have been a virgin) came too.
Shaft in Africa, 1973. One last look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia before it fell.
Looking back through the movies my friends and I saw in the theaters back in the day, looks like it was Beverly Hills Cop.
Lisztomania in ‘75. Id’ve been 10 or 11. There may have been something earlier; my parents took me along to a lot of weird shit when I was a kid.
I recall them taking me and my friends to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask for my birthday. I don’t think that would’ve been in’72 when it came out, but maybe?
Blazing Saddles. I was 11 and can’t remember what adult took me. Probably a teenaged cousin.
“The Legend of Frenchie King”, 1971. I was 10. The theatre must have screwed up, as this was in Ontario and NO WAY were a bunch of kids supposed to be watching that at a Saturday matinee!
Bridget Bardot topless. I think it was a formative moment for me.