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Cultural differences in movieratings.

Discussion in '2003 Archive' started by mioque, Dec 6, 2003.

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  1. mioque

    mioque New Member

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    I recently saw "Love Actually".
    In the US this was rated R, basically meaning not suitable for teenagers or younger (because of all the swearwords and the naked people pretending to have sex).
    In my little spot on the planet it was rated AL, meaning suitable for all ages.
    On the other hand the MPAA can be quite lax when it comes to violence, while it's Dutch equivalent is more likely to bump ratings for killing people with machineguns on screen and stuff like that.
     
    #1 mioque, Dec 6, 2003
  2. Brett

    Brett New Member

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    I tend to mistrust movie ratings. In our culture, gratuitous violence is deeemed acceptable for some reason, but any slight display of drugs or even mild sexual overtones is enough to get a movie a harsh rating.

    Europe is pretty much the opposite. Even open displays of nudity or sex are deemed acceptable, whereas violence is not.

    Personally, although both extremes are bad, I'd have to side more on the European views on things. In North America, they think that you can show absolutely grotesque violence, and that warrants perhaps a PG-13 rating, but if you show a little nudity or some drug addicts, then that warrants an R rating. The perversity of this never fails to amaze me.
     
    #2 Brett, Dec 6, 2003
  3. russell55

    russell55 New Member

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    Yes, there are cultural differences in ratings. Isn't that only right, since movie ratings are supposed to be used as guides as to what is considered appropriate for certain age levels to the average person within a certain culture? If cultural values differ from country to country, then the ratings ought to differ, too.

    And of course, if your own personal values are significantly different from those of your surrounding culture, you can't count much on the ratings being useful to you.
     
    #3 russell55, Dec 6, 2003
  4. mioque

    mioque New Member

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    Case in point, Kil Bill and Love Actually have both the same rating in the US.
    In Kil Bill (I haven't seen it, but I have a good source) limbs get chopped of on a regular basis. I'm not going to take my mother to see KB.
    On the other hand, I had no problem taking mom and a bunch of other women from church (all very orthodox Christians) to see Love Actually. It raised some eyebrows when 2 complete strangers started going through the motions of having sex, but when it became clear what was going on we were all very amused, we would have not been amused about hacked of limbs.
     
    #4 mioque, Dec 6, 2003
  5. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    In the USA, sex is bad but murder and mayhem are not nearly as bad.

    Takes a lot of blood and gore for the movie to get an R. Yet, anything more than a titilating breast or buttock and the movie gets an R.

    Culture in US is vastly different from Europe.
     
    #5 Dr. Bob, Dec 6, 2003
  6. mioque

    mioque New Member

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    #6 mioque, Dec 9, 2003
  7. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

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    Very good point. We seem to not lift a brow at blood and guts to an extreme, but get all atwitter about a buttock crack. Unfortunately, the MPAA must have given my plumber an exception. :eek:
     
    #7 Johnv, Dec 9, 2003
  8. ScottEmerson

    ScottEmerson Active Member

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    I go to screenit.com, which tells me everything that I need to know, especially when talking to parents of my kids when they ask about movies.

    I've seen PG-13 movies that were MUCH worse than Love, Actually, and Love, Actually is a pretty bad film. Take away the needless scenes, and it wasn't nearly as bad as most movies that are out there.

    What do you all think about language? Does it bother you much? Anyone see Billy Elliot? That was "R" for three words or so.
     
    #8 ScottEmerson, Dec 9, 2003
  9. Ben W

    Ben W Active Member
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    Interestingly many headlines have been made in the media in India over the fact that they have made a movie which features an on screen kiss.

    How many people were aware that the film maling industry in India is the second largest to the U.S?
     
    #9 Ben W, Dec 10, 2003
  10. mioque

    mioque New Member

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    "How many people were aware that the film maling industry in India is the second largest to the U.S? "
    In a sense 'Bollywood' is larger than Hollywood. They make more films on a yearly basis in India than in the USA.
    The great irony of films made in India used to be that kissing was not done, but what amounted to onscreen rape (participants keep their clothes on and it happens place at night) was basically ok.

    Scott
    Films taking place in Great-Brittain often have authentic dialogue and that get's coarse rather quickly.
    Love Actually clearly was written to appeal in the first place to grown up British women and those respond badly to brutal violence but aren't faced at all by dirty words and 'functional' nudity.
    To be honest we thought the needless nudity scenes were extremely funny.
     
    #10 mioque, Dec 10, 2003
  11. Pete Richert

    Pete Richert New Member

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    I agree that we way too much of our rating on sex over violence, but I don't think we should join the European bangwagon and switch, we should have both be rated badly!

    Anyway, as an eailer poster mentioned, you can check out
    www.screenit.com
    and read line by line every piece of violence, sex, gore, language, scary scenes, alcohol,
    basically anything you would like to know.

    But even better then that, the reviews of the movie themselves from a purely enterainment value (see the "Our Take" section) is without a doubt the best movie reviewer on the web. I read a lot of movie reviewers and this guy is unmatched. There have only been a few times that he liked a movie I didn't and vice versa. He is fair with genres, fair to people who like certain genres, and rather conservative with both his positive and negative remarks (in other words he won't get his reviews posted on the advertisment).
     
    #11 Pete Richert, Dec 11, 2003
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