The Movie Ratings System and Jack Valenti’s Delusions

On this day in 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) put into effect its self-imposed ratings system. The initial categories were

• G (appropriate for all ages)
• M (for mature audiences, but all ages admitted)
• R (persons under 16 not admitted without an accompanying adult)
• X (no one under 17 admitted).

Over time, however, the ratings would shift and grow. For example,

• M would become PG
• NC-17 would replace X (for fear that “X” would connote pornography)
• the age-limit of the R rating would be raised to 17
• PG-13 was added in 1983.

To mark this occasion, I’ve selected for today’s Quote of the Day a statement from Jack Valenti, WWII veteran, witness to JFK’s assassination, aid to Lyndon B. Johnson, and, most relevant to this post, creator of the Hollywood ratings system.

Until his death in 2007, Valenti fully supported the system he initiated on this day in 1968, touting such lines as “I wanted to free the screen from any fragments of censorship” and not I, but ”filmmakers must decide what story to tell and how to tell it.” However, as Kirby Dick voraciously points out in This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), Valenti’s ratings system as well as these kind of statements about “the filmmaker’s freedom” is grossly flawed, or as The AV Club puts it, “so egregiously corrupt that it can’t be reasonably defended.” Indeed, in spite of Valenti’s delusions, film censorship abounds. Moreover, Hollywood directors do not have the liberty to create whatever they want especially if they want that product distributed and marketed to the American public. And what director (working in the mainstream) wouldn’t?

In closing, even if Jack Valenti’s intentions were honorable — to “free the screen” from the strict censorship of the Hays Code and to warn parents of movies’ suggestive content — the result is arguably far from that. Those who’ve seen This Film Is Not Yet Rated or who are well versed in the goings-on of American film production/distribution/exhibition will notice such incongruity in the selection below.

In His Own Words

“In meetings with the various directors, writers, and film actors unions, I made it plain I was determined to free the screen from anything like the Hays Code. But I also emphasized that freedom demanded responsibility. I told them that under my plan, some of their films might be restricted from viewing by children. I saw no contradiction in that. The minds of young children are not yet fully developed; therefore their rights under the First Amendment were not being violated. But adults would be at liberty to make their own movie-watching choices.

Simplicity is the essence of persuasion, so my design for a rating system was based on keeping the categories from expanding and making certain that the information they offered was easy to understand. No complexities allowed. I also firmly believed that the rating system should not be an agent of social change. It could not become an arbiter of public conduct. All this would be a burden too heavy for the system to bear. All the rating should do — and could do — was give advance warning to parents with regard to language, violence, sex, and the depiction of illegal substances, so they could make decisions about the moviegoing of their young children. No more, no less.

On November 1, 1968, after nearly a year of constant meetings, phone calls, and more meetings, the movie rating system was born. At this writing, it has lived a long, full, useful, and sometimes controversial life. It is still effective and trusted. Nothing lasts very long in this brutal, explosive, unpredictable marketplace unless it is conferring some benefit on the people it aims to serve — in this instance, the parents of America. By that standard, the voluntary movie rating system is getting the job done.”

Jack Valenti, This Time, This Place: My Life
in War, the White House, and Hollywood (2007)

Further Reading

• After the release of This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Jack Valenti defended the ratings system in this column in the LA Times.
• I’ve written more about the MPAA and its ratings system in my post “Cracks in the System: The MPAA, Blue Valentine, Black Swan, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated.“

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