Evan Rachel Wood blasts MPAA

"After seeing the new cut of ‘Charlie Countryman,’ I would like to share my disappointment with the MPAA, who thought it was necessary to censor a woman’s sexuality once again. The scene where the two main characters make 'love' was altered because someone felt that seeing a man give a woman oral sex made people 'uncomfortable,' but the scenes in which people are murdered by having their heads blown off remained intact and unaltered.

"This is a symptom of a society that wants to shame women and put them down for enjoying sex, especially when (gasp) the man isn't getting off as well! It’s hard for me to believe that had the roles been reversed it still would have been cut or had the female character been raped it would have been cut. It’s time for people to grow up. Accept that women are sexual beings. Accept that some men like pleasuring women. Accept that women don't have to just be [used] and say thank you. We are allowed and entitled to enjoy ourselves. It’s time we put our foot down. Thanks for listening."

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-78357763/

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Some of the other situations like this from the last couple of years:

Gosling comments, "You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario, which is both complicit and complex. It's misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman's sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film."

http://movieline.com/2010/11/18/ryan-gosling-tees-off-on-misogynistic-mpaa-over-blue-valentine-rating/


"I had a very tame and mild love scene with Jon Hamm. It was like heavy breathing and making out. It was hardly a sex scene... I think that it's great for this young girl to actually take control of her own sexuality. Well, the MPAA doesn't like that. They don't think a girl should ever be in control of her own sexuality because they're from the Stone Age. I don't know what the f**k is going on and I will openly criticize it, happily. So essentially, they got Zack to edit the scene and make it look less like she's into it. And Zack said he edited it down to the point where it looked like he was taking advantage of her. That's the only way he could get a PG-13 (rating) and he said, 'I don't want to send that message.' So they cut the scene!"

http://scottalanmendelson.blogspot.com/2011/03/mpaa-thinks-child-rape-is-more.html

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Wow. I have to admit I've never paid much attention to Ryan Gosling off screen (he will always be Young Hercules to me, lol), but he's far more eloquent than I imagined him to be.

The MPAA really needs to chill on the profanity issue. I remember being surprised that My Week with Marilyn was rated "R." There's nothing in that film to warrant a mature rating. I'm guessing the couple "Fvcks" and that one naked bum shot are to blame, but, really, a PG-13 rating would've sufficed. They have really gotten stricter. I watched A League of Their Own last month for the first time in forever and that movie had Tom Hanks cussing left and right -- and it was rated PG!

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Siskel and Ebert had an excellent rant about the ratings system. It is in their review of Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer (sadly cannot find it YouTube). Ebert was always a proponent of changing the ratings system to de-stigmatize movies rated primarily for adults and loathed both the PG-13 and R rating, often pointing to the hypocrisy and arbitrary aspects to the ratings system.

Martin Scorsese,known for his violent films, had to cut scenes from his latest film because of nudity. How graphic was the nudity in this? Scorsese is a smart guy. If it were that bad he would have had to known when shooting that these scenes that were cut would not make it into the final cut.So, films of his like THE DEPARTED and GOODFELLA'S are fine with the MPAA as long as the nudity is minimal.Anyone else see the irony?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wolf-wall-street-avoids-nc-660653

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Updated On: 11/30/13 at 02:29 AM

Stage Manager,

There was, at one point, a time where there wasn't any PG-13 rating. And, "A League of Their Own" came out during that time. In fact, there were several films that were rated (and stayed rated) PG that most likely shouldn't be. Not that I am one for censorship, but an example would be the movie Big. I think that if it were released today as a new film, it would be PG-13.

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Right--I thought that was pretty well known. And I kinda get that (but maybe because I was a five year old traumatized by Temple of Doom.) I guess this is not worth arguing, but, excepting the time when we rented the Monster Squad and our parents at a dinner party had rented Hellraiser, and they didn't seem to realize we were watching the wrong movie until my twin sister started screaming, most parents DO pay attention to ratings, and if they don't, then they won't pay attention to any rating.

G went a long, long way in the sixties. The Monkees' HEAD was rated G and featured the infamous footage of South Vietnamese troops shooting a Vietcong fighter in Cholon in the head. (And a very young Teri Garr holding a mildly bleeding finger to Davy Jones and instructing simply, "Suck out the poison before it reaches my heart." But I digress...)

If memory serves, POLTERGEIST was one of the movies that got some viewers up in arms about the PG rating, along with GREMLINS and, the movie that pushed it all over the edge, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.

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Updated On: 11/30/13 at 11:43 AM

"You know what's wrong with America? If I lovingly tongue a woman's nipple in a movie, it gets an "NC-17" rating, if I chop it off with a machete, it's an "R". That's what's wrong with America, man...."--Dennis Hopper