calhoun07

So yesterday, at work, I decided to put in a copy of Barbarella to play in the in store blue ray player. Granted, the copy wasn't blue ray and not exactly a great demo copy choice, but from time to time we've chosen PG movies to put in that were regular DVD to show how well the up conversion is handled. And because we can only put in PG movies. People (other workers) will whine if I put in a PG-13 movie like Indiana Jones or Iron Man.

I have never seen Barbarella before and those of you who have can imagine my horror when I looked up at the TV screen a few minutes in while customers are walking around in the store and by the TV. Jane Fonda is floating around stark naked! NOTHING is being left to the imagination! I immediately locate the remote and stop it!

Dude, PG movies these days (like Narnia) can't even show blood, let alone bare breasted women.

How did society devolve from Barbarella being released with a PG rating to people getting all up in arms over Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction? It seems backwards in some way to me.

And how did that movie get by with a PG rating? Even in the late 60's, the ratings were that lax??

And can I just put in Iron Man instead?

wendersfan

When I was a kid (pre-teen) in the early '70s I used to see lots of boobies in the theater at PG movies. The collapse of the studio system loosened things up a lot (for a while) in many areas. The movies were better then, too.

Rockmjd23

Logan's Run had full frontal and was PG

NoirFan

Hitchcock's Psycho, ridiculously enough, now has an R rating.

emachine12

Barberella was made before the rating system we know and hate. The DVD is the original full length theatrical version and when it was released to theaters, it received a Mature certificate.

When it was being prepared for new theatrical releases, Barberella was altered to remove the nudity and strong sexual overtones and this version was given the PG rating.

The DVD was intended to have that altered PG version but instead got the original Mature uncut version instead. That's why the art lists it as PG...Paramount never resubmitted the uncut film for a new rating.

Josh-da-man

The ratings system has become much more restrictive in recent years than it was in the early days.

"Planet of the Apes" had a "G" rating despite showing naked ass and people being shot in the neck. In today's ratings, that would probably get a "PG-13" minimum.

It also wasn't uncommon for early PG-13 movies to show some nudity... "European Vacation" had a couple of shots of female breasts and "The Woman in Red" even showed lower frontal female nudity.

These days, "G" ratings are generally reserved for animated movies. "PG" has become the new "G" (some of the things that "PG" movies got away with in the 70s would probably warrant an "R" today).

Matthew Chmiel

The general American public became a bunch of pussies.

On an ironic note, it's to note that the bar for what can be included within an R-rated film has raised whereas other ratings have been more restrictive.

TheySentYou

-Walkabout was rated PG... and it had aborigine nudity and kind of a disturbing sequence at the beginning involving target practice at children.

-Badlands is about a cross-country killing spree. it was PG.

Zen Peckinpah

On a related note, the PG-13 was a rating that was heavily emasculated in the 90's and became too tame for its films, especially when fare like Red Dawn and The Legend of Billie Jean got the rating. I'd say the year it became commercial, for lack of a better word, arguably, was '89, when Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Licence to Kill all had the rating. The latter in particular was basically a James Bond movie under the guise of a Die Hard or Lethal Weapon movie, loaded with mean, dirty R-rated violence (the dude's head exploding, death by cocaine grinder, shark attack) and loads of adult content.

Amazingly, this year the rating got some of its glory back since The Dark Knight was probably the most envelope-pushing movie with the rating since the 80's, despite its lack of blood it's a bleak, violent, and chaotic picture which has the same rating as Transformers.

But then the PG rating...looking at my movie collection I can spot numerous films that would have gotten an R (not even a PG-13) today: The Getaway, Jaws, Over the Edge, The Conversation, Airplane!, hell even Annie Hall would probably end up with an R.

wendersfan

The Getaway was PG?

Zen Peckinpah

Yup. A collective collaboration of Peckinpah, McQueen, and Walter Hill with the same rating as Alvin and the Chipmunks.

PopcornTreeCt

Oh, it wasn't just aborigine nudity.

Jray

I caught the original Bad News Bears on TCM yesterday. First time I've seen that movie in probably 25 years at least. I was shocked afterwards to find out that it was rated PG when I looked it up on IMDB. There's no way in hell they could get away with a PG for that movie nowadays. Not just the kids swearing (by itself somewhat shocking), but the fact that they're using "hardcore" (for lack of a better word) racial slurs and such. Not to mention Matthau drinking like a fish...

tylergfoster

Toplessness in Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel as well, which both have PG ratings.

The best thing, however, wasn't the nudity (I love nudity, but...), it was the intensity and tone of some of the films that got PGs in the late 80's, movies that were intended for kids and/or families, like Gremlins, The Goonies and Beetlejuice, among others. I still think these are awesome and great for kids around 10 or 11, because kids love to see something they think is too intense or hard-edged than they should be seeing.

Swamp Thing was a case of Barbarella-like DVD goof-ups, but MGM apparently fixed its mistake (at least partially) and the recalled version fetches a lot online. I saw the disc had made its way into a triple feature and wondered if by some miracle they'd made the same mistake, but no, it seems to be the re-pressed version.

My Other Self

There were only extremes back then. I mean PG or R. Other than some titties here and there, most films back in the late 70s/early 80s only garnished a PG.

I remember when I was younger, looking on the back of a Ghostbusters VHS box (this was in the mid 90s) with a new rating of PG-13. I was surprised.

rw2516

Actually this is a case of U.S. vs European cut of the movie. The nudity was never in the U.S. cut of the movie, not even the original theatrical release. MGM had to pull the DVD for legal reasons, they did not have the rights to release the European version. It's available in R2.

I was 10 in 1968 when ratings first came about. I didn't know it at the time but some of our local threaters re-rated the movies to what they felt it should be. I was scared to ask my folks to take me to an R rated movie(first one I saw was Godfather at the drive-in) and was super bummed that both Dracula Has Risen From The Grave and the Matt Helm movie The Wrecking crew both had R ratings in the newspapers. There are movie posters from late 60s and 70s where the rating on the poster had a sticker with different rating stuck over the printed MPAA one or the rating has been blacked out with magic marker.

redcon1

True Grit was actually rated G when it came out.
Maybe just because it was a John Wayne film, it was passed off as a family-friendly movie.

bluetoast

There's also the whole Temple of Doom being the catalyst for the PG-13 rating, etc.

Hokeyboy

THIS^3.

"Concerned Mothers" have neutered an entire generation.

NoirFan

As was The Green Berets.

Travis McClain

Basically, you can trace this to the rampant rise of political influence of the religious right. How else do you explain 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns each having the same rating as 1995's Batman Forever and, God help us, 1997's Batman & Robin? You can see a PG-13 darkness in the first two (especially Returns), and the last one is nothing more than a toy commercial. There's a socio-political rant to be had by someone about how this happened, and while normally I'd oblige, I think I'm all socio-political'd out right now.

OldBoy

so this current "Barberella" dvd is in stores now and i can readily get it?? it isn't oop or anything...

tylergfoster

Yes, it should be readily available, if not in a B&M store (I can't imagine demand for Barbarella is rampant) online.

Since Robert Rodriguez may or may not be remaking it, I might hurry, though. They could reissue it, which seems like reason to wait, but who knows if it will contain the longer cut or not.

klemsaba

I don't think Jaws would get an 'R' rating. PG-13 yes. When deciding if kids should watch older movies it does take some research to decide if 70's/80's PG is really appropriate.

I remember we went to see Airplane 2 with my parents and grandparents. Well as you can imagine, we ended up leaving... grandma was upset at the 'content'. We ended up watching it when it came out on video.

heebiejeebie

The Beastmaster is another surprising PG movie. Lots of Tanya Roberts nudity.