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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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This Film Is Not Yet Rated (documentary) Director: Kirby Dick IFC Films Running Time: 95 minutes Rating: Unrated Reviewed at Kansas International Film Festival (KIFF) 2006 Filmmaker Kirby Dick (Twist of Fate) set his sights on the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) film ratings board. This is a supposedly-hallowed, anonymous group of West Coast individuals who typify the average American. The group is paid a salary to view films submitted to them (virtually every film made each year in America) for a rating. The ratings now used are G, PG, PG 13, R and NC-17. Dick decided to hire a female private investigator because a lady can go just about anywhere for information. Her mission was to find the names of the film raters. The experiences of Dick and investigator Becky Altringer, plus her team, are akin to anything James Bond encounters. Since it is legal in California to search through garbage at curbside, that's where the group begins. Then, Becky, using a high-powered camera, manages to get a photo of a telephone page from a studio guard's post, which enlarged shows names and telephone extensions. Calling the numbers gives them the names of the raters, whom they want to photograph for posterity. Using a camera hidden in a scarf, the team gets their photos. A highlight of the movie has the pictures and identities for all the world to see (or those paying admission to see the film) as to who has the power to bestow ratings on today's films. The film ratings system has been in effect under various names and various duties since the early part of the 20th century. When Jack Valenti took over the helm, the fun begins as the board views films with an iron eye. Showing sexual pleasure with a winsome look on one's face is a no-no (The Cooler) while a maniac chopping limbs off right and left is let off with a PG 13 rating. One begins to wonder just how objective the raters are as various filmmakers are interviewed on-camera with their stories of run-ins and lost appeals with the raters. An NC-17 rating (originally an "X") can be the kiss-of-death to a film, reducing profits. Among those interviewed are Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry"), John Waters and Atom Egoyan. In the documentary, the board now knows that they are compromised, so when director Kirby Dick submits his film, This Film Is Not Yet Rated for a rating, he is promptly turned down. As he goes through the appeals process, guess what, he has to go through the P.I. routine, too, to get the appeals board members names. Two happen to be members of the clergy. Nothing is easy in Hollywood. What does this documentary prove? That beauty-or lack thereof- is in the eye of the beholder. The ratings board says they are out to protect children, but from what? Sex or violence? Kirby Dick tries to show that the group is arbitrary, perhaps vindictive in their own way, and holds supreme in Hollywood. Solutions? None are given other than to name names. Perhaps this is the best revenge. Pandora's Box has been opened. Copyright 2006 Marie Asner
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