What are my favorite movies? Well, they are Robocop, Pan’s Labyrinth, Leon: the Professional, and Let The Right One In. What do these movies all have in common (besides being awesome)? They are all rated “R”. Now, in the Mormon community, that is a pretty controversial subject (if I do say so myself).
I don’t know how it started, but there is a fairly strong belief that R-rated movies should be avoided. I have heard quite a few people say: That looks good, too bad it’s rated R. However, in my whole life as as a member of the LDS Church, never have I heard a person in a high position of the church counsel us against R-rated films. But, what they do say is to avoid movies that are “vulgar, immoral, inappropriate, suggestive, or pornographic in any way.” And that will be different from person to person.
Movie ratings are assigned by the MPAA, which is a group of people. Who are these people? I don’t know. But, what I do know is that their ratings are subjective and are not consistent. I read about how some movies got a specific rating but were later changed because of an appeal by the filmmakers (even though no content was changed).
I’m not saying that we should go and watch every movie made, regardless of rating. But what I am saying is not to let some random group of people decide what you watch. You look at the content and decide for yourself whether you should watch it or not. There are a lot of good R-rated movies. Example: I watched The Road about a year ago and the whole time I was watching it, I was thinking about how grateful I was for the plan of salvation.
Movie ratings are assigned by the MPAA, which is a group of people. Who are these people? I don’t know. But, what I do know is that their ratings are subjective and are not consistent. I read about how some movies got a specific rating but were later changed because of an appeal by the filmmakers (even though no content was changed).
I’m not saying that we should go and watch every movie made, regardless of rating. But what I am saying is not to let some random group of people decide what you watch. You look at the content and decide for yourself whether you should watch it or not. There are a lot of good R-rated movies. Example: I watched The Road about a year ago and the whole time I was watching it, I was thinking about how grateful I was for the plan of salvation.
I was always under the impression that watching R rated movies was forbidden. I took my first film classes my senior year of high school and we had to watch some R rated movies. I expected them to be awful pornographic monstrosities, but I soon saw that they were much like PG-13 movies, and often indistinguishable from them. I saw how some R rated movies have better messages and themes than some PG-13 movies, and yet for a simple asinine rating they were "forbidden". I soon learned that this is not how I, personally, would base my selections.
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