Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!thakur
From: meuer@geom.umn.edu (Mark V. Meuer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.cinema
Subject: Re: NC-17 controversies
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.003448.17949@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 90 00:34:48 GMT
References: <1990Nov27.205705.5453@eddie.mit.edu>
Sender: thakur@eddie.mit.edu (Manavendra K. Thakur)
Reply-To: meuer@geom.umn.edu (Mark V. Meuer)
Followup-To: rec.arts.cinema
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Lines: 30
Approved: thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu


In <1990Nov27.205705.5453@eddie.mit.edu> reiher@onyx.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Reiher) writes:

>In rather worse news, what everyone claimed would never happen with the NC-17
>rating is likely to happen.  A hard core film will shortly be submitted to the
>MPAA rating board.  The film in question is currently titled "Blond Emmanuel",
>though it has appeared under at least one other title before.  It's in 3D, and
>exists in both a hard core and a soft core version, both of which were
>previously rated X (probably self-rated).  The soft core version has already
>been submitted to the MPAA and received an NC-17 rating. 

Is this even slightly surprising to anybody?  It seemed very obvious
to me from the outset that the industry just wants to make more money,
and labeling "X" films "NC-17" is a way to get more people to attend
movies they wouldn't before.  I'm sorry to be so cynical, but
believing that the movie industry is sincerely trying to advance art
with this new rating is incredibly naive.

Call it "rating inflation."  The ratings mean less and less as time
goes by.  The exact same thing happened with the introduction of
PG-13.  A lot of parents would never let their kids see an R movie,
but feel comfortable if there is a "PG" in the rating.  Never mind
that the material in a PG-13 is what used to be in R movies.

-Mark Meuer
 (Put standard disclaimer here.)
-- 
Mark Meuer |  Geometry Supercomputer Project  |   meuer@geom.umn.edu
"Scientists have determined that the world's fastest animal, with a top speed
 of 120 ft/sec, is a cow that has been dropped from a helicopter." - Dave Barry