Posted on 06/08/2006 11:50:33 PM PDT by TheEaglehasLanded
Narrow focus draws 'PG' rating for Baptist-backed film
By TERRY MATTINGLY Scripps Howard News Service 07-JUN-06
The Motion Picture Association of America is crystal clear when it describes why its "PG" rating exists _ it's a warning flag.
"The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for parental guidance," states the online explanation of the rating system. "There may be some profanity in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. ... The PG rating, suggesting parental guidance, is thus an alert for examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by their children. Obviously such a line is difficult to draw."
Disagreements are a given. The Christian moviemakers behind a low-budget film called "Facing the Giants" were stunned when the MPAA pinned a PG rating on their gentle movie about a burned-out, depressed football coach whose life _ on and off the field _ takes a miraculous turn for the better.
"What the MPAA said is that the movie contained strong 'thematic elements' that might disturb some parents," said Kris Fuhr, vice president for marketing at Provident Films, which is owned by Sony Pictures. Provident plans to open the film next fall in 380 theaters nationwide with the help of Samuel Goldwyn Films, which has worked with indie movies like "The Squid and the Whale."
Which "thematic elements" earned this squeaky-clean movie its PG?
"Facing the Giants" is too evangelistic.
The MPAA, noted Fuhr, tends to offer cryptic explanations for its ratings. In this case, she was told that it "decided that the movie was heavily laden with messages from one religion and that this might offend people from other religions. It's important that they used the word 'proselytizing' when they talked about giving this movie a PG. ...
"It is kind of interesting that faith has joined that list of deadly sins that the MPAA board wants to warn parents to worry about."
Overt Christian messages are woven throughout "Facing the Giants," which isn't surprising since the film was co-written and co-produced by brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who are the "associate pastors of media" at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. In addition to working with the megachurch's cable-television channel, they created its Sherwood Pictures ministry _ collecting private donations to fund a $25,000 movie called "Flywheel," about a wayward Christian used-car salesman.
"Facing the Giants" cost $100,000 and resembles a fusion of the Book of Job and a homemade "Hoosiers," or perhaps a small- school "Friday Night Lights" blended with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association movies that used to appear in some mainstream theaters. Sherwood Pictures used local volunteers as actors and extras, backed by a small crew of tech professionals.
The movie includes waves of answered prayers, a medical miracle, a mysterious silver-haired mystic who delivers a message from God and a bench-warmer who kicks a 51-yard field goal to win the big game when his handicapped father pulls himself out of a wheelchair and stands under the goal post to inspire his son's faith. There's a prayer-driven gust of wind in there, too.
But the scene that caught the MPAA's attention may have been the chat between football coach Grant Taylor _ played by Alex Kendrick _ and a rich brat named Matt Prader. The coach says that he needs to stop bad-mouthing his bossy father and get right with God.
The boy replies: "You really believe in all that honoring God and following Jesus stuff? ... Well, I ain't trying to be disrespectful, but not everybody believes in that."
The coach replies: "Matt, nobody's forcing anything on you. Following Jesus Christ is the decision that you're going to have to make for yourself. You may not want to accept it, because it'll change your life. You'll never be the same."
That kind of talk may be too blunt for some moviegoers, said Kendrick, but that's the way real people actually talk in Christian high schools in Georgia. Sherwood Baptist isn't going to apologize for making the kinds of movies that it wants to make.
"Look, I have those kinds of conversations about faith all the time and I've seen young people make decisions that change their lives," he said. "The reason we're making movies in the first place is that we hope they inspire people to think twice about their relationships with God.
"So we're going to tell the stories that we believe God wants us to tell. We have nothing to hide."
(Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.)
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And yet, The Greatest Story Ever Told was given a G rating.
I say let em go for it. It gets more press for the movie. Hollywood is in dire straits right now because sales are way down and they dont know why. Perhaps if the listened to people in flyover country they would know why.
This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. What would they give a film with full nudity and religion in it? An X? Adam and Eve beware, the MPAA is using drugs it seems.
Well like smoking in movies, Hollywood doesn't want young audiences to get the idea that finding religion is something to emulate.
At the same time we are told that there is no negative effect on society with all the sex and violence portrayed on screen.
In the 1950s, the Comics Code Authority slammed EC Comics (publisher of Mad, Tales From The Crypt, and Weird Science, among others) for a comic story that ended with the revelation that an astronaut was black.
Censorship boards (whethere they are "industry" self-regulation or government imposed) have the power to condemn works they disagree with on whatever grounds.
G doesn't mean what it once did.
The Monkees movie Head got a G rating. It has sex and drugs innuendo and actual footage of the Vietnam War street execution.
Planet of the Apes was G originally and it has nudity, violence, and profanity.
Thanks, that's pretty interesting. Look how far we have come.
I don't see how this matters. Most parents will let their children watch anything they want to watch. That's another of the problems with our society. Children learn adult issues long before they have the cognitive and emotional abilities to handle them.
Be glad. Its a known fact that more people will go to a PG rated movie than a G rated movie. If their objective is to reach more people with the message of the movie, they were handed an unlikely victory.
Lets see Hollywood promotes Adultery, Homosexuality, Movies by Pedophiles, Socialism, Pro Al-Queda, anti Christianity in a majority Christian Nation. Nothing wrong there. Morons trying to force their worldview down our throats.
I have to wonder how much Estes Kefauver's Sentate hearings into comic books factored into Al Gore Junior's own Senate hearings into music.
Estes Kefauver walked away with the VP nomination, while fellow Tennessee senator, Albert Gore Sr. got nothing.
Al and Tipper Gore successfully distanced themselves from that 1980s witchhunt (and got the endorsement of MTV and Frank Zappa's kids). Makes you wonder how much they really cared about that issue to begin with. Trash the lives of musicians and retailers (who were arrested for selling PMRC labelled albums to minors) just to score some political points (in an attempt for the 1988 presidential nomination).
That is evil, to trash someone and not really care one way or the other. Chew them up on your path to the goal.
The Monkees movie Head got a G rating. It has sex and drugs innuendo and actual footage of the Vietnam War street execution.
Planet of the Apes was G originally and it has nudity, violence, and profanity."
OTOH, "Last Tango In Paris", originally a very scandalous X rated film, barely gets PG-13 today!
But that sounds par for the course for Al Gore. He is still up to those old tricks.
I thought Head was rated R, which was one of the reasons why it didn't do so well: none of the Monkees' young fans could see it. That, and the fact that it was an acid trip of a movie (literally).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063049/
G, as noted on IMDB (and the video).
It was based on acid trip musings of Jack Nicholson.
Only 33 Revolutions Per Monkee did more to alienate Monkees fans from the band (although booking the Jimi Hendrix Experience as tour opener probably also went over their heads).
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