Here’s a really late film review. Kirby Dick’s This Film Is Not Yet Rated was sort of released in early 2006. I was dying to see it the second I heard about it, but due to its NC-17 rating that wasn’t really a possibility outside of ponying up money I didn’t have to go to the Sundance Film Festival.
It’s pretty undisputed that if your movie carries an NC-17 rating it will not be shown at any major theater in the country and it will probably be impossible to find at nearly half of your DVD outlets. That’s a shame because if you are in any way seriously interested in movies or the movie business, Dick’s movie is without a doubt essential viewing.
Bill O’Reilly is constantly talking about the culture wars, and on that I agree with him. The people on Bill’s side think that the side I’m on is out to essentially destroy all that is good as we know it, which is funny because that’s exactly how I feel about them.
The problem with censorship is that it almost always seems that there is no voice for the people who are not offended, leaving us at the mercy of some of the most creepy, easily offended nimrods America has to offer. You know, the ones who get arrested in Minneapolis bathrooms. One organization in America, the Parents Television Council, is actually reputed to be responsible for 99% of all FCC television complaints!
A lot of people look at the differences between now and the days of Lenny Bruce and think that censorship doesn’t exist and what there is of it isn’t damaging, since in their opinion we’ve actually gone way too far in the other direction. Personally, it’s not an issue I take lightly. I see how easy it is for kids to access pornography these days. I’d agree 100% that kids today watch too much vile crap than they should. I once saw a kid on an el train who couldn’t have been 12 singing rap lyrics about raping a woman, which made me fear for his and my own very existence. Then again, I’ve also seen suburban parents renting Terminator 2 for their 8-year-old.
Article comments
1 - Ty
This was a neat film, it's just a shame that the film spent too much time on the lesbian PI instead of on the material. It was kind of a distraction.
2 - Brent
Just a couple of facts from this review that desperately need correcting. The MPAA was not founded by Jack Valenti, it was created as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America. The name was changed to the present one in 1945. As for Jack Valenti, he would be terribly insulted to have been accused of coming straight from the Nixon administration. He was a lifelong Democrat who worked for Lyndon Johnson and was so loyal it was said that if Johnson dropped the H-bomb Valenti would call it an "urban renewal project."
3 - Brad Laidman
Brent's comments are corrent - I meant to say he created the rating system not the MPAA and he did work for Johnson not Nixon.