The BBFC overview of the PG certificate explains that they are:
‘suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content might upset younger or more sensitive children.’
This is essentially saying a film rated PG is suitable for young children, less risqué than a 12A but riskier than U. So when parents sit children down in front of a PG rated film, do they expect to see…
1) A Threesome?
‘Mommy, why is Ryan O’Neill fighting those two women? And is Kubrick’s choice of lens and angle intended to create a tableaux effect, which he’s counteracting with graphic, unnoble actions?’
A lot of these examples will be a few shades darker grey than you expect: a little more blood, slightly salty language. How many of you knew that the PG could includes three person sex? The BBFC guidelines state that ‘references to sex are acceptable if the activity talked about or shown is implied and lacking in detail. In addition, if a child is unlikely to understand a reference, we may allow it at PG.’
Staney Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon explores a rambling, unpredictable life, but knowing it was PG rated made the threesome Lyndon engages in particularly unexpected. The brief scene includes bare breasts and an odd camera set-up and it’s very clear what is happening. Though longer historical films are treated more leniently, I still suspect the BBFC nodded off in the midst of this one.
2) Bloody Animal Violence? (also moderate swearing)
You surely knew that Watership Down was going to come up here. Surely! A children’s cartoon featuring gorey deaths for the rabbit characters and a bonus seagull telling the aforementioned leporidae to ‘piss off’. Whoever rated this frankly traumatising film as P- What? Oh ok, it’s actually rated U. No problem here, move along.
So why does Watership Down admit all ages? In the 70s, the BBFC had no firm guidelines – individual reviewers made it up as they went along. Possibly this one saw it was animated, gave it a U then popped off to the pub. The rating is so notoriously incorrect, the BBFC gives it its own webpage, explaining they can only re-rate films if they are re-submitted by distributors. Don’t expect this: continuing to mislead parents is in the best interests of Time Warner’s profits…
3) Big Fucking Deals and Nice Fucking Models?
When the BBFC explains that ‘there may be mild bad language (such as ‘shit’ or ‘son of a bitch’) in a PG film, but the context and delivery are always important,’ one might assume that mild is as far as it goes. Yeah…
In fact, numerous films with an audible ‘fuck’ have been rated PG, Beetlejuice and Big being well known examples (alright, Big was trimmed here, but passed with a PG in America). This is during the time when a 12 certificate existed, with the understanding that it could handle a single fuck without becoming a 15. Nowadays, the initially more stringently rated 12A’s slow progression towards leniency is the natural home of a film with a single, unsatisfying fuck. This is inevitably uttered either early on to look tough or during the big bad’s death to make up for the film’s inability to show the violence it wishes it could.
Watership Down
4) Underage Nudity?
Legendary director and Scrabble-high score Zeffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet keeps the protagonists offputtingly teenage, which tips the play further into comedy melodrama than most productions. He also cast teenage actors, including a then 15 years old Olivia Hussey, the future cinematic mother of both Jesus and Norman Bates. Her nude scene required special permission and due to it, Hussey was unable to attend the film’s premiere. Awkward, though not as awkward as the knowledge that in these situations the parents have to be on set during filming, as with Christopher Mintz Plasse in Superbad and Keira Knightley in The Hole. Also, not as awkward as admitting to watching The Hole.
5) Torture Porn?
If the BBFC have a blind spot, it is this: their belief that a fantasy setting mitigates all. Never mind the Joker’s flick knives and pencil tricks, Dark Knight rocks in at a 12A because it’s a “fantasy movie”. But there’s a world of difference between the Adam “holy haddocks!” West, the George “nipple suit” Clooney Batmans, and this. Nolan taps into our communal nightmares – hostage taking, terror by mobile phone, by attacks on infrastructure, through mass media and by scratchy hand-held execution cam. One playboy dressed as a bat does not erase the reality of these images.
So I’m not sure their position makes sense, even for adults. And for children not yet cynical enough for CGI, who can predict exactly what any one child will take as fact from a film? And for anyone deeply engrossed in a film, they’ll be living it, be it Ken Loach or George Romero.
The Princess Bride is a fantasy movie; it’s also a comedy. Presumably this tone deceived reviewers into a PG rating, for “mild fantasy violence.” But there’s nothing mild about its torture scene: pretty, half-naked Carey Elwes – most recently torture-fodder in Saw 1 – strapped down and attached to a candlepunk contraption, while fey villain Count Rugen calmly describes the machine’s properties and his “deep and abiding interest in pain”. Fner fner? Not sure, but its violence alone makes this too much for the kids. This scene put me off the Princess Bride for years. Viewing this scene for the review is probably the last time I will ever see it, so often it coincides with my need for a tea break. From Elwes’ muffled whimpering, to the leathery creaks of his convulsions, nothing about the scene reassures. When our hero is asked how he feels, instead of a comforting wisecrack, he starts crying in close up.
Unfortunately, I can’t analyse the whole clip for you – only the first 120 seconds – because my school’s safety filter blocks it. Nuff said.
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