50 years of movie ratings in the spotlight

As the article mentions there was a lot of immorality before the ratings system

As an aside … we watched (at home) two films this week

• The Phantom of the Opera on election night.
  • Timed it to end at 9pm so we could watch the election returns
  • I love this film and the music
  • If it weren’t a musical, it would be very stupid
  • For the really scary version see the 1925 (I vowed NEVER to attend the opera … a vow I’ve kept to this very day)
• Dunkirk last night. Nicely done

I had to giggle at Stidham’s quote about “morality is only for people under 10.” First of all, I vividly remember my dad offering to take me to see “Jaws” when I asked about it—I was 7 at the time—and thankfully I declined. I’m guessing seeing people eaten by that robot would have put the kibosh on me sleeping in my own bed for months. For that matter, I still don’t appreciate stylized violence on film for about the same reason, especially since it seems that a fair number of directors and producers do seem to think that “adult content” and “special effects” are acceptable substitutes for “plot” and “character development.”

Would love to hear John E.’s comment on why that might be—I might guess that smart producers realize that if you engage the audience’s visceral “fight or flight” response, they aren’t going to be able to pay attention to the subtleties of plot and character as well, so why bother?