Especially when you take into account if you as a viewer want to see female characters bloodied in a PG-13 film vs. Whether that is fair or unfair to female protagonists everywhere is debatable. Even further, perhaps movies like Mad Max feature men assaulting and attacking women with the type of viciousness that makes the ratings board uncomfortable. While I’m not an MPAA member, it does lead me to speculate whether one of the reasons these films are being awarded the “restricted” label is because the female protagonists are going man a mano with male antagonists. However, more often than not, when it comes to violence against women that goes outside of your typical damsel-in-distress or cat fight scenario, the MPAA starts leaning towards an R Rating (For example, The Matrix, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Point of No Return, Kill Bill, Lucy, are all rated R). Historically, the MPAA has awarded PG-13 to films that feature cartoon-y, consequence-free violence against men and women. Violence Against Women Makes The MPAA Squeamish Feel free to muse along with me in the comments section if you agree or disagree. These observations are deliberately open-ended musings on what has easily become one of my favorite modern action films. What follows are just a few random thoughts about what Mad Max says about the current state of the MPAA and the R rating. It also speaks volumes about what the MPAA views as inappropriate for mass audiences and what an R rated film can accomplish. The overwhelmingly positive reaction to Fury Road has to do with many things, but for my money, it speaks volumes about the type of entertainment we’ve been missing since PG-13 became the default for Hollywood. Admittedly, some of the reasons viewers have been wanting more R sci-fi and action are unrealistic (you were never going to get an R rated Wolverine film, guys), but some arguments against PG-13 are pretty spot on (IMO, PG-13 horror should just die). However, in the process it has left a very vocal portion of cinephiles pining over the dearth of restricted “genre” fare. For studios, PG-13 is an undeniable sweet spot to optimize the number of butts in seats. In particular, what it tells us about the current state of R rated movies.Ĭurrently, the film industry has been aggressively courting the PG-13 rating. Having seen Fury Road twice in the theater and once on blu ray now, I’ve had a lot of time (maybe too much) to muse about the film. However, like most debates on sex/gender and violence on film, the logic behind the MPAA’s rating system has as much to do with incidents involving bare breasts and exploding heads as it does with the movie as whole. In the past they’ve come under fire for rating too harshly when it comes to sex and not enough when it comes to violence. Not without its fair share of controversy, the MPAA is responsible for the movie rating system (G, PG-13, R, etc.) here in the United States.
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