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Author Topic: R ratings and under 17? Donald Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Lincoln, DE Registered: Sep 2009 posted 11-19-2017 06:20 PM                     In the late '70s, an Argentine film called "Snuff" made its way to Boston. While I can't recall whether "Snuff" was unrated or rated X, the release aroused such controversy for scenes alleged to feature an actual murder, that Boston Police officers were stationed at the theatres exhibiting it to supervise age restricted admissions. That's publicity the distributor couldn't buy! Martin: In my early teens, I persuaded my grandmother to take me to "A Clockwork Orange", part of a Stanley Kubrick retrospective! While my exposure to such content briefly endowed me with what one might call middle school screen cred', my grandmother exclaimed her shock at the experience until her final days nearly three decades later!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-19-2017 06:29 PM                        After a double feature of Joe and Easy Rider, my mom quit taking me to R rated movies. Eventually me and a friend figured out we could take the buses downtown (no Metro in those days) and see whatever we wanted at the Rep and Art theatres.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 11-19-2017 07:11 PM                     quote: Frank Cox After a great outcry the banning was lifted a week or so later and the movie was classified as Restricted. After that Saskatchewan was the only place in the world where Exit to Eden made a killing. This reminds me of a story where Red Bull, the energy drink company, made a killing in Germany, after some retailers pulled Red Bull's version of Cola off the shelves, because it was found to contain traces of cocaine. Obviously, the traces were so minute, you'd need to drink such amounts, you'd probably die from other side effects before the effect of the cocaine would kick in. There wasn't much effort in pulling it off the shelves though, most of the inventory had already been sold. Oce it hit the news, a massive buying frenzy of the stuff erupted. People always want what they can't get. It's actually one of the more profitable marketing tactics around, you only need to ask Apple.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-19-2017 09:22 PM                        Creating a moral outrage scandal is an almost guaranteed way to enable a mediocre and/or overly pretentious movie to perform at least respectably at the box office. There was a spate of them in Britain in the late 1990s: two I particularly remember are Crash (1996, David Cronenberg) and Romance. Both were effectively high class pornos, which the BBFC passed uncut because they accepted claims that they were actually art. The popular press identified a bandwagon to start rolling in both cases, and the end result was a few conservative cities banning them, and lines around the block at arthouses to see them in the places where they played. I remember having to turn customers away from the opening night of Romance, but so many walked out from boredom during the actual show that there can't have been more than 30 left in the 350-seat house by the time the credit crawl started. By the Sunday, the word was around town that the pic was two hours of pretentious BS, and it was playing to nearly empty houses.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-20-2017 12:35 AM                        Every year we have a handful of parents who drop off their kids for R-rated movies and drive away. The kids then come in the door. Sometimes they produce a permission note, which we don't accept. Then they want to call Mom or Dad on the phone, which we also don't accept. (The only thing we'll accept is a human body coming in the door and giving permission.) Sometimes they'll call Mom or Dad, who then show up at the office in somewhat of a huff, saying that it's OK. It's ALWAYS OK. I don't think anybody has ever hauled their kid away, at least not more than one or two times in my years in the business. Then the next R-movie we play, the same thing happens again with the same kids. I say, "Your folks have to come in and give you permission EVERY TIME because it's always a DIFFERENT MOVIE." And then the parents will come in and say "can't we just say it's always OK?" I say "That would be a bookkeeping nightmare for us, so no, you can't do that." Sometimes I say "The best thing would be for you to go in and watch the movie with the kids." It's fun to compare who has the more horrified look when I suggest that -- the kid or the parent.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 11-20-2017 12:34 PM                     I remember the outcry over the graphic violence of 'Saving Private Ryan' and even though none of the board of CARA had a problem with it, they obviously gave it an 'R' rating, but some more sensitive movie goers and theaters decided that no one 'under 17' were allowed regardless of being accompanied by a parent/adult guardian - that didn't last long.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-20-2017 02:57 PM                        Heck any standard horror (or Deadpool) movie today has way more graphic violence than SPR did. I guess it was more painful to watch in that because it was depicting real events.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 11-20-2017 03:10 PM                        I did have one old guy walk out of SPR shortly after I started the show. On his way out he told me, "I was there and I just decided that I don't want to see it again."  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 11-20-2017 03:17 PM                     in terms of TV 'American Horror Story' really has gone the extra mile in terms of explicit violence - the extreme gore would give the MPAA a conniption fit - add every curse word uncensored on FX, parents would parental lock this at a heartbeat.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 11-20-2017 03:40 PM                        I remember when we played The Last House on the Left (2009). The rape scene in that movie was one of the most disturbing I have ever seen in a movie. Despite warning parents about this, none though it was a movie they didn't want their teenage daughters or sons to see. A few made a joke of promising to cover their kid's eyes. In my opinion this was FAR more disturbing than the violence in Saving Private Ryan. Another incident that stands out was I had a grandmother bring 4 teenage girls to see Hostel. The girls were probably 13-14. After the show the grandmother comes out and complains about the nudity in the movie. She didn't care at all about the violence, just the topless women. If she had had boys with her I might have understood more. But she's complaining about the girls seeing the same thing they see everyday in the mirror. Absolutely floored me.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-20-2017 04:57 PM                        Best complaint I ever got was an old guy who came out during My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He stood at the concessions stand for a few moments and then said to me "That movie is filth doubled over." At first I thought he was kidding, but he went on about how they were in bed together even though they weren't married! That even when he was dating, he'd never bring his wife to something like that (his wife was, of course, in watching the movie with no complaints [and it does lead me to wonder about the dating techniques of his youth]). I really wanted to say to him "You don't own a television, do you?" but decided discretion was the better choice. Moral of the story: There's always someone.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 11-20-2017 09:20 PM                     ^ [face palm]  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 11-20-2017 10:32 PM                        There's a case where I think a theater can be successfully sued. If a theater posts the MPAA Ratings Chart and some theaters in my area do just that, the rating for "R" rated movies says "Under 17 Requires Parent or Adult Guardian". And the rating for NC-17 says "No One 17 and Under Admitted". That's making a statement that they won't admit patrons as per those statements. If they do, they've violated their own stated policies and I have to think that if a parent sued if their under 17 child was admitted, they just might win the case, especially if they can prove harm, not that I've ever heard of anyone doing so.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-20-2017 11:59 PM                        All R-rated posters say "Under 17 not admitted without parent" as part of the logo, yet theaters are free to interpret the policies as they wish, so I don't think that would hold water either. If anything, it might result in a law requiring theaters to post their actual policies regarding R movies. (Which might not be a bad idea -- I recently outlined our policy on our Facebook page.)  |  IP: Logged

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