Can you blame fans for snickering over TMP being rated G ?
- Thread starter Mutara Nebula 1967
- Start date
Let's bring another 1970s Robert Wise film into this: "The Andromeda Strain" was rated G and not only contained brief nudity but also an entire village of dead people, including one unlucky person whose wrist is slit by the scientists and dried blood pours out.
The shot of the severed arm on the cantina floor was added specifically to get the PG rating.
In Australia we have M. Here it goes G - PG - M - MA - R. I don't understand the US system at all, so I have no idea how it corresponds.
Ah, OK! In any case, in the states, when it was released, Jaws 2 got a PG rating, as can be seen on its poster (and which I also know personally, as we were "daring kids" to see it at the time unattended). For those interested, according to the wiki article for Jaws 2, which scenes needed to be deleted to assure its rating in the states are described in The Making of Jaws 2, on the Jaws 2 DVD.
Sorry, "M" was still in use in Australia.
In the premiere US television broadcast of "Jaws 2", Billy Van Zandt's response to a dubbed line, about one of the teenaged girls, caused him some bemusement.
Boy: "She's got a face like a sparrow."
Bob Burnside: "Do you have to talk like that?"
The US theatrical print, and even the Aussie TV version, had the original lines:
Boy: "She's got tits like a sparrow."
Bob Burnside: "Do you have to talk like that?"
See my follow up post for the implicit clarification that I was speaking of the United States.
I did not know that BlobVanDam was speaking about Australian ratings, and moreover confusion on my part was quite reasonable since Jaws 2 was a movie made in the United States. Furthermore, in the United States we had an "M" rating, from 1968-70, which was replaced first with "GP", and then a few years later with "PG".
My statement was correct, only unclear as to its context.
That's a myth, actually. The severed arm was always in there; the whole Kenobi drawing-and-slashing sequence is basically lifted cut-by-cut from Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which also shows an arm on the ground. The film shown to the MPAA committee was that same as the theatrical release, as it has to be, nothing was added after that point and it was not re-screened for the rating board. The board had been about evenly divided between PG and G, so when Fox requested the PG they granted it.
--Justin
And my "sorry" was me apologizing for assuming that "M" still applied in the US in the 70s. As I said, "M" was a very common film rating here, Down Under, all through the 70s and 80s.
D'oh! And I apologize for misunderstanding what you meant!
G seems a little off the mark, but as an 11 year old seeing TMP in the theater, the sexual stuff just went right past me. The transporter accident was quick, and not all that graphic, and didn't bother me at all.
By the time TMP came out I had seen most of TOS already, and looking back at it, the revealing costumes worn by the women were more sexual than anything in TMP.
By the time TMP came out I had seen most of TOS already, and looking back at it, the revealing costumes worn by the women were more sexual than anything in TMP.
What's interesting in Australia is that, during the 70s, when TOS was building its huge US cross-generational audience in stripped, syndicated, prime time repeats, TOS was unable to be so stripped Down Under because our censors had been rather tough on it in the 60s. 40 episodes were rated "G" and 38 received the 70s TV equivalent of "PG" ("NRC", or "Not Recommended for Children"), so the whole series was not easily slotted into kids' viewing times.
"Lost in Space", "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch" were safer repeat options because their whole series of episodes could be run at 6pm.
That's the thing, kids don't notice this stuff because they don't have a frame of reference. It's adults who get the references, and therefore see it as sexually graphic and give a film higher certificates than they really deserve. It's very arbitrary.
The Australian censor's office was notoriously strict back then. I seem to recall from relatives down there that the various Star Trek series were always messed around, ending up being scheduled in late night slots.
The BBC almost always showed Star Trek uncut at 6pm. The only instances of cuts I can think of are The High Ground's politically sensitive reference to Irish unification (the whole episode was dropped), and a few headbutts and Klingon bloodletting scenes on Deep Space Nine - bugbears of the BBFC - but even those were inconsistent. I think The Empath was also not screen first time around, as it was deemed to frightening. Both it and The High Ground were later shown uncut though.
I took the original post as implying that fans today looking back on TMP find it laughable that it bore a "kiddie" rating. Which is possible, given that the G rating has come to be considerably devalued and largely supplanted by PG in the ensuing decades. However, I agree that I've never actually heard anyone "snickering" about its G rating, literally or figuratively.
I think it's because back then "G" was considered to be similar to what "PG" is now. "G" kind of died out during the 80's for normal films and "PG" took over. Notice "PG-13"? I think that's why. If First Contact and Nemesis would of been made in the 70's, it would of probably been "PG" instead of "G".
I've had myself a hearty snicker over it a time or two. Wait, can you even snicker heartily?