KING KONG’S RATING
by
Gil Mansergh
I had just gone off the air from my Thursday morning Cinema Toast show when the studio phone rang. I had been talking up Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” and labeling it the movie to see during this holiday season. “There are three, no make that four sequences of the most exciting movie making to come along in decades,” I had just told my listeners. The phone call was from a mother who asked me about “King Kong’s” rating, but what she really wanted know was if it was appropriate for her 10-year-old daughter.
“It’s rated PG-13,” I told her. “But you need to know that there’s quite a bit of violence in it. The most gruesome being the scenes in the cannibal village. A couple of people are captured and immediately executed by war clubs. The actual beheading is off screen, but...let’s say there is no doubt what has happened. It’s truly terrifying.”
I don’t want to rehash an issue I’ve mentioned before but the current movie rating system is almost worthless. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column entitled “Grandpa Suggests” where I offered “grandfatherly advice about whether or not you can have a good time...at this season’s so-called family movies.” The comments I received were 100% positive, which tells me that many people appreciate knowing in advance what their children (and themselves) will find on the movie screen.
Here, for example, are the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA.org) ratings and their advisory comments provided for this season’s three top adventure films.
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”
Rated PG for battle sequences and frightening moments.
“King Kong”
Rated PG-13 for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images.
A parent using this system as a guide would unknowingly walk into the “Chronicles of Narnia” unaware of the scene which had prompted me to write the following in my review:
“CAUTION: Seen by many (Including the film’s producers) as a Christian allegory, Aslan the lion saves the life of the traitor, Edmund, by submitting himself to be killed in his place. Children sitting close to me in the preview were visibly upset by these scenes. Most turned their heads, several cried tears and some left their seats. They didn’t understand why the lion was bound in chains without a fight, dragged to a stone altar and murdered. Thinking the parallel with Christ’s sacrifice was obvious, the screenplay never offers an explanation but only places Lucy and her sister nearby to act as tearful witnesses to these events.”
Is this what the MPAA considers to be a “frightening moment?”
Images in movies can be disturbing to adults as well as children. I use films in the continuing education classes I present to psychologists and other mental health professionals, and I have always warned the attendees in advance whenever a clip contains on-screen violence. I quickly learned that I also needed to let people know about clips containing nudity—even when the scene was humorous. I use a clip from the Larry Kasden film “Mumford” in some of my classes and one particular sequence takes place in a therapist’s office where a small town attorney (Martin Short), talks about a recurring dream. “It’s always the same,” he says, and then we see Martin Short running down the hallway of Analy High School on the day of the big exam. He is, as always, completely prepared but apparently no one else is. Opening a classroom door, everyone else, including the teacher, is naked while he remains fully dressed. This is, of course, a comic reversal of a common dream and I was surprised when an attendee wrote in her class evaluation: “You should have warned us about the nude scenes. I was unprepared for such a disturbing image,” and since then, I warn my classes in advance about upcoming scenes with both violence and nudity.
So what about nudity in the three films we are considering. A scene in “The Goblet of Fire” has Harry Potter needing to take a bath to decipher a clue when the ghost of Moaning Myrtle appears and dives into the water presumably to see Harry naked. Harry’s adolescent distress is played for laughs. In “King Kong,” the cannibalistic natives are clad only in loincloths and Naomi Watts’ silk nightgown is often wet and clinging (but, somehow remains remarkably intact considering everything that happens to her). Even “The Chronicles of Narnia” has topless mermaids, and some bare -chested centaurs who are, (based on comments from the women sitting behind me in the theater) decidedly sexy. So should I caution you about nudity per se? My answer is a simple “No.” Through this grandfather’s eyes, none of the scenes listed were worth including a caution in my reviews. But violence? That’s another matter.
So in the future my columns will often include a brief “Grandpa Cautions” section to let you know my concerns about specific scenes. We need all the help we can get in our roles as parents and grandparents. It is even more true today than when Francis Bacon wrote long ago: “Knowledge is power.”
Comments? E-mail gilmansergh@comcast.net
Listen to Gil”s “Cinema Toast” at 7:35 Thursday mornings on 95.9
