Julie Walker

Interesting note, the edited R version of A Clockwork Orange that was released only had two scenes featuring replacement footage and a minor cut. And while viewing that version of the film, it was pretty hard to tell anything was different except for one cut away during the treatment scene. The rest of the film before and after is the same, which is quite surprising. Since I've heard various reports on exactly what was cut to get an R rating at the time. But it turns out, the difference isn't huge at all.

And for those wondering. All the current home video releases of the film despite the R rating on the package are the uncut X rated version, and that version was not resubmitted to the MPAA. The only way to see the true edited R version of the film is the early Warner vhs and laserdisc releases that had the large green border on the cases.

Here is a photo of the laserdisc version. I found the VHS version for $1 last year, so copies do exist but can be tough to locate. But it's kind of cool finding a rare print of the film. However the difference is not huge and unless you were doing a side by side comparison, I doubt the difference would really be obvious.


http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/38026/...nge-%281971%29

And speaking of comparing the two versions side by side, I just did a search and found this link. Which has a video link that does show both versions playing together. Naturally the video itself is not safe for work, so view it at your own risk.

http://www.angelfire.com/film/kubrick4/

Osiris3657

I think of Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales". It's rated PG, but the rape scene is graphic (you see T&A).

That and the Swedish film "Thriller: A Cruel Picture" (One of QT's inspirations for Kill Bill). It never got an MPAA rating, but holy shit was I surprised when you see anal penetration and the dude blowing a load on her back. Would have been awkward if my roommate had walked in (was watching it in the living room, again, not expecting it).

Artman

The only one that came to mind for me. The severed fingers and shooting definitely caught me by surprise.

I generally think most film's (final) ratings are about right.

Rypro 525

the severed fingers bit is in the original too (well you don't see the aftermath, but they do chop off his fingers)

rw2516

And it's rated G. I believe originally a G was given as long as a film didn't variate from conventional content. True Grit could have been released in 1959 and the finger chopping wouldn't have been a big deal. The Planet Of The Apes films didn't variate from what had been conventionally accepted content. Mature subject matter had been dealt with since the 50s. What got the ratings ball rolling was sexual innuendo and "tease" nudity that became prevalant by the mid-sixties. Often "adult entertainment" would appear on the newspaper ads prior to the ratings system as far back as Thunderball.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the climax of Bonnie and Clyde. Originally unrated it was released with an R in a double feature with Bullitt which also received an R although unrated when first released.
Originally the X rating didn't carry a stigma and was not that big a deal. If you got an X, you got an X. The movie wasn't made with kids in mind so need to recut. It wasn't until adult movies and theaters adopted the XXX that the stigma was attached and mainstream theaters wouldn't carry them, which is what started the trend of avoiding an X, not to increase audience by adding those under 17, but just to get them in the theater. Throughout the 70s filmakers would intentionally shoot for an R because it increased box office.
Sometimes theaters would change the ratings. From personal experience Dracula Has Risen From The Grave(GP) and the Matt Helm movie The Wrecking Crew(M) were both changed to R by a local theater. The poster had an R rating sticker attached over the one printed on the poster. The newspaper ads had the R also.
In the case of something like Clockwork Orange. Theaters which were happy to show it when first released most likely refused to show it later with an X rating so it had to be edited just to get it re-released. Probably why Midnight Cowboy is one of the few Oscar winners that didn't get re-released(at the time) because by then theater owners wouldn't screen an X.
The flip side of the coin. The G rating also carried a stigma. G=boring. Nobody wanted to go to the theater to see "The Waltons". I'm willing to bet an X rated major motion picture would have grossed more than a G rated one in the late 60s/early 70s. Except for Disney.

Gunde

Chloe Sevigny's bush isn't nudity?

auto

Not after she blew a dude on film. It's damn near tame!

Yeti4623

The whole only "1 or 2 f words" in a PG-13 movie is ridiculous. Some movies get away with 3 or more, like As Good As It Gets and Hero (1992).

sb5

I just re-watched the Coen Bros. "The Man Who Wasn't There" and the R rating seems ridiculous - the content advisory lists "a scene of violence" as its sole issue. The "violent scene" doesn't really seem worth that rating - a character gets stabbed (you see some blood, but you don't see the wound), falls down, and a pool of (B&W) blood grows under him.

"Brick" also has a R rating that seems unjust - I think it was given because the titular object is heroin (though you never see anyone use), and due to a character getting shot (though it was bloodless and shot from a distance and in the the shadows).

Matthew Chmiel

What's interesting to note is the amount of violence that now gets passed with a PG-13. As someone who saw numerous rough cuts of Serenity months prior to its release, things that weren't included in the PG-13 final edit due to the MPAA included shots like:

• Scenes where people were shot, a "smoke cloud" of blood would follow. Most of these were either digitally erased or color corrected to look more brown than red.
• When the Operative would kill individuals with his sword, there would be trails of blood left on his sword. Most of the blood was digitally erased.
• During the final climax, there was a shot where you could clearly see The Operative stab Mal through the chest with his sword; as in you saw the sword sticking out of Mal's back.

Now, in 2011, we have a film like Captain America: The First Avenger where the PG-13 edit include:

• People are shot point blank in the head with "smoke clouds" of red shown as aftermath.
• A Nazi is thrown right into the propeller of a biplane with blood and guts shooting everywhere.

Both instances shocked me that those two instances were in a PG-13.

I think most films, if re-rated, would probably receive "tamer" ratings than received before. I think the "Unrated" (i.e. NC-17) edits of films like American Pie would receive an R with no questions asked based upon the precedent that has been set by films now. On the same hand, there would be films that would easily get a harsher rating. I don't think Jaws would get a PG, but a hard PG-13. I would've said R, but the violence indicated in more recent PG-13 fare has set a standard.

... and remember, as long as the violence is not caused by humans, you can get away with as much graphic violence and gore as you want without receiving an NC-17. Whereas the first Final Destination originally received an NC-17 (thanks Columbine!), the sequels have all passed with an R with no edits involved and the level of gore being pushed to a higher standard in each one.

Solid Snake

Again this brings my thinking that they should get people educated in film to rate films instead of the soccer mom, regular working joe, etc to do it.

The red clouds have been around for a while, but yeah the Hydra guy going trough the propellar surprised me. Maybe cuz it's a CG kill it's ok?

Julie Walker

Both of these were cut to get a PG-13, and I still think they should have gotten R ratings in their theatrical versions. A few seconds of cuts didn't do anything to lessen the intense and extremely violent tone and scenes in the films. So I'm curious exactly how explicit and or 'intense' Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is to be R rated over PG-13?

Taken (2008)
Limitless (2011)

Matthew Chmiel

Taken is PG-13 as most of the violence is bloodless, making it completely acceptable.

Rypro 525

Also True Grit has this famous line
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clckworang

She doesn't show her bush in Kids. She doesn't show her chest, either. I think you do get a quick butt shot, though.

AnonomusBob15

You can see it when Casper is raping her. It's obscured slightly, but it's there.

inri222

This is true.
The zoom button is your best friend.

iggystar

Yeah, it wasn't NC-17 graphic, but the entire sequence was just harrowing!

clckworang

Well, despite an obscured view of a vagina that benefits from the use of the zoom button, I think Kids deserved an R rating.

foofighters7

Through the years I've seen several that didn't deserve the R rating and several I thought could have been R.

'Conspiracy Theory' was R but was in no way deserving of it.
I feel the same for 'The Ghost and The Darkness'.

'There Will Be Blood' was a movie where I left thinking, "why was that rated R again?"

There have been plenty of PG-13 Comedies that I think were more deserving of an R rating than some dramas that were R.

whoopdido

I'm guessing one very short scene in The Ghost and the Darkness earned its R rating.



Awesome movie though. One of my favorites actually.

sracer

AIRPLANE! had a PG rating even though a woman runs topless across the screen and the entire film is one big sexual innuendo/double entendre.

iggystar

LOL, I'd forgotten about that! It was before the advent of PG-13, but it could have easily gotten an R back then.

I agree about True Grit. That's why, as a parent, you have to take into account your child and their individual level of maturity, i.e. severed fingers would have freaked my 13-year old out. Being a Cohen Bros. movie, I wasn't shocked at the level of violence though. You have to play it by ear.

sracer

GYMKATA had an R rating but I don't see anything in the film that would warrant it.

Yeti4623

I don't know, that village of the Crazies sequence was kind of bloody