Movie Ratings; Need to Be Reframed?
Movies Change and So Do We
By Vardaan Chopra
Mediums of entertainment are drastically changing every day. Among these outlets, movies are advancing at record speed. Now, superior technology is giving the movie industry the leg-up in the race of electronic supremacy. The rating systems for movies are causing movies to be presented to the wrong audience.
Movies may not seem like an influential part of media and life, but they impact us just as much as anything. Fredric Wertham, a scientist and psychiatrist, states his opinion about movie experiences,”Through TV and moving pictures a child may see more violence in thirty minutes than the average adult experiences in a lifetime.” What he means here is that in this day and age, it is simple for a child to experience something not many people go through generally. I believe movie ratings need to be more strict and more detailed when examining the criteria for a movie. Dr. Wertham continues, “Children learn to take pride in force and violence and to feel ashamed of ordinary sympathy. They are encouraged to forget that people have feelings.” Movies are influencing us and young children to have un-human feelings. There must be a control over what is exposed to kids and what is not.
Everything that we can learn from is shown to us in a small 1 to 3 hour observation. Morals, values, ethics; we learn about life in a short amount of time. Ratings systems are put in place to filter the inappropriate and mature. Kids are not supposed to view things in a PG or PG-13 film, that should be in an R rated movie. There are many sexual themes in a movie aimed towards teenagers and sometimes, even younger. “Two studies that examined the rise of various forms of violence in PG-13 movies made headlines in November and December. The first, conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University, Amsterdam's VU University and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, found that gun violence in the most popular PG-13 films had tripled during the last three decades, even exceeding the levels found their R-rated counterparts,”(Sneed). These statistics show us that PG-13 movies are entering another level. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is getting more and more lenient as time goes on. These studies prove the fact that movie ratings are becoming more hypocritical, as well. Nothing inappropriate shown in a movie advertised to adults, should be included in a film made for teens and children.
I cannot say that I know the absolute solution to rid bad movie ratings placed on films. What I do know is that it is extremely difficult to change a whole industry made around ratings. To get around this technicality and problem, there is an easy and seamless way to personally fix this situation. This solution is research. Before entering a movie theater, research about the film. Comprehend if the movie is involving an inappropriate themes, and compensate for that. By using the internet, people by the bunches can save themselves a lot of time.
Works Cited
Cline, Victor B. "How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior? - Ensign Oct. 1972 - Ensign." How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior? - Ensign Oct. 1972 - Ensign. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Sneed, Tierney. "Don't Expect Any Major Changes to the MPAA Ratings System in 2014." N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.