MPAA Movie Ratings: NC-17 Movies

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has a de facto monopoly on movie ratings in the United States. The MPAA rating system was started in 1968 after rising complaints over the presence of sexual content, graphic violence, and profanity in some films. The system ensured that the federal government would not create their own movie rating system which would have allowed a de jure monopoly on movie ratings.

The MPAA's rating system has acquired quite a bit of fire from critics. Most of the controversy that surrounds the MPAA ratings is due to the NC-17 rating. Nearly all major theaters follow the MPAA rating system. Movie theaters that follow this system will not allow minors into movies with an NC-17 rating even if a parent accompanies them.

Movies with an NC-17 rating are shunned in the United States. Many movie theaters will not even play NC-17 rated movies. Movie producers do not want their movies rated NC-17 because of this bias. Movies that receive an NC-17 rating are usually edited and resubmitted until they receive an R rating.

According to my count, over 90 out of the 157 NC-17-rated movies were appealed or re-edited until they received an R rating. This bias against NC-17 rated films effectively creates nation-wide movie censorship. The censorship created by this system may be more the fault of misconceptions of the American public than the fault of the MPAA. Regardless to whose fault this censorship is, it is still a problem.

Fortunately, many edited movies are being released in an "Unrated" form on DVD, allowing movie buyers to see the movie in its original form. This allows for an alternative to the censored release version of the movie but it does not act as a solution to this problem. The MPAA should revise the current movie rating system or theater owners should adopt multiple rating systems, allowing for competition and hopefully encouraging less censorship.