May a silly question, but since i'm not from america I'm not familiar with this concept... what does it mean when a film is R-rated, X-rated or unrated. From what i understand, R-rated is softcore, x-rated is hardcore, and unrated is the unedited version of r-rated, but still not entirely hardcore. Am I anywhere near or am I way off?
This stems from the film rating and classification system in the United States where the film industry group, the Motion Picture Association of America, uses some loose guidelines and subjective opinions of a screening board that watches each film. They assign a rating from G (general audiences), PG (parental guidance suggested), PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned, appropriate for viewers over 13 years old), R (restricted, under 17 not admitted without parent or guardian), and NC-17 (no one under 17 admitted).
It used to be that adults-only ratings were "X", but that got hijacked by the adult film industry who added X's until you got XXX. So the MPAA went to the NC-17 rating.
Unrated means that the MPAA has not rated that movie or particular version. It does not necessarily mean that it wouldn't receive an R rating (or any other rating for that matter). It just means they haven't sought a rating.
In practical terms, R means nudity, strong violence, language, drug use, and adult situations; X is hardcore, and unrated is usually a more risque version of the R release, but not always so.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Aug 2 2003 : 7:40PM
For a movie to be released in a theatre here in the States, it has to receive a rating by the MPAA. If it goes straight to video, it doesn't need a rating, so it is simply called unrated.
Movie studios are not allowed to on their own assign an R or NC-17 rating to their own movies. Often times in the US, when you see a preview of a movie, it says sometimes that the movie is still unrated. That means that the MPAA hasn't finished rating it, but a rating will be assigned before the movie is released into theatres. One of the reasons it takes longer is that sometimes a movie will receive an R-rating, and the studio will ask what needs to be taken out for them to receive a PG-13 rating, and then they must decide if they want to do that, and if they do, then they have to take it out and resubmit the movie.
That's not quite right, Tricia. A movie can be released to a theater without a rating by the MPAA, that's how a movie gets to be released, to theaters (such as, for example, Irreversible), as unrated. Now, the relatively few number of films that will handle such a release is relatively small, but you can do it.
X, by the way, was never actually copywrited, so that filmmakers could self-apply and release their movies to theaters without bothering to submit to the MPAA. This caused enough problems, in large part due to the rating's association with pornography, that the MPAA officially discontinued the rating in favor of NC-17.
