This Film Is Not Yet Rated is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released into select theatres on September 1, 2006. The Independent Film Channel, the film's producer, aired the film later that autumn.
The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for some graphic sexual content: scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated.
The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between gay and straight sexual situations, and between violence and sexual content.
I wonder if the MPAA is thinking that maybe, just maybe, if they force the movies to look like we all still live in Ike's Fifties that somehow they'll make it true. If we just make all the movies squeaky clean, maybe the parents on the MPAA board won't ever have to explain to their grandchildren why we killed everyone in Iraq and why we wiped out all the tigers in the world and why we polluted all the air and water. Yeah, making the movies as unlike reality as possible will make reality go away. Keep on smoking that pipe.
The reason the MPAA doesn't edit for violence is because explicit depictions of violence create a free-floating anxiety in those who view it. Human beings, by nature, tend to collect and horde in order to assuage that type of free-floating anxiety. Watching violence causes the average person to be driven to mindlessly consume. Mindless consumption is the cornerstone of the American economy.
By contrast, viewing obvious depictions of sexual activity between consenting adults tends to connect people with their own identities as human beings. We recognize sexual activity as something we all have in common. A general feeling of connectivity and inclusion in a group causes people to become calm, happy, and motivates them to value human relationships over material gain.
People trained to understand themselves as group members are more likely to seek out human companionship to fill their need for human companionship. People trained to understand themselves as victims of violence at the hands of other people are more likely to isolate themselves and then attempt to fill their need for companionship with things.
Since things can never take the place of humans when it comes to filling the need for human companionship, and eventually viewers will become nonresponsive to depictions of violence as their need for human companionship becomes stronger than the illegitimate fear instilled in them by depictions of violence, the depictions of violence must not only be perpetual, but increasingly disgusting and graphic in order to maintain the same level of fear and isolation in the mindless consumptive.
The MPAA, working at the behest of the consumer corporate infrastructure, is training people to consume in order to keep itself viable. They are fighting against the hundreds of thousands of years of evolution which dictates that we should seek one another out and act mercifully and altruistically towards one another for the purposes of living in a cooperative society. They are actively destroying one of the basic identifying factors of humanity for no other reason than to make money.
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
zeropoint said:
mj said:
By contrast, viewing obvious depictions of sexual activity between consenting adults tends to connect people with their own identities as human beings. We recognize sexual activity as something we all have in common. A general feeling of connectivity and inclusion in a group causes people to become calm, happy, and motivates them to value human relationships over material gain.
People trained to understand themselves as group members are more likely to seek out human companionship to fill their need for human companionship. People trained to understand themselves as victims of violence at the hands of other people are more likely to isolate themselves and then attempt to fill their need for companionship with things.
Since things can never take the place of humans when it comes to filling the need for human companionship, and eventually viewers will become nonresponsive to depictions of violence as their need for human companionship becomes stronger than the illegitimate fear instilled in them by depictions of violence, the depictions of violence must not only be perpetual, but increasingly disgusting and graphic in order to maintain the same level of fear and isolation in the mindless consumptive.
The MPAA, working at the behest of the consumer corporate infrastructure, is training people to consume in order to keep itself viable. They are fighting against the hundreds of thousands of years of evolution which dictates that we should seek one another out and act mercifully and altruistically towards one another for the purposes of living in a cooperative society. They are actively destroying one of the basic identifying factors of humanity for no other reason than to make money.
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.