This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

Kirby Dick's exposé about the American movie ratings board.

Director:

Kirby Dick

Writers:

Kirby Dick, Eddie Schmidt,

Stars:

Kimberly Peirce, Kirby Dick, Darren Aronofsky

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kimberly Peirce	...	Herself - Director of 'Boys Don't Cry'
Jon Lewis	...	Himself - Author of 'Hollywood v. Hardcore'
David Ansen	...	Himself - Film Critic at 'Newsweek'
Martin Garbus	...	Himself - First Amendment Attorney and Filmmakers Representative at Appeals
Wayne Kramer	...	Himself - Director of 'The Cooler'
Paul Dergarabedian	...	Himself - Box Office Analyst
Kevin Smith	...	Himself - Director of 'Clerks' and 'Jersey Girl'
John Waters	...	Himself - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'
Matt Stone	...	Himself - Producer of 'South Park' and 'Team America'
Richard Heffner	...	Himself - Former Rating Board Chairman
Bingham Ray	...	Himself - Co-Founder of October Films
Joel Federman	...	Himself - Author of 'Media Ratings'
Kirby Dick	...	Himself - Filmmaker and Interviewer
Jay Rosenzweig	...	Himself - Private Investigator (as Jay)
Paul Huebl	...	Himself - Private Investigator (as Paul)

Storyline

In a rare and refreshing reversal of roles, filmmakers put the powerful Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA for short) under the microscope for inspection in Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick's incisive look at stateside cinema's most notorious non-censoring censors. Compelled by the staggering amount of power that the MPAA ratings board wields, the filmmaker seeks out the true identities of the anonymous elite who control what films make it to the multiplex. He even goes so far as to hire a private investigator to stake out MPAA headquarters and expose Hollywood's best-kept secret. Along the way, Dick speaks with numerous filmmakers whose careers have been affected by the seemingly random and sexual-content obsessed judgments of the MPAA, including John Waters, Mary Harron, 'Darren Aranofsky' , Wayne Kramer, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, and Atom Egoyan.

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Plot Keywords:

mpaa | filmmakers | rating | exposé | hollywood | 

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Taglines:

censorship, uncensored.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated NC-17 for some graphic sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Afti i tainia einai akatallili

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$37,785 (USA) (1 September 2006)

Gross:

$302,179 (USA) (15 December 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Independent Film Channel (IFC), Netflix, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Cuesta, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Terilyn A. Shropshire were also interviewed for this film. Their footage is featured as supplemental material on the DVD.

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Quotes

David L. Robb: The military and the film studios have colluded for more than 50 years. Anytime filmmakers want military assets - ships or tanks or planes - they have to give the Pentagon five copies of their script. And, if there's anything in the script that's negative, the Pentagon wants them to take it out. And so they negotiate, and take out any war crimes or foul language, or drinking. Anything that would make the military look bad. And than, after the agreement is made, the military sends a minder onto ...

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Crazy Credits

At the end credits a count of what the film shows: FUCKS(OR DERIVATIONS OF): 20 MOTHERFUCKERS: 3 HUMPS: 220 NIPPLES: 10 INTERCOURSE WITH PIE: 1 CARTOONS/PUPPETS IN SEXUAL POSITIONS: 15 SPLOSHING: 1 FELCHING: 0

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Connections

References Lilo & Stitch (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Don't Cry"
Written and Performed by Michael S. Patterson (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Absynthe Zelery Music (ASCAP)

User Reviews

Necessary viewing

Since the Hays Code, filmmakers have had a lot more freedom over the content of their films. However, the MPAA ratings board still does exercise a certain de facto censorship power. Most people do not realize this.

"This Film is not Yet Rated" exposes the arbitrariness, secrecy, and bias of the MPAA ratings board and makes the viewer question why movies receive the ratings they do.

Kirby Dick puts together a nice cross-section of directors and "talking heads" who discuss the MPAA ratings board's biases when it comes to realism, sex, violence, gay themes, and other taboo issues in films.

Dozens of major directors have had problems with the MPAA ratings board

• they either received the NC-17 (or the old "X") rating or had to cut

their films to meet the requirements of the ratings board. Some examples are: Kubrick, Tarantino, Lynch, Woo, Friedkin, Peckinpah, Aronofsky, and countless others.

This film exposes the fact that the ratings board is made up of people who are given NO criteria and NO training for rating films, so they basically use their own personal (and obviously heavily biased) judgments to decide what rating a particular movie should receive.

This is an important film because so few people realize how movies are rated in the U.S. Even fewer realize how problematic (biased, anti-democratic, non-transparent, not accountable) our system is.

It is also well put together, so it is easier to watch than most documentaries.

I would have liked to have heard more comparisons between the U.S. rating system and others worldwide, something that was only briefly touched upon.

9 out of 10