Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: First PG-13 Movie

This is topic First PG-13 Movie in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 08-25-2003, 03:19 PM:

Hello everyone. A local radio station had a quiz contest a while ago where they asked listeners "What was the very first movie to receive a PG-13 rating?".

Now, I believe that the correct answer is RED DAWN. But, they said it was INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. How in the world did they get that answer? Wasn't that one just a PG. I can look back on my VHS copy, and that's the rating.

This has just been puzzling me. Can you guys back me up on the RED DAWN thing? Or was INDY right in some way?

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-25-2003, 05:30 PM:

I always heard it was INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Ratings have been changed over the years to reflect changes in standards. That whole human sacrifice stuff was pretty shocking back then but it's passe today so perhaps they got the rating changed. I recall reading about how Steven Spielberg reacted when POLTERGEIST was going to get an "R" rating and he said "I don't make R-Rated movies" so maybe that could explain why/how TEMPLE OF DOOM got re-rated down to a "PG." Maybe our man Steve is just a "PG" kind of guy?

Down here in The Bahamas it was GREMLINS that gave rise to a whole new rating. In that case it was "T" which used to mean "under age 15 not admitted" and that rating was considered to be "the kiss of death" because adults would avoid those movies, thinking that "T" meant it was geared toward a teenage audience....but, of course, a lot of teenagers couldn't see the thing. [Roll Eyes]

Now, I've been told that the "T" rating has been relaxed to allow "under age 15 with parent or adult guardian." Note the absence of the word "suggested" like they have in the U.S. Here the ratings are applied and enforced by a governmental committee. It's law.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-25-2003, 05:35 PM:

RED DAWN was the first movie to get a PG-13 rating.

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and GREMLINS were the movies that inspired the creation of the PG-13 rating.

[ 08-25-2003, 08:33 PM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-25-2003, 05:37 PM:

That works for me.

So are you gonna challenge the radio station now?

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 08-25-2003, 06:05 PM:

Red Dawn . . . wasn't that Timothy McVeigh's favorite movie?

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-25-2003, 06:44 PM:

I will have to look it up but dreamscape either came out a week before or a week after Red Dawn.

Temple of doom and gremlins are two films that broke the camels back in reguards to the PG-13 rating.

After a quick research dreamscape followed Red Dawn. Red Dawn opened 8-10-84 and dreamscape 0pened on 8-15-84.

Temple of doom had the tage in the ads that stated some scenes may be to intense for younger viewers. A tag the was used on Jaws and Return of the Jedi.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 08-25-2003, 07:02 PM:

But Snow White was John Gacy's favourite movie.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-26-2003, 12:20 PM:

Mike Blakesly is correct. "Red Dawn" was indeed the first PG-13 movie. "Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom" was the main offender that inspired the rating. Had it been any other filmmaker besides Steven Spielberg at the time, the "Temple of Zoom" would have been slapped with an R-rating.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-26-2003, 03:34 PM:

Someone on the IMDB noted that "Red Dawn" was indeed the first PG-13 picture, but because its release was delayed for several weeks, it wasn't the first PG-13 to reach theatre screens.

First NC-17 movie: "Henry and June"

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-26-2003, 04:18 PM:

quote:
Had it been any other filmmaker besides Steven Spielberg at the time, the "Temple of Zoom" would have been slapped with an R-rating.

I recall reading about Spielberg becoming irate when POLTERGEIST was initially assigned an R rating. To which, he reportedly stated: "I don't make R movies." This seemed to be enough of an appeal; the film in question was declared PG.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-26-2003, 06:42 PM:

An interesting Read...

Rating System History

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-26-2003, 07:14 PM:

If "Poltergeist" originally was supposed to be an R, it must have been edited to get the PG. There's no way that movie in its final form would have ever earned an R.

I'll bet they cut out a bit of the part where the guy's face falls off.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-26-2003, 08:11 PM:

When the PG-13 rating started, that was also when they changed the rating tags at the end of movies to the white lettering on blue background, instead of the white bar running across the screen with the rating on the right-hand side. I always thought the old ones were odd because the lettering was so small and had a lot of empty screen space, but now that they're gone they look cool when I see them.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-26-2003, 09:48 PM:

Speaking of the old style ratings band at the tail end of movies, does anyone else besides me have a copy of the music CD "Rated R" by Queens of the Stone Age?

The QOTSA CD cover does a credible job of copying the old style blue ratings band. You have the white stripe across the lower portion of a blue background with the "R" icon at the right end of the band. The difference on the QOTSA cover is the verbiage says "Restricted to Everyone, Everywhere, All The Time."

I've got a funny play off the R rating logo on the back window of my pickup truck in high performance cut vinyl. It is a very accurate duplication of the complete R rating mark. But I have changed MPAA logo to have the "have a nice day" happy face instead of a film reel. The verbiage says "off limits to kids under age 17 just to make them scream and cry." That's pretty much how I felt about the R rating when I was a kid. I had to beg my parents to take me to see "Alien."

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-26-2003, 11:12 PM:

quote:
I always thought the old ones were odd because the lettering was so small and had a lot of empty screen space,

How's this?

And one for R previews...

Here's one you never see. And in scope, too!

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-27-2003, 01:50 AM:

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-27-2003, 09:15 AM:

I remember seeing the X tag on a video for Any Worhol's Frankenstien.

That tag as a lot of us know was never copyrighted by the MPA. So it was greatly misused by the porn industry. Hence the need for the copyrighted NC-17 rating.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-27-2003, 09:25 AM:

Funny you should mention that, Darryl. It came from a print of "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein", at the Circle 25 D/I, in 1974! It was a practice film I used to make chemical splices with. My first splice is still in it (and still holding fast)!

That's probably the only scope version ever made of that rating symbol!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-27-2003, 12:49 PM:

Link to the "Film Ratings" website run by the MPAA Code and Ratings Administration:

http://www.filmratings.com

Has a search feature for the rating of any film by title, including any re-ratings. You can also search by the rating and get a chronological list.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-27-2003, 01:46 PM:

I've got some movie on video with that type of X-rating tag, but I forget what it was. I did see an old Swedish Erotica short that had the MPAA logo in the opening credits. I have an old tape of "Fritz the Cat" when it was on Warner Home Video that has an odd full-screen X-rating tag at the end (says "No one under 16 admitted.") BTW I have a tape of Andy Warhol's Frankenstein letterboxed AND in field-sequential 3-D!
When did they start doing the green bands for trailers instead of the blue bands?

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-27-2003, 01:56 PM:

quote:
Has a search feature for the rating of any film by title,

That's the same search that's on Mpaa.org, but it won't let you search for M, or GP ratings. To get those titles, you have to list ALL since 1968, and if you do that, it lists them alphabetically by year. Would've been interesting to know what was the first M, GP, PG, etc...

quote:
I've got some movie on video with that type of X-rating tag, but I forget what it was.

X rating strips weren't unusual, I remember "Last Tango in Paris" had one, "Fritz the Cat", and a few others. You just didn't see many in scope.

BOBBY HENDERSON... any clue as to what font the MPAA rating letters are? I've always thought they were probably unique designs, but I'm not sure. If anyone would know, it'd be you!
[Wink]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-27-2003, 03:32 PM:

I am certain the lettering in the MPAA logos for the "G", "PG", "PG-13" and "R" ratings was a custom designed slab-serif letter style. In searching through thousands upon thousands of fonts, I have never found an accurate match. Typestyles like Melior are close, but are still not a match.

Even the MPAA goofs up on occaision. Somewhere in my attic I have an old, folded up one-sheet of "Escape From New York". The rated R mark on that one used Helvetica Black for the "R" instead of the normal font. I have seen Times New Roman Bold, Century Schoolbook Bold and Bookman Extra Bold used for the "R" at times as well.

The font in the NC-17 rating does not match up with the font used in the other ratings logos. The "NC-17" as first seen on the art for "Henry and June" used Bookman Extra Bold. I have vectorized art for all the MPAA ratings logos, including one that approximates the "correct" ratings font for "NC-17".

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-27-2003, 04:02 PM:

Bobby! I knew you could shed some light on this. You're right, Melior Bold is real close. If you could get it in extended bold, that would probably be close enough for government work.

Umm, errr... do you think there's any way I could get copies of those vector files from you, please? I did the rating symbol frames on the other page by hand and they're not perfect (except the X -- that's an actual frame scan), because I traced the letters from tiny jpegs I got off their website. I would've scanned one of those big ratings posters and traced from that, but I haven't even seen one for years. [Frown]

I do have good vector artwork of the MPAA logo, if you need that, and you want to trade or something.

Posted by Steven Privett (Member # 718) on 08-30-2003, 10:15 AM:

I didn't see "Gremlins" mentioned. I thought it was one of the causes for adding the PG-13 rating.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-30-2003, 11:33 AM:

quote from my first post in this thread.

quote:
Temple of doom and gremlins are two films that broke the camels back in reguards to the PG-13 rating.

Posted by Steven Privett (Member # 718) on 08-30-2003, 11:39 AM:

oh yeah, well I never read your posts Darryl. [Wink]