When I was four my uncle took my brother and I to see the movie ‘Raiders of the Lost  Ark’ without letting my parents know.  Upon return he asked my mom if it would be okay if we went, to which she replied, “You can take Joe but there are scenes that will be too scary for Dan.”  He looked at her and said, “Oh… we just got back.”

I do not remember much about the movie as a four year old.  I do remember piling all of our jackets on the seats as I was too short to even see the screen, and I remember the scene where the ark was opened and faces began to melt off.  Yes, I cried.  In my defense, that is a graphic scene even by today’s standards, yet Raiders received a PG rating.  Why?  Is it because the movie was seen as unrealistic that people would not be as disturbed by it?

MPAA ratings are designed to give viewers an idea of what is in the movie so they can decide if anything may be inappropriate.  Ratings however have changed with cultural trends.  At one time smoking was something everyone did in the movies.  Then it became one of the tools to designate the villain of the story, but it never really impacted the rating.  Now, you can see movies rated PG or PG-13 because of “smoking.”  At the same time, movies that glorify smoking marijuana, like Cheech and Chong’s ‘Up in Smoke’ (1978), were rated R, while ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ (2000) received a PG-13 rating.

It seems that ratings are a reflection of what society says is acceptable, but why is it that movies that reflect true life situations receive the stricter ratings?  ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) and ‘We Were Soldiers’ (2002) present an accurate, non-glorified picture of war yet are deemed unsuitable for certain audiences while ‘Die Hard 4‘ (2007) was rated PG-13.  Is real life that scary?

Our movie this month is ‘Trainspotting’ which takes a look at heroin addiction and what it can do to an individual… and it is rated ‘R’.  So…unrealistic movies that make drug use funny and perhaps normalize it, receive a lower rating than a movie that shows the horrors in heroin use?!  Would it be such a bad thing for our youth to see such films? Ok, so gratuitous sex and violence is not something everyone should see, but can certain movies serve to educate about life?  Christians are told to think on things that are pure and commendable (Phil. 4:8) but should this be done by ignoring or avoiding the reality around us?

What do you think?  Post your ideas here, or even better, come to our movie night on August 25^th (remember that it is R-rated) to discuss this even more.