This should be the last post of this blog, and since it is a class assignment and my professor tells us what to do, he has told us that this post can be the paper that we wrote on this topic.
So this is the link to my paper. Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Separation of Religion and Morals?
While I haven't looked at the ratings and the system from an unbiased side-line point of view, I have tried to provide good factual and objective evidence for what I'm saying. Not totally objective, I know, but in my opinion close.
But as the title might suggest, I am going to shift gears a little bit and address the problem with the ratings from a religious standpoint, as I consider myself a religious person, and one with an opinion. Or why even write about this topic?
Like I stated in my first post, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (many would call me a Mormon), and am a strong follower of the faith. My belief (key word here being "my," meaning that I am not voicing the opinion of each and every member of my church) is that movies that are rated R are strictly off-limits. For some people this poses a problem, as they see many of the movies that receive this rating as very informational, educational and historically accurate. That's actually probably true, especially for movies like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, etc., or so I've heard.
These movies may be just the most informational and educational movies ever created, but for people with certain standards, it's hard to play referee for every single movie and decide if he or she should lower a standard "just this once" or "just cause it only has one bad scene." The truth is, it's practically impossible to do that, so people with these kinds of standards and values end up simply avoiding these movies altogether.
I think that the ratings should be revised for these reasons of standards. If the ratings were based specifically on the content of the movie, it would be much easier to say whether or not it would be worth seeing. That's what I think, and if this doesn't happen I think it will contribute to greater separation between religion and morals (random side note to end off with).
But as the title might suggest, I am going to shift gears a little bit and address the problem with the ratings from a religious standpoint, as I consider myself a religious person, and one with an opinion. Or why even write about this topic?
Like I stated in my first post, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (many would call me a Mormon), and am a strong follower of the faith. My belief (key word here being "my," meaning that I am not voicing the opinion of each and every member of my church) is that movies that are rated R are strictly off-limits. For some people this poses a problem, as they see many of the movies that receive this rating as very informational, educational and historically accurate. That's actually probably true, especially for movies like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, etc., or so I've heard.
These movies may be just the most informational and educational movies ever created, but for people with certain standards, it's hard to play referee for every single movie and decide if he or she should lower a standard "just this once" or "just cause it only has one bad scene." The truth is, it's practically impossible to do that, so people with these kinds of standards and values end up simply avoiding these movies altogether.
I think that the ratings should be revised for these reasons of standards. If the ratings were based specifically on the content of the movie, it would be much easier to say whether or not it would be worth seeing. That's what I think, and if this doesn't happen I think it will contribute to greater separation between religion and morals (random side note to end off with).
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Filmmakers
In trying to decide why some movies seem to be so misrated, I decided that it comes down to two things. The ratings themselves, as I have talked about, and also the choices of the filmmakers.
Filmmakers have their own agendas, and money is one of them. They want to make money, and they want their movies to be popular. I'm not criticizing them, because that's their job and any one of us in our job is trying to make money. But the thing is, these filmmakers are trying to tweak their movies so that they can attain the rating that they want.
For example, if I produce a movie and want it to have a PG-13 rating (I use this because the line between PG-13 and R is so disputed) but it comes back with an R rating, I'm not going to release it as R. I'll take it back to the drawing board, take out a second or two of film and then re-submit it.
That's really very hypothetical and an explanation that just barely scratches the surface, but that's how I see the methods that the filmmakers use to revise their movies.
Filmmakers have their own agendas, and money is one of them. They want to make money, and they want their movies to be popular. I'm not criticizing them, because that's their job and any one of us in our job is trying to make money. But the thing is, these filmmakers are trying to tweak their movies so that they can attain the rating that they want.
For example, if I produce a movie and want it to have a PG-13 rating (I use this because the line between PG-13 and R is so disputed) but it comes back with an R rating, I'm not going to release it as R. I'll take it back to the drawing board, take out a second or two of film and then re-submit it.
That's really very hypothetical and an explanation that just barely scratches the surface, but that's how I see the methods that the filmmakers use to revise their movies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)