Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

For anyone that has ever wanted to know more about the film rating system this is for you. OK, a lot of you probably don’t care about the film rating system but I am a film geek and I do. Quite frankly, if you care about free speech you should too.

All documentaries have their slant on things so you have to take the info in them with a grain of salt but director Kirby Dick does provide a lot of compelling evidence in this film that would lead you to believe that the film rating system is pretty corrupt.

Here are some of the interesting bits:

1. Raters tend to let studio films slide through with R ratings while they slap independents with NC-17s for the same content (which basically means no one will get to see their film).

2. Raters will not tell filmmakers what they need to cut to get the rating they need/want under the guise that they aren’t censors but “just raters.” However, it seems they do help you when you are with a studio and they don’t if you are independent.

3. If you appeal your rating you are brought before a group of folks that wear numbers so you don’t know who they are or where they are from and you aren’t allowed to plead your case.

There are many more interesting points brought up in this documentary (like violence is much more accepted by raters than sex) but the points above all lead to the conclusion that studios, who back the MPAA, get preferential treatment over independents thus creating an inequality in the free speech arena. The raters are also acting as censors in a roundabout way by rating films they don’t think folks should see NC-17 (a lot of theaters wont carry NC-17 films meaning most people won’t see the film).

These raters are essentially the moral compass of America and (get this) the MPAA won’t even tell you, or anyone, who they are. In an open and transparent society like ours it seems crazy that the MPAA won’t tell you who gives films their ratings and essentially decides what you have easy access to watch.

Check out this movie if you have a chance. It may sound stupid to care about film ratings at first but I think you’ll see things differently after watching This Film is Not Yet Rated.