MovieChat Forums > The Lost City of Z (2017) Discussion > Rated R for "brief violence"

Rated R for "brief violence"


What sort of violence?

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Brief

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I saw the film at NYFF before it had been rated, and was wondering about the rating. It's the sort of film which probably would've gotten a PG-13 in the 1990s but the MPAA is pretty strict now, and there were one or two shots which seemed to be beyond current PG-13 standards (though had they decided to edit it, could easily be PG-13 losing only a couple seconds).

Anyway there is a not too graphic shot of a spear going through someone which was borderline, as well as a shot in the WW1 sequence of a soldier getting shot in the head with a large blood spray that seemed R to me, which probably triggered the rating.

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It's interesting you say the MPAA is now more strict as I've read stuff from people who think the opposite, particularly with regard to violence and that films like the Dark Knight would have once been R. Some films go down to PG13 on appeal, I wonder if this will be one of them.

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I think those groups claiming PG-13 films are more violent now are just counting the number of "violent acts" while ignoring that current PG-13s tend to be very sanitized in those violent acts, with little blood and often cutting around so you don't see the actual violence (I've always liked this video which explains the situation and provides comparison clips)
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=O-NeJRrgoTY

And for a comparison to this film, a few months ago I saw Ridley Scott's 1492 which is similarly themed and has significantly more violence/gore but got a PG-13 in the 90s, and I'd also point to Finding Dory getting a PG and TMNT: Out of the Shadows a PG-13 as recent examples of a more strict MPAA.

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They lost the appeal, but did re-edit for a PG-13 (the MPAA website mentions the re-edit).
As I said, probably only a couple seconds had to be changed.

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Ridiculous! How about superheroes movies? And the news on TV every day?

Rob: 15 times on French news programmes. His face is a Greco-Roman marvel.

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[deleted]

It received an R equivalent in both the United Kingdom and Ireland!

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