Just ran into this online when checking out some nasty YouTube comment about what an idiot I am for not loving Grindhouse like my first born.
The issue of Grindhouse and the MPAA is already dated. But I’d be interested in your notions of whether a Hard R or any more restrictive rating than an R from the MPAA wil ever work?
And does MPAA “censorship” change your perception of a movie before you see it?
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā” “Yeah, sure ā you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
All I know is, if the MPAA has a problem with the movie it immediately makes me want to go see it. Even Captivity I will probably try to sneak into after paying for another movie.
Kirby Dick chose the wrong target: the problem has never been the MPAA.
If you want a true villain here, go after the newspapers who won’t run ads for NC-17. Go after the Blockbusters and Wal-Marts that won’t carry them. Go after the theater chains that won’t show them.
An NC-17 is appropriate in many cases. I don’t see any justification for a 16-year-old to be able to see Showgirls, to see the director’s cut of Natural Born Killers, to see Henry & June. Hell, the NC-17 rating should be used more liberally. Can you really argue for a 16-year-old to be able to see Saw III or Hostel?
Hell, if the kids really have to see them, let their parents rent it. At least it will keep the theaters annoying teenager-free.
I kept waiting for Olivia Munn to show up and all I get is Chris Gore and DP. š
I disagree with the notion that people don’t see films theatrically that have been tampered with by the MPAA. For the select few films I’m really excited about I’ll still go but if I’m on the fence about a film I *never* end up seeing it in the theaters. I always wait for the soon to come “unrated” DVD.
The zoning in most cities prohibit the showing of NC-17 films. Most theaters don’t have the option of showing NC-17 films.
More often than not, if I hear the MPAA has a problem with a film I consider the source first.
9 times out of 10, if it is some director or studio claiming to be ‘censored’, I figure they are just trying to drum up canned controversy and it actually lessens my interest in the film.
I think the whole ‘unrated’ tag on videos is used far more as an exploitation gimmick now, then anything meaningful.
In the end, the MPAA on its own has little effect on my desire to see a film or not. I am far more concerned with artists and filmmakers self- censoring for issues of political correctness than I am of the MPAA.
And when does that happen?
JeffMCN…
Never. Absolutely, unequivocally, never.
Any subject matter would be considered equally for production by any studio so long as it was brought through the proper channels. No subject matter or purpose of intent would ever be filtered out and every filmmaker will use the subject matter of the world as an artist would use the colors on a palette, just as the colors on a rainbow. There is no intimidation, no fear of reprisals and everyone lives in one harmonious land of intellectual freedom and joy. No subject matter is considered more desirable than others and all choices are made only with the utmost objectives of economics and entertainment.
…with a cherry on top.
Do you really believe that on principal, Jeff?
If you do, you know nothing of the history of art or Hollywood.
So no examples, then.
And I really am amused at how stupid you really seem to think I am. Of course I know that ideas are trampled all the time. But I’m not going to blame ‘PC’ because that’s just a code word you’re using to mask your real objections.
If I thought for one minute you wanted a discussion I would Jeff, but you don’t, you want a pissing match.
I’ll give an example, and then you will deliberatey take the example out of context to mount a personal attack and say what a real nasty guy I am revealed to be.
Don’t have the energy for that today.
Besides, if I really have to give an example, you haven’t been reading my posts here since I started and you know nothing of Hollywood history.
Well, you’ve never been interested in discussion either, so let’s call it a day and huddle in our separate corners. Too bad, really.
MPAA is a necessary evil. Could it be better run? Of course. But without it, the movie biz is inviting official government censorship, which is a very bad move. The compromise worked out years ago – the reasons for doing it still stand.