You focus on R vs. NC-17 in the film. Isn’t the difference between PG-13 and R just as sketchy?
“I do know that Terri Webb, who is this researcher associated with UCLA, did this study on violence - how films are rated for violence. She found out that there’s really no consistency whatsoever. Some R rated films have less violence in than some PG rated films. It’s just all over the map and the reason is there [are] no written standards. There [are] no experts on the board. There’s no media experts or child psychology experts.
It’s almost like an impressionistic response. I think part of it could be they just maybe saw it at a different time of day. Who knows? It could be that perhaps there was a hearing in Congress over violence and they decided that perhaps they should rate something more restrictively. It could be… We know that if there are stars associated with a film that, especially in the appeals process, they can come in and swing a rating. It’s not really a professionally developed system. It’s a system that’s set up to benefit the studios. They have a sort of fudge factor that they can work with.”
Kirby continued, “I tended to focus more on the NC-17. …Personally, I would prefer a rating system where there weren’t these restrictions. I’m all for information getting out. I think that an extensive description of what’s in a film in terms of sex, violence, drug use, whatever, theme, anything so that people and parents can make a decision, I think that’s important. I think that the idea that 10 anonymous parents in Los Angeles make the decision for all the parents and all the people in the country is pretty absurd.”
At what point did they start using the descriptive blurbs?
“I think they did it 10 or 15 years ago, and they were dragged kicking and screaming into that. That was something Jack [Valenti] did not want and they were just sort of compelled to do it.”
Why wouldn’t Valenti want that?
“He wants the less information coming out of this the better. It’s easier for them to work with it. And by the way [with] these too, it’s not like they look at a film and they go, ‘Okay, let’s do an analysis and develop a descriptor that’s appropriate.’ They just look at the film in a room, as far as I know, they just all kind of come up with it together. It’s sort of committee.”
They count profanities. Why not sex and violence?
“Well, they count the thrusts. We know that too. I still heard that. Afterwards I’ve talked to filmmakers, ‘Yep, they were counting the thrusts.’ They have certain rules. As far as we know, the number of thrusts is a rule. Whether the word f*&k is used in a sexual context will put it into an R category. Generally, more than one f*&k in a nonsexual context puts it into an R category, although a few films have got through on that one. But they count the f*&ks and they count thrusts. There’s a lot more to analyzing a film and getting information about it than just that.”
Isn’t it in their interest to help NC-17 films?
“Actually, just the opposite. See, NC-17 films, these are films that are oftentimes about adult sexuality. They probably tend to be art films, even if they’re studio films. It’s not aiming at what their target audience is, which is usually adolescents, right? So by requiring their filmmakers to make an R rated film or less, they’re keeping their filmmakers corralled towards the more mass market kind of appeal films they want to make - even though the filmmakers might want to make more quality films.
The ratings system actually corrals the filmmakers as well, in the way that the studios want them to. In general, the studios I don’t think care whether there’s a ratings system or not, but if there is one they want to control it because they want to make sure that their films get out with less restrictive ratings into a larger market place. The kind of films they make are films that are targeted toward adolescents and generally have more violence in [them]. Those films get through with less restrictive ratings. Their competition’s films, which is foreign films and independent films, tend to make films with more adult sexuality. They get the more restrictive rating, so it’s a sweet system for them.”
