This post is my entry to @cinetv Contest
Throughout my life, I have watched more independent/non-mainstream studio movies than I have mainstream companies' movies. While, how I usually find there is a long, complicated, often tiring process. Why I do that can be answered in this documentary. If you're a cinephile, this documentary is very important for you to watch. It's the movies and TV shows' version of how hot dogs are made.
Ever wondered why the movie you watched has certain ratings? Rated G, PG, PG-13, and Rated R/NCA17, ever wondered what those terms are as a cinephile? This documentary will answer so many of your questions regarding the rating, scene cuts, and production companies' pressure which often baffled you as they ruined a great movie/concept.
Film Synopsis
The movie follows two different paths, simply.
The first path is a learning journey as you go through the history of the MPA (Motion Picture Association) from its start to its current suspicious state as it rates the movies with seemingly no guidelines or even providing knowledge of what to cut or change all the while none of the people who do the rating are known to the public or the moviemakers themselves.
In the second path, we follow the documentary maker on a journey with the help of a private investigator to track down all those people who are giving the movies these ratings in hope of learning about the reasons these movies are rated a certain way.
What I Liked About The Film
Honestly, everything. When watching a documentary, I always treat it like a full-feature movie. And if this documentary was a full-featured movie, I would watch it and rate it highly in an instant.
In this documentary, you learn all about some of the silly rules that take a movie from one rating to another. Just a tiny spoiler, the movie shows how a movie can go from being rated PG-13 to rate R depending on the number of thrusting movements during a sex scene. You could see several silly rules as well as great hypocrisy, especially in favoring murder scenes over sex scenes in movies.
The movie also explains why different rating matter as they affect the marketing budget and where can and can't the movie be marketed. It goes into deep examples of how movies can be ruined if they make the changes to get the rating required and preferred by the studio since studios also put rules on what ratings they want each movie to be.
This part isn't about the movie but comes from my own research. In the movie Sucker Punch, a great movie ruined by these ratings and cuts, one scene in specific took the movie from PG-13 to R which was a sex scene near the end. The studio and MBA had a problem with the woman in the scene having fully-consensual sex.
Snyder had to edit the scene into making the man manipulative in a way for the movie to become PG-13. Many other scenes were deleted or altered, but that scene in specific killed what was a great feminist anthem film as it made the female look rather naive and powerless, not to mention easily tricked. To studios and the MPA, it was better to have that rather than a woman engaging in consensual sex.
Another thing I liked about the movie is its tone. Although the documentary discusses a serious matter, they do it in a rather fun way. No one is having an angry rant that makes you uncomfortable watching, but rather a fully coherent explanation pointing out hypocrisy. You can tell how fun is the tone by just watching the video below
The movie interviews a lot of filmmakers and actors in the movies ruined by those ratings. It shows you why some filmmakers decide to promote their films without accepting the rating, hence, the "Unrated" part you often see on certain movie posters. It also shows why some filmmakers wear that as a badge of honor.
You can explore how the MPA is essentially controlled by the big studios. Those studios often work secretly to edit certain movies by using the MPA as an excuse. You also see how favorable they are treated as they get detailed feedback while independent movies don't get an explanation at all.
In the documentary, you get exposed to some uncomfortable confrontations with homophobia and sexism that existed in the MPA for a long time. It shows clear examples of scenes that are very similar yet rated differently because either a woman is doing it instead of a man, or the sex scene is between homosexual people rather than a straight couple.
Finally, you get to see how much power the MPA really is. You might think that in the streaming world they no longer have power. But, Netflix joined the MPA just less than three years ago. So, even with the documentary being released in 2006, it is far from being outdated.
In Conclusion
Honestly, besides some minor issues with a few selected scenes and how they were filmed, I don't have any problem with this documentary. It's informative, funny, fun to watch, and can be very helpful for any movie-goer to understand many decisions filmmakers make when presenting a movie.
My Rating: 9/10
As a cinephile, this documentary is important for me. The tone is fun, the information provided is valuable, and is easy to follow. I heavily encourage everyone to watch it.
The End
By the way, you can watch this movie on Youtube. Uploaded by the private investigator herself. It is of course age-restricted, obviously.
