Posted on 08/20/2004 3:07:35 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
A Christian ministry advising parents about the content of popular movies says its not surprised by a Harvard University study finding films within the same rating class are getting raunchier, noting it made the same discovery four years ago.
ChildCare Action Project Movie Ministry indicates the Harvard data echoes its own findings from 2000. The Harvard study, released last month, shows content of movies with specific ratings is getting stronger, meaning a film rated PG-13 today likely would have received an R rating several years ago.
Researchers looked at films released between 1992 and 2003. The study found more sex and violence in later PG movies and more of the same, plus more profanity, in PG-13 movies. It also found R-rated movies contained more profanity and sex.
Today's PG-13 movies, it was found, are inching toward what R-rated movies looked like in 1992.
Even films rated G were found to have more violence, especially in animated features.
The CAP Ministry notes it scrutinized films for eight years using a specific set of standards and mathematical formulae. The group's statistical analysis found PG-13 movies consistently including more objectionable elements as the years went on, leading the researchers to coin the rating "R-13."
"In the first five years the percentage of R-13 movies more than quadrupled (an increase of 459 percent) which says in the year 2000, 450 percent more of the PG-13 audiences were fed R-rated programming than in 1996/7," the Christian research said.
Researchers from both CAP Ministry and Harvard noted the movie rating system used by the Motion Picture Associated of America, or MPAA, is too general.
Said CAP Ministry founder Tom Carder: "The CAP Analysis Model could replace the MPAA. And the CAP Analysis Model provides it objectively, not vulnerable to mood and preference subjectivity so you can be in a better position to have the information you need to make an informed moral decision whether a film is fit for your kids (or yourself)."
Carder touted his film-analysis system, noting it includes "80 prescribed unchanging investigation standards (biblical values/morals)" and "more than 30 mathematical operations to generate comparative and trending values in each of six investigation areas, plus a final score plus an influence density plus frequency of examples per hour in each of six investigation areas."
CAP Ministry's analysis tool includes mathematical statistics based on a film's amount of: wanton violence/crime, impunity/hate, sex/homosexuality, drugs/alcohol, offense to God and murder/suicide. The first letters of each category spell out "wisdom."
Carder hopes the fact his organization beat a large university to the punch will help raise funds needed to continue his work:
"Help us not let the mainstream media and their animosity toward anything Christian bury another little 'David' grass-roots Christian ministry which provides before-the-fact corroboration with a Goliath university," he writes on his website. "Rally all in your circles of influence. Please, please help us distribute this most significant information by forwarding this page in its entirety to all your friends and lists."
For parents who are interested in checking out movies before your kid goes to see them:
http://www.screenit.com
Also there are a couple of devices that will "censor" DVD's available.
The best, IMHO, is Clearplay.
http://www.clearplay.com
But one thing that has happenned since 1990 is that the volume of movie nudity has dropped very, very sharply.
There was a time when an R rated movie meant a topless scene. Now that is not true. Is it that since the proliferation of cable and the ease of porn distribution that movie nudity simply does not sell tickets ? Has that same proliferation made nudity declasse ? Back in the 70's practically every young actress did topless scenes. Who does now (Charlize Theron aside) ?
I've gone with my teenager to the moview and we've chosen an R rating over a PG-13 rating because when I previewed the film on screenit, I would find that the R rating was just for violent scenes, a PG-13 that was playing at the same time was "raunchy."
One example was when we chose "The Last Samurai" over some PG-13 teenage flick.
The best movie reviews out there are the CAP reports.
http://www.capalert.com/capreports/
Thanks for the link!
They're hilarious. That much is certain.
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