I'm watching the bonus disc and Spielberg just talked about getting the PG-13 created for Temple Of Doom, but the packages have a PG rating on them. Is it a misprint on the DVD box or something else.

I don't know...

DAMN MPAA!!

The PG-13 rating was made because of Temple of Doom, but it only affected movies rated afterwards. I bet if they had made edits to Temple of Doom to force a re-rating, it would have gotten PG-13.

Temple of Doom inspired the PG-13 rating but didn't get one

I've always heard that the PG-13 Rating was created for Gremlins.

Nope, it wasn't for Gremlins.

Though it's a part of film lore, I guess a lot of people don't know this. The PG-13 rating didn't exist when Temple of Doom was rated. It earned a PG rating for precisely the same reason that Saving Private Ryan earned an R rating: it was a Spielberg film and what Spielberg wants, he gets. After there was a general outcry about the increased level of violence in ToD, especially concerning an infamous (and totally awesome!) scene involving a heart getting ripped out of someone's chest, the MPAA decided after the release of ToD to create a new rating inbetween R and PG, called PG-13.

There, now you know the story.

Geez, you didn't have to be so snippy about it and humiliate me .

Seriously though, I attented a lecture held by a film producer/director at USC a few years ago and he went off on this whole tangent about how Gremlins prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating, and I've heard/read this several other times. Of course, during the same lecture he claimed (rather arrogantly) that he directed most of Family Plot because of Hitchcock's failing health, so I probably shouldn't have put much stock in what he said.

In any case, thanks for the info.

Roy

It was a combination of "Gremlins" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" that resulted in the PG-13 rating. "Temple" was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back but "Gremlins" was a big factor, too.

It's all about the microwave!

Indiana Gremlins and the Temple of 13.

I had heard Poltergeist was also a contributing factor to the PG-13 rating in addition to Temple of Doom and Gremlins. (All three featuring Speilberg as either the director or producer!) But I'm pretty sure the first PG-13 movie was Red Dawn.

What was the first movie to actually be rated PG-13 then?

For some reason, I've always thought it is Red Dawn.

As I recall Red Dawn was the first movie released with a PG-13, but I believe there was another movie that got it first but came out a little later...The Flamingo Kid I believe.

I thought the same thing. It was either Red Dawn or Dreamscape, IIRC.

Edit...

Oops, here's the answer I guess:

http://www.faqs.org/qa/qa-194.html

Actually, the first film to get the PG-13 was a film called ZOO GANG. It went direct to video I believe.

Gremlins had a lot to do with it as well. So your professor really wasn't wrong.

Gremlins AND Temple both came out at the same time and it was outcry spawned by both films that lead to the creation of PG-13

And nowadays, the violence in both films would be considered mild and both would probably get PG. Actually, both would probably wind up with more violence added to them to bump it up to PG-13.

The funy thing is that it seemed to be the opposite for sexual content and language . . . Pretty In Pink was rated PG back then and it contains nudity and quite a bit of "adult language" . . . enough to make it an R movie these days.

The heart ripping scene alone would still get TOD a PG-13 today. If Spielberg weren't the director it might even get an R. Temple is still a sadisticly violent film by any standards.

So are you saying that Saving Private Ryan wouldn't have gotten a R rating if it wasn't for Spielberg? Surely you don't think it was PG-13 material, or that it was so violent it should have gotten NC-17.

And I think it's questionable at best to say that Temple of Doom would have gotten an R rating if not for Spielberg either. It deserved a PG-13 sure, but back then before the PG-13 rating, there were alot of PG films that were pushing the envelope and getting away with it. Just look at The Beastmaster. It had violence, nudity, human sacrifices, the whole bit and it still got away with it. It probably would have gotten an R today, but it certainly wasn't Don Conscarelli's sway over the MPAA that got it a PG.

Thats what I always thought too...i thought they said that the microwave scene especially put Gremlins over the top causing the PG13 rating cuz you had stupid kids putting animals in microwaves trying to recreate the scene.

From: http://dvd.ign.com/articles/454/454424p2.html

"Are you trying to develop a sense of humor or am I going deaf?" - Indiana Jones

By 1984, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had given the world Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws and E.T.. Add to it, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Audiences couldn't wait for another dose of their favorite adventurer, and they got it.

They also got a lot more than they expected. Lucas, going through a divorce at the time, figures he was in a bad mood and that led to the dark tone of this film. It got a PG rating, but such a stink was raised over its horrific scenes, like a beating heart in a man's hand and human sacrifice, that Spielberg went to Jack Valenti, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, and asked for a rating between PG and R. Valenti produced, and the PG-13 rating was born.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has its detractors, Spielberg being one of them. He felt they went too far with this one and the only good thing he got out of it was Kate Capshaw. You can decide if he's right. I don't remember my reactions to the film when it first ran in 1984, except for wishing Willie would STFU, or die, whichever worked for me. But it is definitely one of the harshest PG movies out there.