Research Proposal

Christopher Bryan

01/29/2014

English Composition 2

Research Proposal

A bit of a dated argument, but it’s the hook I’m using. A movie where children and teenagers are forced to brawl to the death for entertainment, in a fantasy world, is rated PG-13; whereas a movie where children are bullied by other children, in the world we live in, is rated R. If you’re frowning at the idea or shrugging it off, you’re already taking a side on the debate of how the MPAA regulates a movie’s content—possibly if you’re like me, how it’s morphed the industry of Hollywood to a PG-13 frenzy of torture, genocide, drugs, mild language and decency in clothing. A few movies such as Bully and The Kings Speech were given the R treatment not because of an over-saturation or glorifying of these features, but because of foul language. In past cases appealing R ratings to PG-13, such as Gunner Palace, “fuck” was permitted 47 times. In the sense of violence, the highest ranking on-screen body count in cinema history just so happens to be a PG-13 movie (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), at 836. The best grossing films in cinema history are lined up with G through PG-13, sparsely seeing R in the top 100 and rarely seeing NC-17 or its predecessor X in the top 10,000. Is this possibly the sweet spot for creative liberty and accessibility, or manipulation of the public to bring children to mature films, disguised as PG-13, for the best profit? If it’s the latter, who’s to blame; Hollywood or the MPAA?

One source that elaborates upon the restriction of content for benefiting motion pictures comes from a Film School professor, David Franklin, and his article published in the Journal of Film and Video in the spring of 2001, “The Professor As Censor: Creative Limitations and Film Production Pedagogy”. He experimented with limiting the content that could be inside a student’s films, then researched about others who have tried restrictions as a form of creative inspiration. Another, titled “Prevalence of smoking among major movie characters: 1996-2004”, was written by Keilah A Worth, Sonya Dal Cin and James D Sargent-- published in the magazine Tobacco Control in December of 2006. This article looks at the shift of smoking figures from the various ratings and their appearance as the years progress. The next source, “Sex-and-Violence Ratings: What's in Them for Libraries?” examines the treatment of films within public libraries and court cases concerning their accessibility in the 20th century. The article was published in American Libraries in April of 2000, written by C. James Schmidt. Another article, published in the Chicago Tribune and written by Michael Phillips, "There's a Word for the MPAA...." concerned the recent ratings of The Kings Speech and Saw 3D receiving the same content, despite being worlds apart in content-- published on November 04. 2010. A more factual and medical article, “The Effectiveness of the Motion Picture Association of America's Rating System in Screening Explicit Violence and Sex in Top-ranked Movies From 1950 to 2006”, written by Priya G. Nalkur, Ed.D., M.P.H., Patrick E. Jamieson, Ph.D., Daniel Romer, Ph.D, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health on November 2010, proves that PG-13 has allowed violence to seep in over the years, making adult content accessible to children. A less grounded but quotable source, “MPAA Defends Ratings System: Parents Are Happy from Huffington Post” on November 13th, 2013, written by Jake Coyle, talks about a more recent film caught in the R rating by language and looks to various positions for statements. An article that will help identify the revenue and predictability of income from R-rated films, “Managerial Objectives, the R‐Rating Puzzle, and the Production of Violent Film”, was written by S. Abraham Ravid and Suman Basuroy for the April, 2004 edition of The Journal of Buisness. An article that shows the MPAA’s jurisdiction on major motion pictures to independent films, “"The Ambitions of Most Independent Filmmakers": Indie Production, the Majors, and Friday the 13th (1980)”, from Richard Nowell’s article in Summer, 2011’s publication of Journal of Film and Video, will help identify how the MPAA can be biased in its judging and the fear of an above R-rating can drive a production to the ground. One last article chosen, strictly for the household name and quotability, comes from the late Roger Ebert in The Wall Street Journal publication of “Getting Real About Movie Ratings”, made public on December 11th, 2010. This article covers the state of media today, how the MPAA covers up some movies over others, and what should be done and known overall.

So far, I've collected half of the information on Google searches and some Olympic College Online Library articles, just to get a foundation on what my topic is and where it can go. The plan I have to collect information is to not sift through search result pages, but visit various sites and search for what they have to offer. Since opinion articles will be plenty, I'll need to be cautious about where I gather my sources from. OC's online library will be a major source for the research paper, if a few books are involved at all. Most of the great points about the MPAA are being said right now, so printed proof will probably be out of the question.

 

Works Cited

Abelman, Robert, and E. Jean Gubbins. "Preaching to the Choir: TV Advisory Usage among Parents of Gifted Children." Roeper Review 22.1 (1999): 56-64. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

 

Bates, Roy E. "Private Censorship of Movies." Stanford Law Review. Stanford Law Review, (Feb. 1970) Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

 

Bully. Dir. Lee Hirsch. The Weinstein Company. 2011. Film.

 

Cohen, Joel, and Americus Reed II. "A Multiple Pathway Anchoring and Adjustment (MPAA) Model of Attitude Generation and Recruitment." Journal of Consumer Research. The University of Chicago Press, 1 (June 2006) Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/504121>.

 

Coyle, Jake. "MPAA Defends Ratings System: Parents Are Happy." The Huffington Post. 13 (Nov. 2013) Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/mpaa-ratings-system_n_4269665.html>.

 

Ebert, Roger. "Getting Real About Movie Ratings." WSJ. (11 Dec. 2010) Web. 28 Jan. 2015.< http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703766704576009343432436296>.

 

Nalkur, Priya, Patrick Jamieson, and Daniel Romer. “Movies From 1950 to 2006." ScienceDirect. Elsevier, (1 Nov. 2010) Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X10000790>.

 

Franklin, David. "The Professor As Censor: Creative Limitation and Film Production Pedagogy." Journal of Film and Video. Journal of Film and Video, 53.1: 25-39. (Spring 2001) Web. 29 Jan. 2015. 

 

Gunner Palace. Dir. Michael Tucker. Palm Pictures. 2004. Film.

 

Hebert, Thomas P., and Daniel R. Hammond. "Guided Viewing of Film with Gifted Students: Resources for Educators and Counselors." Gifted Child Today 29.3 (2006): 14-27. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

 

Kehrberg, Amanda. "Bully Ratings Controversy Sparks Criticism of MPAA System." NewTimes Phoenix. (5 Apr. 2012) Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/04/bully_phoenix_film_festival_ra.php>.

 

The Kings Speech. Dir. Tom Hooper. Perf. Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The Weinstein Company. 2010. Film.

 

Krcmar, Marina, and Joanne Cantor. "The Role of Television Advisories and Ratings in Parent-Child Discussion of Television Viewing Choices." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 41.3 (1997): 393-411. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

 

Krule, Miriam. "A.O. Scott’s Explanations of MPAA Ratings Are Even Better Than His Movie Reviews."Browbeat. (28 Mar. 2014) Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/03/28/new_york_times_mpaa_rating_explanations_how_a_o_scott_turns_pg_13s_into.html>.

 

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Viggo Mortensen. New Line Cinema. 2003. Film

 

Moon, Sangkil, Paul K. Bergey, and Dawn Iacobucci. "Dynamic Effects among Movie Ratings, Movie Revenues, and Viewer Satisfaction." Journal of Marketing. 74.1 (Jan. 2010): 108-121. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

 

Nalkur, Priya, Patrick Jamieson, and Daniel Romer. "The Effectiveness of the Motion Picture Association of America's Rating System in Screening Explicit Violence and Sex in Top-ranked Movies From 1950 to 2006."ScienceDirect. Elsevier, 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.< http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X10000790>.

 

Nowell, Richard. ""The Ambitions of Most Independent Filmmakers": Indie Production, the Majors, and Friday the 13th (1980)." Journal of Film and Video. University of Illinois Press, 63.2 (Summer. 2011) Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

 

Phillips, Michael. "There's a Word for the MPAA...." Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing, (4 Nov. 2010) Web. 15 Jan. 2015.< http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-04/entertainment/chi-talking-pictures-1105_1_joan-graves-r-rating-mpaas>.

 

Ravid, Abraham Ravid S. "Managerial Objectives, the R-Rating Puzzle, and the Production of Violent Films." The Journal of Buisness. The University of Chicago Press, n.d. Web. 29 Jan.

 

Saw 3D. Dir. Kevin Greutert. Perf. Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, and Betsy Russell. Lionsgate. 2010.

 

 

Schmidt, C. James. "Sex-and-Violence Ratings: What's in Them for Libraries?" American Libraries. American Library Association, 31.4 (Apr. 2000): 44-46. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.< http://www.jstor.org/stable/25637581>.

 

Sneed, Tierney. "Don’t Expect Any Major Changes to the MPAA Ratings System in 2014." US News. U.S.News & World Report, (7 Jan. 2014) Web. 15 Jan. 2015.< http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/07/dont-expect-a-new-movie-ratings-system-in-2014>.

 

Thompson, Kimberly, and Fumie Yokota. "Violence, Sex, and Profanity in Films: Correlation of Movie Ratings With Content." Medscape. Medscape, 6.3 (3 June 2004) Web. 15 Jan. 2015.< http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/480900>.

 

Wilson, Barbara. "What's Wrong with the Ratings?" Center for Media Literacy. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.< http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/whats-wrong-ratings>.

 

Worth Keilah, Sonya Cin, and James Sargent. "Prevalence of Smoking among Major Movie Characters: 1996-2004." Tobacco Control. 15.6 (Dec. 2006): 442-446. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.< http://www.jstor.org/stable/20748060>.