In Progress

A few weeks ago, I watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) in my film class. Outrage, disgust, disapproval — clearly a problem on all sides of the screen. The MPAA ratings board pass emotionally charged judgments on the movies they view, while the movie makers obviously feel these same emotions about the ratings, and as an audience member, I certainly felt them for the system. While ostensibly just a ratings board that offers recommendations to moviegoer families on the appropriateness of content, the board members serve as de facto censorship czars since the marketing and distributions channels open to a movie are subject to the ratings they receive from the MPAA.

The meaty part of the documentary is the clear-eyed analysis of what specifically prompts the MPAA’s huffier ratings. Violence is generally given a blind eye. Anything sexual is given the eagle eye, and language is given the puritanical eye. I find it tough to be shocked by language these days, but these guys find a way! Prejudices are let loose too — homosexual “themes” don’t do well with the ratings.

This documentary has it all — secretive villains (Jack Valenti), suspenseful chases (PI’s following the raters to lunch), backroom dealings (the movie theatre chains get their say in the process), and a prominent role for the clergy (yup).

This all reminded me to check in with a new online approach to censorship and ratings called Common Sense Media. My immediate response when I heard about them a few years back was strong skepticism and a gut sense that this is a baaad idea. After all, I grew up seeing a LOT of adult movies and remain unscarred (I think), so aren’t ratings bad and unnecessary because they just lead to censorship?

But Common Sense Media shows that a comprehensive and transparent ratings system can render censorship on a governmental level inherently obsolete. These days, the site is flourishing, with a wide variety of reviews of movies, music, books, TV shows, websites, and video games that try to tell parents what is age appropriate and possibly objectionable across a gamut of criteria. To the MPAA’s holy trinity of sex, language and violence, Common Sense adds content, scariness, commercialism, alcohol/drug use, and social behavior. They have a scale by age group readily accessible to see what their recommendations are based on. I don’t agree with all of their recommendations across the age groups, but at least I can see what they’re looking for and yes, the criteria do seem pretty sensible. Their reviewers all have bios available to view on the site. Transparency in a rating system, what a novel idea.

They are also against censorship except as practiced by parents for their own children, which seems about as good a solution as you’re gonna get to the whole debate. The reviews themselves offer background notes for parents about each film and suggestions for prompting family discussions about media, commercialism, and themes from the movie. They also do the traditional quality review to be expected. The result? Parents can peruse the reviews, figure out what they want their children (or themselves) to watch, and everyone else can enjoy as much filthy language and gay sex as they want. Perhaps the strongest argument in favor in Common Sense Media is that the kids get to have their say too. There’s a column for parent reviewers, kid reviewers, and CS reviewers to give their response on any album, movie, book, etc.

Overall, the design and execution of this rating effort is to be praised. Common Sense Media is a whole hell of a lot better than the MPAA. In fact, its existence as a private response to a national need makes a very strong argument for abolishing the MPAA, which only rates movies anyway. I think US moviegoers can manage without its outdated puritanical views, authoritarian process, and HIGHLY questionable agenda.

Posted on March 14th, 2008 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Media, Movies, Uncategorized