This Film is Not Yet Rated
THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED: HYPOCRISY AT ITS WORST
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is director Kirby Dick’s documentary on the MPAA and its rating system of movies. He delves into the history, who makes up the MPAA, and how they are harsher when it comes to sex versus violence. He has candid interviews with directors such as Matt Stone (South Park) and Jon Waters (Pecker), actress Maria Bello (The Cooler), and two former MPAA raters.
The story begins with a history of censorship in Hollywood from the Motion Picture Code of 1930 to McCarthyism. The MPAA is the Motion Picture Association of America and was headed up by Jack Valenti for 38 years until 2005. Jack Valenti came from Washington and it is described that it made the general public feel better that somebody from Washington would be a part of rating films. Joan Graves, who speaks to Kirby Dick towards the end of the film regarding the documentary, is the current vice chair for the MPAA. The raters are supposed to consist of parents with children from the ages 5-17. We come to find out that this isn’t the case. Dick hires private investigators to look into the MPAA and their raters as their identities are kept secret to prevent them from influence, according to Joan Graves. The investigators not only find out who these raters are, they also find out they have direct contact with studio personnel. The more they find out, the more disturbing the film becomes.
The film shows the history of how the MPAA favor violence in a film over sex. One glaring example is the two films, But I’m a Cheerleader and American Pie. Jamie Babbit, the director of But I’m a Cheerleader, was told by the MPAA that she needed to remove a scene involving a fully clothed girl masturbating in order to receive an R rating. That same weekend, American Pie was released with an R rating, with pie masturbation scene and all. Another example is the film Gunner Palace, a documentary about the beginning of the Iraq War. Director Michael Tucker was told he needed to edit some of the language from the film as it wasn’t appropriate. Tucker’s response was, how else are these men going to react when they are being bombed? The more examples that Kirby gives, the angrier you get as a moviegoer that these people are deciding these ratings. It just shows how flawed this system is and that it needs to change. In a deleted scene that should have never been deleted, the director’s own submission of his film is copied without his permission. The hypocrisy of this is that the MPAA has a division solely devoted to stopping piracy of movies.
The move is well put together and you don’t feel as if you are being forced to believe this view. An overwhelming amount of evidence is given to at least make you consider that something is wrong.
Kirby Dick’s film on censorship in the film industry just proves this country’s views on sex. Hypocrisy is defined as “a pretending to be what one is not.” This film could have easily been called A Definition of Hypocrisy. It should be shown in film classes.
Report Card:
Story-A
Acting-N/A
Visuals-A
Originality/Innovation-A
Enjoyability Grade–A
Overall Grade-A
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