R-rated Movies - Better Than the Rest?

So you walk up to the movie theater not knowing what you're going to see yet but with an inkling, a feeling. You look up at the sign. You've got "Love Actually" and you've got "The Fast and the Furious". Which to see, which to see? You're in the mood for love so you say to your friend, "How about Love Actually?" Your friend leans over and asks, "Is it R-rated? I'll only see it if it's R-rated".

Never have that happen before? Lucky you. Knowing people who don't have a particular genre of film they want to see nor who are connoisseurs of !theatre! like I am, you can get in that spot quite often.

But why? That's the question I ask my friends when they express such nonsense. For anyone who would rather see an R-rated action movie before a good, honest, hefty PG-13 movie, I ask you, why? Although I probably already know the answer. Actually there's a few I've come up with.

1st Scenario
Person : Let's go see a movie!
Friend of Person: Pg13?
Person: Sure why not?
Friend of Person: Let's go see an R-rated movie.
Person: Why?
Friend of Person: Pg13 is too smalltime. It's for kids. The Disney Channel. It's not made for adults.

ET, Close Encounters, Star Wars, The Godfather. Hmm, all for kids. I'd say so. I mean adult themes in kids movies? Never. Fortunately back in the days when those movies came out, people went to see the movies based on merit rather than on ratings. Because back in the 1970's and 1980's the films weren't rated at all. I think that today filmmakers are pressured to make a film R-rated so that more people will go see it. It's got to have more nudity, more cursewords, more violence so people will be enticed to see it. Well, what about the other content? Good writing? Good acting? Good direction? Good story? I'd rather see a great movie with no cursewords like Finding Nemo than say . . .Bad Boys II. *Shudder.

2nd Scenario
Person: Let's go see a movie!
Friend of Person: PG-13?
Person: Sure why not?
Friend of Person: I wanna see real life s***. People use cursewords and s*** al day long. I wanna see something that relates to me.

Maybe understandable. But I go back to the good story. A good story will always relate to you, cursewords or not. All real life doesn't have the "f" word put into it. Maybe for some people it does but look at 12 Angry Men or even take Finding Nemo for that matter. Both films have extreme adult themes. Anger, hate, betrayal, family values. And all done without one word of misconduct. In 12 Angry men, the men are so furious as to curse but instead the director and writer (of the play which was adapted into the screenplay) use the techniques of the actors and the camera and the story to show the anger. These people are real enough but they also have class. Something that a lot of our actors today lack.

3rd Scenario
Person: Let's go see a movie!
Friend of Person: What rating?
Person: Why does it matter?
Friend of Person: Well if it's not an R rating it's not going to be as intense.

Valid point. Understandable, but not always true. The Godfather, The Pursuit of Happyness, Psycho. Have I said enough? All I'm saying is give movies under R a chance. Even G movies. I mean look at Cinderella, a classic. The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. G. Even the early National Lampoons' are PG. And if the audience never went to see them, where would Chevy Chase be today?

But some people don't care and will still got to see R-ratings over good films anyday. The state of the audience who watches films have become complacent with silly comedies and oversexed action flicks. They're a good thing when you want to get away from all the drama and good filmmaking and thinking, but if you get stuck and never come back, that's the only thing we'll ever have. And then our IQ's will keep getting lower and lower and lower . . . .