Yes boys and girls, this is the 200th entry and after sorting through the countless recommendations made by you (or the one recommendation) i am going to rant about the reader choice of... wait for it... wait for it... Jack Valenti.
Jack Valenti who passed away this past April was the man responsible for the MPAA and therefore the movie rating system which we all know and love all so fondly. Oh you mischievous little PG-13.
Where to begin, where to begin? Well i could talk about his sudden rise to political power after the Kennedy assassination but that's all too 'conspiracy theory' for me. i could discuss how he's another horrible export of Texas. Thanks for another one Texas, maybe you should be your own country so that you stop fucking up ours. Aw, Texas is too easy a target.
i could talk about his life long battle against technology. How he filed lawsuits against Sony to try and keep VCR's off the market because they would cut into the movie industry's revenues. His constant lobbying and legal battles against online movie/video services. His formation of some copyright contingent uniting movie, music, sports, and television copyright holders to urge congress to defend their moneymaking.
As a brief tangent, anything said/typed by me on this site is free to be used by anyone so long as you give me credit. All any true artist should want is credit for the art they put out there. The artists aren't the ones losing tons of money, it's the corporation who are losing the money. But i wouldn't expect dear old Jack to understand artists because he never was one.
The reality is, i don't need to discuss the copyright issues because currently dvd and cd sales are plummeting faster than real estate prices. These large corporations are panicking and flailing about as they make less and less money. Their days are numbered, we just have to wait.
No, my real bone of contention with Mr Valenti is the rating system and it's thinly veiled inner workings which benefit himself and his friends in the movie studios. He regularly claimed that he did not want to define morality but that is just what he did. He helped to establish a warm, fuzzy, easily digestible form of censorship.
The ratings are based on a group of reviewer's morals. Boobs are OK (well, they are far more than OK, but as far as movies go they are OK to show). Butts are somewhat alright. Females bellow the belt might make it into an R but male below the belt usually will get you an NC-17. Fallacio references may slide into PG-13 if brief and humorous enough but you're pushing it to get cunnilingus into an R. Oh, did i mention that those are all in a heterosexual context. Homosexual references of such sorts will all but guarantee a sweet old NC-17.
Without wanting to get much more long winded with the point, there has been established a hierarchy of what seems to be acceptable within any given rating parameter. Violence is widely accepted with only the more gruesome portrayals getting serious ratings. The more the better. Swearing is accepted to a point depending on word selection and frequency. Sex is a problem in this country and same-sex relations seem almost unacceptable on film.
The perpetuation of these puritanical ideals is beyond asinine. In fact, we seem to have moved backwards in this regard over the past decade or so. Control of art through censorship and monetary influence destroys our culture. Paintings seem to be the art medium most controlled by the few with large amounts of money determining what is fine and what isn't. Movies second due to the large amounts of collateral needed to make them. Music next with needed large industry distribution even though home engineering is ever improving in quality. The written word, especially with the advent of the internet, has seen a rebirth in it's accessibility and level of freedom.
Branding a movie with an NC-17 means that it will most likely not be picked up for distribution. A whole slew of topics are immediately taken off the table. With this success in movie control others have tried to do the same to other entertainment industries with varying success. Music now has advisory stickers. Video games now have a rating system. This quickly turns into a slippery slope, all graded by (or buy) the man himself Jack Valenti.
That is the reality of his legacy. That is how his existence has effected this country. How easy it is for those with money to cloud the judgement of the masses, conning them into giving up control and freedom.
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