Swearing, scenes of nudity, Gitanes
Smoking to play role in movie rating decisions: "Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit..."
Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit.MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said his group's ratings board, which previously had considered underage smoking in assigning film ratings, now will take into account smoking by adults, as well.
That adds smoking to a list of such factors as sex, violence and language in determining the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 ratings.
5/10/2007
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God help us in a few more months when They decide that plastic bags are evil incarnate, and ban the showing thereof from the movies we watch.
How many idiots must we truck lording their lives over our own?
Yes, we all know how teenagers shy away from R-rated movies. They obviously know that behaviour in an R-rated movie is only appropriate for consenting adults.
It's like some people have never even heard of psychology.
The worst movies are the ones that show people smoking after having sex.
Personally I don't know whether I smoke after sex or not. I've always been afraid to look.
Stupid, yes, but the MPAA's rating system has always been bizarre. You can kill as many people as you want but if you show too much butt or the sex scene has "too much damned thrusting" your movie is toast.
If you haven't seen "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" I recommend it. A useful survey of the hypocrisy and contradictions in US ratings by the MPAA. I'm not sure how bad the provincial ratings agencies are, but I usually use the 10:1 rule, just like population: the USA is ten times as bad. :)
I let my 11 year-old daughter watch Casabalanca with me last week. Does this mean I was engaging in child abuse?
I love the classic "MPAA is idiotic" example of Team America: World Police where the film was initially rated NC-17 because of a supposedly overly explicit sex scene. Between two PUPPETS. They apparently had to re-cut that scene 12 times before it got an R rating.
Because the sex the PUPPETS were having was too hot!
I can't remember for certain if the puppets smoked after the sex, but (horror of horrors) I think they did.
I wonder if the MPAA will make an exception for scenes in which the smoker is decapitated. After all, while gentalia and the F-bomb drive these people nuts, decapitation doesn't seem to usually phase them. Perhaps seeing an "evil" smoker get what's coming to them would mitigate their decision.
Completely off-topic, but was there no At Issue panel last night?
I wonder what it would take to get an "X" rating - maybe smoking and eating trans-fat while riding a bicycle without a helmet?
For anybody who's interested in the frighteningly Soviet cabal of prudes that is the MPAA, you should definitely check out the documentary, "This Film is Not Yet Rated." It deals with the unnerving amount of control this secretive little committee has over what we mere mortals are allowed to see and hear. If you hate censorship, and being treated like a 10 year old child, it'll get your blood boiling.
Here's a paradox for the nanny-stater liberals to wrap their heads around:
If children should not see smoking on film, then perhaps they should not see obesity on film, or the act of excessive eating, which is clearly a health hazard. Maybe even actors that are slightly overweight will suggest to young viewers that unhealthy eating is acceptable.
But wait a minute, would that constitute an affront to the public crusade against the prevalence of skinny and beautiful people on film and in magazines? Perhaps that might be discrimination of some sort or other?
Which liberal agenda trumps the other? These agendas cannot co-exist.
If the MPAA truly believes that hundreds and thousands of children will light-up due to actors smoking in movies. Why do they keep insisting that violence in movies does NOT influence today's youth?
In my opinion, on-screen smoking does NOT look cool nor glamorous! Contrary to MPAA's opinion, the impact is negative. It rather begs to ask the question; why one took up smoking to begin with?
It's a good idea. Seeing smoking is probably much more harmful than seeing a naked body, that's for darn sure. One day, your little children will be engaged in sexual activities, but I think we can all agree that it would be preferable if they weren't smokers. So what's wrong with this change? Makes sense to me!
Treating adolescents like children by force-feeding them pc pablum, stripping them of civil rights and imprisoning them in schools and malls, rather than figuring out how to integrate them into the tax-paying adult world is a recipe for sloth and the world-owes-me-a-living blues; if we baby them away from the wrong choices, they wont make choices, period, and expect us to take care of it all. Who is going to support the system when we all retire..brattish louts in a permanent state of adolescent angst and rebellion?
Tobacco and alcohol in moderation is a creative stimulant, an outlet for the pent-up and under utilized energy of young'uns who suffer the spiritual emptiness of secondary and post-secondary education. Bring back tobbaco in theatre and smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Have we really become such weenies? The smoking phobia these days is so completely out of proportion. It almost amounts to an Anti-Smoking Cult of the perpetually aggrieved. People have lost all perspective.
The hysteria is like some type of misplaced communal anxiety we direct toward the demon ciggies, while somehow overlooking a lot of other life threatening behaviors. How many chemicals and random carcinogens do you absorb just walking down the street?
If you stay in good shape, the occasional cig with a drink won't harm you. It's common sense. If you're a beach ball on four supersize burgers a day, plus fries and copious pop refills and you're going through a pack of cigs while laying inert on the sofa watching the Leafs bomb season after season - then yes, you will definitely die a few years before your alloted time.
This isn't rocket science.
Plus not everyone lives out the predictions encoded in medical stats. A friend told me about an uncle he had back in Ireland who smoked a pack of unfiltered Capstan full strength cigs every day of his adult life. This man also worked on a farm and was tough as nails. He lived into his 80's and his only malady was a bit of a hack and spit in the morning.
We've become such a pampered, anxiety ridden bunch of hypochondriacs these days.
As for banning smoking in movies. By the same measure I suppose you could argue that we have to ban sex scenes because of the high incidence of STD's, or that we have to ban sunlit scenes in case the kids get the wrong message and get skin cancer. Where does this lunacy end?
It's a nanny culture of protection. Everybody looking out for ... or sticking their nose into ... other people's bedrooms, ashtrays, movies, liquor cabinets, bathroom cabinets and fridges delivering opinions about what the evil doer should and should not be doing.
Let's go back to the days when life was dangerous and you took your damn chances. We at least have insurance now and an excellent health service, so the back-up is there. The whole point is to enjoy life while not overdoing calories, nicotine and other poisons - while remembering that a little poison now and then never hurt anyone.
And actors - smoke on!
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OT, but are we gonna see a new blog entry soon? Possibly about the Senate's move to block bill S-4 and C-43 from ever seeing the light of day?
And AC, when's the next At Issue panel gonna be? It's nearing that time when it's gonna be the end-of-session in-person roundtable (with Rex in there as well) with Peter.
I know it's great weather out, perfect weather for having a cold beer outside on a bar patio somewhere, but c'mon, feed the fish!!!
Why the heck does Andrew spend so much time and energy on blog/website design if he's not going to do anything with it?
Let me see: murder, bloody violence,abortion, war are all OK. Smoking is not OK. Hmmm.
Well, I think this is to make up for all the years that the tobacco companies paid Hollywood to make sure that smoking looked cool and glamarous. There was a good thirty years of television where you were hard-pressed to find a big star who didn't smoke - with fat checks coming from big tobacco.
So, even if it is a bit heavy-handed, it's payback.
Hey,
Long time reader and fan…
Have you seen this video yet? It’s so bizarre and I’m not sure if it’s legit. I know this is up your alley….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtc1MG9bDrg
The website seems just as bizarre.
-Will
Bravo to the MPAA. Film is practically the last refuge of Big Tobacco's advertising arms, and its time that too was eliminated.
We will only eliminate the harmful, ridiculous cultural practice of smoking once every opportunity to portray it in a positive light has been banned. And if you think having celebrities lighting up in movies doesn't promote smoking, you're off your gourd.