When this movie was released, what levels did the ratings system having? I think G existed, and X did, too. Did R come later?
shareI believe the original ratings were:
X
R
M (Mature)
G
"M" was replaced by "GP" around 1971, I think. "GP" then morphed into "PG", which many years later was split into "PG" and "PG-13."
"X" was replaced by "NC-17" around 1990.
It was re-rated R for the DVD. The MPAA has stated that it does not consider M equivalent to PG and that all such films are subject to rerating when reissued.
shareYou're both right, actually. At the time, when M was abandoned, and GP was rolled out in it's place, all of the old M films simply defaulted to GP (which lasted a couple of years, and was replaced by PG.)
Many years later, the MPAA decided that any film originally rated with an 'obsolete' rating (M, GP etc.) needed to be re-submitted...this has led to a slew of old GP films being re-rated PG-13 because they feature people smoking cigarettes (which is ridiculous.)
Eh, just a little more info... "M" was first, "For Mature Audiences," as denoted by this vintage PSA with Julie Andrews:
https://archive.org/details/Drive-inJulieAndrewsMpaaPsa
Basically M was the result of the talky 1966 mindbender "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which no one was quite sure what to do with. The rating wasn't firmly in place yet, but "for mature audiences" was plastered all over the ad campaign. Movies like "Easy Rider" and "A Clockwork Orange" then came along to shock the world and garner "X" ratings. Then "Deep Throat" was an unlikely hit in the early '70s, so porn-makers came up with "XXX" and self-imposed it - the MPAA had nothing to do with it but people came to know XXX as porn. Matter of fact, a lot of X-rated softcore flicks (nudity, humping but no erections/penetration) from that era were never officially rated either, the distributors just stuck X-ratings on em and no one objected.
The weird thing about "M" is that they've mandated re-rating... yet "Planet of the Apes" features nudity, profanity and violence galore and has retained a G-rating for decades. 1978's "Hair" has extensive drug use, full-frontal nudity, a song called "Sodomy" and a PG rating! The MPAA's ratings system is confoundingly arbitrary and frequently ludicrous.
That's interesting. I guess R came in in 1968 when the ratings system was enlarged and made official. I knew XXX was a self-applied rating. I think "Tropic of Cancer" is one of the few officially X-rated films? "Fritz the Cat" would be another...
shareAlso Rated X in the mainstream films: Midnight Cowboy (1969), Last Tango in Paris (1972), A Clockwork Orange (1972)
I don't know if there were others.
~If you go through enough doors, sooner or later you're gonna find a dog on the other side.~🐕
"Easy Rider" was rated "R".
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