Weinstein To Fight Back Against MPAA’s ‘R’ Rating Of Bully – Releasing It Unrated
When it comes to the movie industry the MPAA not only spends its time spinning propaganda against those who pirate movies but it also is responsible for setting the ratings for the movies shown in the US.
When the Weinstein Company had submitted the Bully movie by Lee Hirsh I imagined that they would be able to get the coveted PG-13 rating as this would allow kids, who are the intended audience for the movie, to be able to go and see the movie. However that is not what happened, instead the movie got slapped with an ‘R’ (Restricted) rating which would effectively stop children from being able to see the movie.
To understand why this is important you have to realize that the whole subject matter of the movie deals with bullying that kids have to deal with every day which is why many, including myself, feel that this is a movie children should be seeing.
So why did it get and ‘R’ rating?
It got the rating because during the movie you hear the use of the “F-word” on more than one occasion – you know, normal kid language.
Yup that’s right, it’s okay for kids to go to movies with varying levels of violence but when it comes to a movie about them and something that affects them on a daily basis they get told they can’t see it because of the language.
Well it seems that Harvey Weinstein isn’t having any of it. In the uproar that followed the MPAA rejection of Weinstein’s appeal of their rating Weinstein has announced that they will be releasing the movie to theaters as “Unrated”.
“People are frustrated. They feel like this rating was unjust,” he said. “They’re tired of the double standard of gratuitous violence getting through and a film that could actually do some good that’s not about just exploitation getting slammed with this rating.”
Just hours before the premiere, The Weinstein Company announced that they would release Bully as unrated rather than using the R rating it was given by the Motion Picture Association of America. Hirsch said he felt this was the “right thing to do.
While t his might affect the box office profitability of the film due to it being shown in fewer theaters because of the “Unrated” rating it is good to see the film finally making it to the theaters and if you have kids I strongly recommend that you do what you can do in order for your kids to see it.
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About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
