COLUMN: Feelings, actions result from choices
Boiling Point Naked women running through a violent war zone, yelling obscenities while people are having sex and snorting cocaine. Are you offended by this? If so, you have the choice not to read more about it.
This article is about choices and our freedom to make them, and the consequences that come from them.
Every choice we make has consequences, whether they are positive or negative.
Working in a video store, I am constantly receiving comments on the content of movies, and questions about why we don’t have edited movies. The simple answer to this is that edited movies are illegal to show and distribute.
It is every American’s right not to have to watch things he doesn’t want to. However, watching a movie is a voluntary decision, the consequences of which may be hearing words or seeing scenes you don’t like, no matter what the rating.
A person’s decision to not watch R-rated movies is a choice I definitely respect, but complaining about the consequences is not. This is the same as a person who has chosen to go on a diet complaining about not being able to eat certain foods, or a person who has chosen to marry complain about not being able to date anymore.
To make a choice, a person should be educated on the issue, which, in this case, many people appear not to be.
One common misconception I’ve found in people’s comments is that a PG or PG-13 rating makes it “OK” for kids. According to the official Web page of the Motion Picture Association of America (the group which decides what a film is rated), ratings are not meant to say what is “OK” for anybody. Their decisions are made based on how the board members think the average American parent would react to the movie. The key word is “average.” This should be taken into consideration when someone more conservative makes a decision on what to watch.
One should also note times have changed, and what an “average” person would accept today is likely very different than it was several years ago.
For example, one of my favorite movies, “The Jerk,” received an “R” rating when it was released in 1979, yet by today’s standards, would probably not even be strong enough to get a PG-13.
The only reasons for the rating were a few sporadic uses of the “S” word and a couple sexually-tilted jokes, which are light enough they are not cut out when the movie is shown on television.
Conversely, many movies that receive “R” ratings today (or even some PG-13) go beyond anything that would have been shown 20 or 30 years ago, when the rating system was first implemented, so basing your decision simply on the rating means it’s OK for you to see and hear things that weren’t OK for your parents.
It is also important to realize, according to the MPAA, the entire point of the rating system is give parents a heads-up on a movie for the benefit of their children, and was never even meant to sway an adult’s decision for themselves. Some movies deal with topics which are too strong for children to grasp without guidance or explanation from parents, but are not necessarily “bad.”
Filmmakers are not required to submit their films for a rating, though the majority do.
Often when movies go straight to video, when a television show is released on video, or when the filmmaker feels certain things are important to the story or artistic integrity (which also includes many independent and local films), they simply label the film unrated.
This means the movie could contain anything illegal (such as child-porn, or blatant libel). It could be the “Pokémon” cartoon on channel 5 yesterday, or it could be a version of an R-rated movie with extra or lengthened sexually-explicit or violent scenes.
Movie ratings are in no way legally binding. While many video stores and movie theaters do restrict minors, that is the policy of their particular company.
There are some things in movies I don’t want to see or hear, just like most other people, so I do my own research on the content.
This means asking people who have seen it, reading reviews in newspapers, or using the Internet.
Editing movies, an increasingly popular alternative, is a violation of federal copyright laws. When an edited movie is shown on an airplane or on television, that airline or television company paid a very large amount of money for the right to do that, and it is done with approval of the copyright holder (usually the filmmaker).
Towne Cinemas in American Fork and BYU’s Varsity Theatre both recently realized this, when the Towne Cinemas showed an edited version of “Titanic,” which drew attention to both theaters, and caused them both to stop showing edited movies at all.
Some have found their way around this law using a newly discovered loophole. Several stores have defined themselves as a “club,” and charge money for a membership, the benefit of which is to be allowed to “borrow” edited movies. This has raised many legal questions, and some lawsuits.
The real question here might be “if watching an R-rated movie is immoral, what is trying to get around the law?”
Jason Robey is a senior majoring in public relations. Comments can be sent to him at jasonr@cc.usu.edu