A new rule by the Motion Picture Association of America was set last May, stating that movies with excessive cigarette smoking will now be given a more restricted rating. The association is considering cigarette smoking to be in the same category as sex and violence, when rating movies.
Woody Allen's newest movie, “Cassandra’s Dream”, managed to slip through the cracks with a PG-13 rating, despite it's excessive smoking. Few other movies have also managed to get lower ratings, due to them being rated before this new rule was set. A spokesperson for the Weinstein Company, which holds distribution rights to the film, said although the film managed to not get an R rating, the Weinstein Company was the "first motion picture company to include anti smoking public service announcements on DVDs of movies that depict smoking."
So what do you think? Should cigarette smoking be considered just as bad as sex and violence for younger audiences? I feel this is semi-stupid, as most people know movies are not real, and the people smoking are just actors. I grew up in a house where BOTH of my parents smoked, and giving a movie an R-rating to prevent me from seeing what I see at home everyday, I find to be pointless.
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6 comments:
I tend to agree with the Motion Picture Association of America. I understand that smoking is still around (and will problably be around as long as freedom of choice remains in tact), but that doesn't mean that we need to glamorize and subject our children to this addiction. Adults understand that Hollywood is not always real; however, most children do not have that maturity level to reason between real and fantasy. If a poll was taken of adult smokers, I think most of them would tell you they started smoking at a young age (15-19 on average.) Very rarely will you have someone tell you they started to smoke when they were 30 or 40. Children are vunerable and impressionable concerning what they see. For the most part,movies are real to them.
I find this a little stupid. I mean sure we don't want children and younger people to get the idea that smoking is cool or "glamorize" it as Jan said, but putting it on the same level as violence or sex is going a little to far. For example if great violence was around us in our life we would get away ASAP. Just as if we saw a couple doing too much PDA we would leave and get our children away as well. Smoking, however, is all around us in our daily life and if we see someone smoking on the street we don't run away or get out of sight of it. So why then should we rank it in the movies as the same level as violence or sex.
I'd like to side with freedom of speech and disagree with Motion Picture Association of America's dission. The idea of advertising smoking to childern is wrong and should not be allowed, but this measure of caution that the MPAA is taking is ubsterd. If they were going to try to have the publics health in mind that should worry about cereals with high sugar content instead. Obesity is becoming an even large problem in the US. The U.S. department of health and human services had this to say,
"Approximately 300,000 deaths a year in this country are currently associated with overweight and obesity . Left unabated, overweight and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking."
2001 report on Overweight and Odesity
I think they have good intentions in what they are doing, but there are bigger issues that face young children today besides smoking.
I have to agree on putting a stronger rating on movies such as "Casandra's Dream." It is not right to expose young viewers to smoking sense they are under the legal age to purchase them. Regardless what people do at home, I believe that Hollywood has that responsibility to make the ratings stronger for young viewers. Young viewers sometimes believe that what they see actors doing in movies is okay.
I have a 6 year old girl, and I wouldn't want her to be exposed to movies with actors smoking and definiently having sex. I do not want her to get the impression that it is okay to do such things. I thank Hollywood for the changes that they are doing.
This is a hard one to tackle. I do think its important to keep new generations from smoking but I don't know if rating a movie R will solve anything. I guess that even if they rate it R because of the smoking it won't hurt anyone so let them do it. I feel like this is just another issue that parents should deal with themselves. If a child is set on not smoking than why should a movie influence them to do so. Theres more pressure from the real world to smoke than movies. I am a on again off again smoker and whenever I watch a movie with constant cigeratte smoking it makes me want one..bad. So I would have to say that it will only help to not have them in pg 13 movies.
I think this article is interesting. It would not bother me if they change the ratings, but I think that parents are the number one influence in a childs life and they need to step in and really look at what they are letting there kids watch. To me, I understand that writers are trying to portray a certain image of a character in a movie, but to me its a little distracting when a character smokes that a lot in movie. I don't think it is no where near equal to sex and violence in a movie.
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