The Rumored PG-13 Rating

Why do people think that Ep II should've been rated PG-13?

Oh and I agree that Ep III will be PG (just trying to stay on target).

 

There is no doubt Episode III will be the most dark and violent SW film. But even so, Episode III will be rated PG. GL likes to keep certain things about every film the same, one of those things being the rating. I don't see why the last film will automatically be PG-13.

 

Why do people think that Ep II should've been rated PG-13?

lets see, a father figure gets his head chopped off, someone gets his arm chopped off and a whole bunch of other people gets brutally slaughtered hmm

hmmm

 

Yes, but those scenes were generally made bloodless and unrealistic. Lucas knows that a large segment of his audience is under 13 and if he doesn't make compromises with the MPAA to get that PG rating, he's in trouble.

 

I just bought AOTC on DVD in Australia and that comes with a M15+ certificate.
So it appears that George Lucas doesn't really care what rating it gets and maybe Ep 3 will get the same

 

Lucas will definatly get a PG rating for Episode III; even if he has to slip a little money under the table to do it

 

I think it will be a PG rating because George Lucas is George Lucas. Any lesser director whose movie had as much beheadings, head butts, and limbs flying off as AOTC did would have gotten a PG-13 slapped on their movie. It all has to do with clout.

 

I actually pay no attention to the rating. But it's going to be PG because all 5 other SW movies are PG. Why deviate from what's already set in stone?

Unless Lucas wants to do something radical, I can confidently say that it'll be PG because as stated earlier, any rating other than that would be devastating.

 

so why is AOTC rated M15+ on DVD in Australia then?

 

No offense, but I am sure that George concerns himself soley with the American rating system, and puts little thought into such systems abroad....






Mace Windy,
making the evasion of spoilers look breezy!

 

I doubt it will get PG-13, although with all thats going to go down I can't fathom how they are going to give it a PG, but I'm positive they will find a way.

 

"No offense, but I am sure that George concerns himself soley with the American rating system, and puts little thought into such systems abroad.... "


If that is the case then why did he remove the head butt scene from the UK release. Unless you think that the UK is part of the US now.

 

Most likely, it was 20th Century Fox, not George Lucas, who decided to trim the few frames which showed Jango headbutting Obi-Wan. Obviously, as a major motion picture distributing company, you would not want to allienate a vast majority of your target crowd, the young people. As the rating grows more and more restrictive, the ticket sales decline.




Mace Windy,
making the evasion of spoilers look breezy!

 

I dont get it.
First you say that they are not bothered about the rating system in other countries, then you say the distributor is.
My point is the Australian DVD came with a M15+ rating. Now accoding to your last theory, they are alienating the younger people from buying the DVD in Australia.
If that is not the case and they dont give a damn about the rating system, then is it not feasable that Episode 3 could be released at a rating other than PG?

 

Well im Australian so i know our system and what makes me wonder is that the vhs edition is rated pg while the dvd is m, quite funny really. Could an american please explain their system so i can understand it more. In Australia its almost certain that ep 3 will get an m rating, ma+15 is way over the top and pg wont be enuf. well someone please inform asap.

 

I think a lot of the PG-13 ratings are given out to films that are primarily lude or frightening. Action can be very different. For instance, there is more action in AOTC than in pretty much any other film out there. But, the difference is that Star Wars action is generally used for excitement and not intended to frighten people (exceptions are Tusken Slaughter scene, the Cantina Scene, etc); whereas, the action in something like Lord of the Rings and Predator is intended to be rather frightening and intentionally horrific. You can notice that there isn't a whole lot of blood in 'Fellowship of the Ring,' but you wouldn't disagree that it diserves a PG-13 rating. The violence is very graphic, unlike in AOTC.

Now, I don't think that the violence in Episode III will be any more graphic or violent than the most violent scenes throughout the series, but it will probably have many, many of these scenes. Picture a whole SW film pieced together with violent scenes like the Dagobah Tree, the Tusken Slaughter scene, the Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon and the gets chopped in half scene, and all of them probably having the ferociousness of the Vader vs. Luke on the Bespin ramp scene.

Still, I do not think that Episode III will get a PG-13 rating. But, there is a very, very good chance that it will. But, this also comes with the very, very good chance that it will be the best Star Wars film ever. The series I'm actually really positive will get a PG-13 rating is the Harry Potter series. If any of you saw 'Chamber of Secrets,' the final scene was so far beyond frigthening for little kids that I'm kinda shocked it didn't get PG-13. The monster was very realistic, it's pretty graphic violence, and it's just plain scary! I've never been even remotely scared by any monster I've ever seen in a movie, but this thing comes closer to making me jump with horror than anything I've seen on screen. I read the book and I'm suprised that Chris Columbus had the guts to make much an adaptation of the monster.

 

Sonic, you make some excellent points. I was about to suggest that Lucas doesn't *want* to scare/horrify us, and that this fact would result in a lower (PG) rating, as Sonic suggests, but then again... Lucas has said this will be the darkest of the 6 films, so maybe my thoughts about trying to horrify will be off. It would certainly be striking after the lack of it in the other 5 films.

But I still think that it's more likely that Lucas will stick with his formula and that it'll get a PG rating in the end.

 

i don't really think the rating will be a big issue. remember that the movie is still 2 1/2 years away, times change and so do rating scales. what is pg 13 now was R ten years ago. personally, i think it'll be PG for that reason. he will be able to get away with a lot more and keep it PG in a couple of years than he did with AOTC. however, i don't feel a PG 13 rating would hurt the "kiddie audience" sales at all, since most parents would let their kids go see it. if a lot of parents let their kids go see 8 mile, then they won't stop them from seeing EP III either.

 

I disagree. As a parent, and a huge Star Wars fan, I don't want my kids to see AOTC until they are at least able to understand the "Hollywood" violence. (Whether that happens at age 13, before, or after is somewhat irrelevant) Even then, I will sit with my child and gage their feelings.

Ratings are a guideline - responsible parents don't blindly take children to see any movie because some "expert" decided it gets a PG or a PG13.

Personally - AOTC should have gotten a PG13. It is very violent - just because there's no blood doesn't mean that the decapitation is any less violent.

On the subject, I would be surprised if GL let one of his hexad have a rating other than the rest. (i.e. only a PG) Yet, as AOTC has shown, I suspect that the rating will be PG only in name - not based on content.

 

Darth_Punk, It's been my understanding (from other postes from Australia)that the theatrical release of AOTC was rated PG (or your equivalent) but only the DVD is M 15. Curious. Perhaps something in the bonus features bumped it up a rating.

Either way, the theatrical releases of all SW movies have been rated PG or the international equivalent.

I would guess Ep III will be PG.

 

The only thing is that both the disks have a rating on them and the rating is M15+.
So that tells me that something on disk one has made it M15+.
The mystery is that the Video release has a PG rating, and i agree with a post above me saying that AOTC is violent enough to warrant a rating above PG.

 

PG-13! Yeah right! Sorry, I just can't see a PG-13 SW. SW has been a family thing, why change it? Besides, even if it is PG-13, GL will probably find a way to lower it to PG. He can get some rating lowering tips from his buddy Steven Spielberg who got Poltergeist lowered from R to PG!

 

i wasn't trying to say that parents aren't responsible. i was only trying to say that the rating system will change by then. what is now pg 13 will probably be pg in 2 1/2 years. and if you thought that AOTC was more violent and should've been PG 13, that's proof that the rating standards are becoming more lax. personally, i don't care what rating it gets.