Reform the Ratings System Already!!! (The time I saw both Gimme Shelter - PG-13 and Nebraska - R, with my almost 11 year old daughter in the same day)

So, like I said when I started this blog, we're movie people in my household.  That means that my almost 11 year old daughter has seen far more movies than most kids her age (still amazes me - it's just normal to me).  It also means that in addition to all the G and PG cartoons and family films that come out, she has also seen many PG-13 and even a handful of R rated movies (the 80s version, like Stand By Me and the modern version...).   She started asking to see more grown up movies a couple of years ago, most notably with The Help and Eat, Pray, Love (the latter wasn't even something I myself was interested in).  I look into the movies and try my best to decide which are appropriate and which are not.  Heidi and I talk about everything anyway, so when it comes to movies, I know I can help her understand things that might be a bit beyond her understanding and she enjoys learning about the world.  Although she still likes most of the kid flicks, even she couldn't stomach Madea's Christmas when she went to see it with her dad in December.

I say all of this to set you up for a story that is becoming all too common for us.  Simply put, the current rating system is completely out of wack (or maybe it's just wack!)!  Case in point:  Gimme Shelter, a movie starring Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame and so will undoubtedly attract many of that younger Disney set, is rated PG-13.  This movie is filled with adult themes from beginning to end (strung out abusive mother, teen pregnancy, abortion) that require an adult to explain and a mature younger person, whether 13, 15 or 11.  I was prepared for that, but most parents probably would not be, given that PG-13 is typically based just on how many "S" and "F" words or how many body parts are shown.  Thematically, this should have been an R rated movie.  Kids can be told not to say bad words and they know what boobies are, but adult themes (or extreme violence or the supernatural) cannot be unseen or even fully explained.  I am not complaining for myself and my daughter (we enjoy the opportunity to talk these things through), but for the system in general.

Nebraska, on the other hand, is rated R.  Why. Why?! Because the "S" and "F" words are used about half a dozen times.  There is literally NOTHING else that would prevent it from being seen by even a toddler!  I am NOT kidding here, folks.  I don't think the people setting the ratings even watch these movies.  They just do some calculation from a spreadsheet on curse words and boobs and call it a day.  This is completely irresponsible, I mean, what's the point of even doing it?  I had waited longer than usual on having her see Nebraska because I couldn't find any solid information on why it was rated R and I figured there might be something I didn't know about, whereas with Gimme Shelter, I knew she would want to see it and with its PG-13 rating, I didn't really think twice.

More examples:
We saw Guilt Trip with Barbra Streisand a couple years ago which was rated R, again for just TWO "F" words, spoken by Babs herself.  Maybe there's some sliding scale that if someone that huge says it, it counts double?  Just the commercials for Mama a couple years ago, rated PG-13 were too scary to watch, let alone the supernatural, unexplainable nature of that movie itself.  Those ratings should absolutely be reversed. 

We also watch a lot of old 70s-90s movies, from an era where the ratings system was completely different (PG-13 only came about after the "heart-wrenching" scene in Indiana Jones II).  Yes, we'll put in Stand By Me, Sixteen Candles, Bad News Bears, even Goonies and hear all kinds of curse words and an occasional boob, but that just makes everyone laugh for a minute and move on with life.  That should be the standard.  Can you get on with your child's day or are you now in for a lengthy discussion that will never end because there is no way to explain it?

Seriously, read this garbage: http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means  My favorite quote: "A motion picture’s single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context." Oh, and this, "The theme of the motion picture by itself will not result in a rating greater than PG-13".

I'm ready to sign a petition. Anyone else experience this type of discrepancy lately?

P.S. I will actually review Gimme Shelter and Nebraska under different posts, along with my favorite Bruce Dern movie, Silent Running, which I also watched recently with my daughter :)