Hate is a strong word, but I really do hate the movie rating system.
I just saw a wonderful movie called “The Hunter” with Willem Dafoe. This is an R-rated movie.
It had:
–No sex, not even a hint of sex. No naked parts at all.
–Very low-level violence, maybe even PG-level violence.
–Use of the F-bomb four times.
–One guy smoking a joint (but the reference to drugs was very light, and it could have easily have just been a cigarette).
So, this very well-done movie was rated “R” because somebody said a bad word that kids hear on the playground about 100 times a day. Meanwhile, movies like “The Ring” and “Coyote Ugly,” which are truly horrible movies with all kinds of horrible things in them, get rated PG-13 (and can presumably be calmly watched by LDS teens). (This also applies to one of the worst movies ever made, “Breaking Dawn,” which I review here.).
How does this make any sense at all?
It seems that if we are going to take the guidance from the prophets seriously, we need to completely throw out the rating system and do deeper research on the movies we watch. Personally, I do NOT enjoy a lot of the raunchy movies out there and feel very uncomfortable during simulated sex scenes, even in PG-13 movies. A movie like “Coyote Ugly,” which is simply an excuse to show women wearing almost nothing for 1 1/2 hours, seems extremely harmful to young men.
Meanwhile, the acting in an R-rated movie like “The Hunter” is wonderful. The development of the main character is believable and quite touching. (I don’t at all agree with the hackneyed political message, which is that Corporations are Bad, but you can still enjoy the movie a great deal even if the political message is stupid). I would easily take a 10-year-old kid to “The Hunter” but I would never recommend anybody see “The Ring,” or “Coyote Ugly” or “Breaking Dawn.”
Anyway, I find the whole rating system frustrating, and the only solution I can see is to do my own due diligence on movies in the future.