The latest word from Hollywood is that the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is considering adding another rating to their repetoire, by officially instantiating the ‘Hard-R’ rating. In fact, I believe the plan is to split R between R or ‘Soft-R’ and Hard-R. Hard-R being those movies with major sex and exceptionally bloody violence. The new rating is being pushed both by the studios, who dislike NC-17 because of the stygma attached to it, and “concerned” parents, who just can’t decide whether to allow their teens to see an R-rated movie by themselves.

If Studios think this will help they are mistaken. If stores like Wal-Mart won’t carry NC-17 DVDs and you replace NC-17 with Hard-R, what makes you think that they will carry Hard-R? My bet is that instead of banning NC-17 from their shelves they’ll just ban Hard-R instead and then you’re screwed because Hard-R is a much broader category than NC-17. From a censorship point of view maybe that’s why some of these super-censor groups like Hard-R. It will broaden the range of banned movies. But I can’t think that the studios will appreciate this.

My other beef is still not with the rating itself but with the “concerned” parents who are pushing for it. Parents want to know what their teens are seeing before they allow their teens to go. If you’re so concerned how about what your kid is seeing in the theater, get off your fat lazy butt and go see the movie first. Awww, too much effort to protect your kids? Ok go online and watch the trailer. Trust me if its a hack and slash gore fest or a borderline soft-core porn orgy (or my favorite, both) they’ll play it up in the trailer. At the very least read a review or two online. It’s not that hard to figure out (e.g., SAWIII probably not OK for your 13yo). Let’s take a quick look at what the MPAA says an R-rating means:

“In the opinion of the Rating Board, this film definitely contains some adult material. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about this film before they allow their children to accompany them. An R-rated film may include strong language, violence, nudity, drug abuse, other elements, or a combination of the above, so parents are counseled in advance to take this advisory rating very seriously.”

So R means ADULT CONTENT and Parents should find out more. I’m thinking that probably means you should find out more before you take your kids. At least that’s how I read it. These people tick me off. They’re concerned enough to shoot off a few emails or maybe sign a petition (probably online) but not enough to take any responsibility on themselves.

My children are under the age of 13, and on occasion (like every weekend), they want to rent PG-13 movies all of which their friends have seen. Some of which, we let them see (e.g., Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire, Pirates of Caribbean: Deadman’s Chest) but only after we have either gone to the theaters to see it first or have watched the DVD. Often we’ll rent it on Friday, I and/or my wife will watch it Friday night and if its OK, they can watch it Saturday night. I do this with video games rated T for Teen also which is harder because I usually have to buy the game before I can test drive it. At the very least this lets me talk with them about the movie before they see it. Sure its extra effort on my part, and yes I have had to sit through some suckfests that I would rather have passed on but, that’s part of my responsibility as a parent, just as much as putting food on the table, making sure their homework gets done, and driving them to baseball practice (oh yeh, and teaching them right from wrong). It is my job, not some random organization’s. I’m sorry but Lazy parenting is not a good excuse for another rating.

When it comes to ratings, when is enough, enough? I’m not necessarily against the rating, but I think its wholly unnecessary. A simple system which is uniform for all types of media, would be the best solution by far. Maybe one that broke down the appropriate age ranges in ~3-5 intervals. Maybe. But good luck with that without government involvement and we know can’t help but dick it up. I doubt the Hard-R rating will achieve the effect desired by either the studios or “concerned” parents. As a parent first and an adult second, I would rather they make things simpler to understand and easier for adults to gain access to adult material, not more complicated by randomly adding additional ratings.

For more info here is the article from Variety on the Hard-R.

Props to Cinematical where I heard the story first.