The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, June 20, 1984, Page Page 4, Image 4
Page 4 ? June 20, 1984 Opinion _ THE GAMECOSK^tt,
Film Rating Code
fails in purpose
This summer's release of the film "Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom" has rekindled debate
over the Motion Picture Association of America's
rating system. At the heart of the concern is the
worthlessness of the system to provide parents with
a guide to films suitable for children. Certainlv the
only rating with any practical relevance is X.
The exact guidelines used in assigning a rating
have never been disclosed, but everything seems to
suggest offensive language and sex are the prime
bugaboos, the apparent presumption being that an
excess of one is equivalent to an excess of the other.
How the MPAA works violence into the equation
leading to a film's rating is anybody's guess.
But to have a movie such as "Indiana Jones," containing
a scene depicting a man's heart being torn
out, and "E. T." both rated PG is a patent absurdity.
However one feels about "Indiana Jones,"
many younger viewers, their parents led by advance
publicity into believing that the film is just a simple
updating of the old adventure movie genre of the
30s and 40s, may not be prepared for the brutal
savagery of such scenes.
But simply expanding the range of categories, as
many are suggesting, is unlikely to work to
anyone's satisfaction either. In the first six years
the system was in effect. 20 oercent of the nearlv
3,000 films rated were G. PG was given to 38 percent,
R to 37 and X to 5. G, of course, was intended
to denote films suitable for general audiences
and encompassed a variety of excellent films appealing
to a broad spectrum of ages and tastes.
It wasn't long, however, before G became known
as the Disney label, and any film bearing it stood
\itt\e, if any, chance of box office success. PG, R
and X were regarded by the public not so much as
advisory cautions, but as coded messages for the
adult audience: "Don't worry folks, this is stronger
stuff than 'Bambi.'"
DrArln/?A?T ,, ,? ~ * ? 1 "
? iuuuv.wis, warning 10 maKc a ieasonat)le profit,
avoided a G rating like the plague, carefully
sprinkling in a few profanities here, a bare buttocks
in a shower scene there, in order to save their films
from the tepid curse of a G rating.
A new rating, occupying a position between G
and PG, might encompass a film like "The
Natural" and rescue a masterpiece like "Never Cry
Wolf" from the limbo of G, but you can bet the
price ot your next movie ticket and a year's supply
of popcorn that the last G-rated films would have
already been made, and the new rating would begin
to suffer the same misguided devaluation.
The most workable solution, perhaps, is also the
most drastic: label all pictures either PG or X and
let the MPAA confine itself to the devising of
short, matter-of-fact advisories to accompany ads
r* - ' -
lor me turns, alerting the audience to any specific
extremes of sex, language or violence.
Incisive, exciting, realistic ("The Godfather") or
fantasy-adventure ("Indiana Jones") films could
continue to be made, but films like "The Black
Stallion" and "Never Cry Wolf" would escape being
lumped unfairly with "Bambi" and stand a better
chance of finding an audience and earning a
profit.
| Gamecock I
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i^msmtiFvirF i
IWAS SUCCESSFULLY
1NTERCEPTEDA
DWYW^
m V*-,V , ,;y JW i. -
Censorship
"Of Mice and Men," "The Grapes
of Wrath," "Secret Life of Walter
Mitty," and "Catcher in the Rye" are
popular works that are often required
reading in English classes.
But a recent survey shows that these
books, along with dozens of others,
are being censored in Ohio and across
the countrv.
The study done by The People for
the American Way shows that in the
last three years there were more than
100 documented accounts of censorship
in Ohio.
The organization surveyed 615 city
and county school superintendents
throughout Ohio. Two hundred,
thirty-seven surveys were returned with
58 school districts reporting censorship
attempts within the past three years.
some censored works include pictures
of nude models in an art draw ing
America iea
The Soviets have the system down pat
with a littlp lifln frr?m th#? Amprioon
...... _ ...... .. -w?|^ * i vtn v i v 4 ktiivi ivuu y^y ^ i
doing what it can do to catch up.
Persecution in the name of psychiatry
name of treatment.
A while back a Soviet newscaster refe
incursion into Afghanistan as an "iiv
guerillas fighting Russian troops as "fre
announcer disappeared from the airwav<
The Soviets said he was obviously r
receiving "treatment" at a mental hospit
air now. The treatment can probably be
tar ? he hasn't again referred to the A
fighters."
The Soviet Union has become quite
dissidents' mental illnesses. Year in
malcontents are sent to the state hospit
their deseases.
There are two advantages to this mei
The persecutor can claim that he U
persecuted, and, in labeling the persecut
discredits the dissident and his ideology.
Last December Andrei Sakharov, the
nuclear physicist and human rights cru?
smuggled to the West in which he urged
to let the Soviets get the nuclear advant<
Now the arms race is an issue where
hold widely differing opinions. How dii
Sakharov's arguments?
"A sane man would not say such thin
high Soviet official, told the press. He ta
indicate mental unbalance and said t
"talented but sick man."
The Soviets define mental health as
munist state. Thus by definition a sar
against the communist state and a dissic
There are those in the psychiatric comr
what the Soviets do is an abuse of their i
World F'syciatric Association urged ther
of psychiatry.
The WPA misses the point. It is not t
TTVni tr?i r ir
10,
... I MMQEHIMTZ
Jk.
Intercampus
apparent in
book; a textbook describing different
arguments about why the war in Vietnam
occurred, an excerpt concerning a
nursing baby, and the film, "Ordinary
People."
People for the American Way,
founded in 1980, is a non-profit educational
organization that works to protect
individual rights and freedoms.
Founders include writer-producer Nor
man Lear and former congresswoman
Barbara Jordan.
The group was founded to offer an
alternative to such highly organized
groups as the Moral Majority and Pro
i-amny i-orum.
People for the American Way, based
in Washington D.C., has more than
100,000 members across the country
and five regional offices that use the
mass media, citizen action and public
rnina Soviet
. The United States, of psychiatry that i<
iiatric*community, is lusion between stat
In America we hi
Punishment in the Mr. Longstaff imm
Now, nineteen yeai
rred to his country's
vasion" and to the Mr. Longstaff is
edom fighters." The Naturalization Serv
:s for a while. preferences to imm
nentally ill and was not asked if he was
:al. He's back on the had a "Psychopath
juageu a success so "Unbeknownst t(
.fghans as "freedom as saying, "I was ;
American laws."
adept at treating its Indeed he was. V
and year out the discovered some em
als to be treated for was labeled based u
part, by the social <
Homosexuality is
thod of persecution- Since the onlv Qvmr?
. V "J '"K
actually helping the also the disease itsel
ed as mentally ill, he ly choose homosexi
The implications;
Nobel prize-winning a concept that denie
sader, had an article tion is wrong and
the United States not should be made ill
jge. bitrarily to mask pe
reasonable men can Psychosis is distil
d the Soviets answer psychotic disorders
those with neuroses
gs," Vitaly Ruben, a Mr. Longstaff is
ipped his forehead to about not having
he Sakharov was a evidence that Long
On the contrary it i
loyalty to the com- vice that appears tc
le man cannot rebel On whose behal
lent cannot be sane. deportation? Lone;
ninity who claim that would go into remi:
science. Last year the Is his disease cor
n to end their misuse Americans that sho
he Soviet application
|J|^piMChlCai}p'Ilrlbmye,..
N.
VT CAN'T )
OK. I
Ohio, too
education to counter censorship
actions.
Joyce Garver Keller. Ohio Director
of the organization, said "What all
these books have in common is that
they offer students a chance to learn
about new ideas and different viewpoints,
and that they encourage
studetns to think for themselves. Apparently,
that is just what the censors
do not want."
Keller said her organization's major
challenge is educating the,pubIjc.Jhat, ,:}l
this kind of censorship is indeed taking
place, and is instigated by individuals
and small groups which do not represent
a majority of the community.
She said one way to control censorship
is to make the public aware of
meetings where the fate of these works
are decided. The Latern
Ohio State University
H
psycniatry
/
; the problem, it is the very existence of cole
and psychiatry that is the abuse.
ave the case of Richard Longstaff. In 1965
ligrated to this country from Great Britain.
.> IU1V.I , I IV. 1UV.C3 ucpui Itfl IUII .
a homosexual, and the Immigration and
ice is claiming he lied about his sexual
igration officials. But Mr. Longstaff was
a homosexual. Instead he was asked if he
ic personality."
:> me," The New York Times quoted him
a psychopathic personality, according to
ic was not diagnosed by physicians who
pirical disease growing on him. Instead he
pon behavior. Mental health is defined, in
ind sexual norms.
abnormal, therefore it is a mental illness.
tom of the disease ic thf? hf?h:?v/ir?r /\?/hir-h ic
0 it is impossible for a sane person to freelality.
are enormous. Is American law to sanction
s that actions can be freely taken? If an acsociety
wishes to punish it, that action
egal. It should not resort to labeling ar:rsecution.
igushed from neurosis in that people with
are unable to function in society where
: generally can.
accused of lying to immigration officials
a psychotic personality. But there is no
staff's personality made his life difficult,
s the Immigration and Naturalization Ser>
have made his life miserable.
f are they attempting to carry out this
staff's? It is hard to see how his disease
ssion by mere change of locale. Society's?
itQoiAiicO I f
. ii su mere are many nanve
uld not be allowed to run free.
The Crimson White
university of Alabama