History Film / ThisFilmIsNotYetRated

* CensorDecoy: Discussed, like many other CensorshipTropes. ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' is brought up as an example where the infamous "puppet sex" scene was originally far, ''far'' longer and more explicit than the filmmakers actually wanted, giving them stuff they could cut away to satisfy the MPAA that they didn't want in the film anyway. . . leading to the "Unrated" home video release, which included the full "puppet sex" scene, going far past the point of being funny.

''This Film is Not Yet Rated'', a 2006 {{documentary}} film directed by Kirby Dick, explores the film rating policies in the US in exhaustive detail -- and [[ExecutiveMeddling how those policies affect a film's distribution and overall content before its release]].[[note]]For the record; a ratings board managed by the Motion Picture Association of America, which is a private industry group not officially sanctioned by any government, handles the US film ratings system.)[[/note]]

* CensorshipBureau: See OmniscentCouncilOfVagueness. Because the MPAA doesn't want to be perceived as this, they're often hesitant to explain exactly ''why'' they're giving a specific film a specific rating, leaving directors and editors to guess at how much of what to cut for resubmission to reach a target rating. Flat-out asking the MPAA how the film would need to be edited to reach a target rating may or may not work. . . and seems to be more likely to work if it's a studio-backed feature, less likely to work for an independent film.

* JerkassHasAPoint: The MPAA is rather vilified by the documentary (and based on the specific incidents, not necessarily unfairly), but some of their decisions do make an amount of sense. For instance, not allowing citing of precedent (i.e. Film X had Scene Y and Rating Z; my film has Scene B which is like Scene Y but is getting Rating B), since practices and standards have changed over time. In particular, the creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984, in response to the too-intense-for-PG-but-not-intense-enough-for-R ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. Many PG films released before the creation of the PG-13 rating border on R, with {{Precision F Strike}}s and even nudity (''Film/{{Airplane}}'' is an example, with prominent bare bouncing breasts right up in camera at one point, a shot impossible to include in a PG movie after 1984, and unlikely even in a PG-13).

* DoWrongRight: The interesting point is made by one of the interviewed filmmakers that a film like, say, ''Film/TheGodfather'', which has fairly sparse but ''very'' brutal violence, gets an R rating, while a ''Franchise/JamesBond'' film, with dozens or hundreds of people gunned down in BloodlessCarnage, gets a PG or PG-13. But since the latter example is inarguably less realistic than the former, it should logically take a more mature mind to realize it as a sanitized and fantastic version of violence, thus sanitized violence should be restricted to more mature audiences while younger audiences should be shown the more realistic version of the horror and consequences of violence.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: How Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone's movies ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' managed to get away with what they did.

''This Film is Not Yet Rated'', a 2006 {{documentary}} film directed by Kirby Dick, explores the film rating policies in the US in exhaustive detail -- and [[ExecutiveMeddling how those policies affect a film's distribution and overall content before its release]]. (For the record: a ratings board managed by the Motion Picture Association of America, which is a private industry group not officially sanctioned by any government, handles the US film ratings system.)

Oh, and here's the kicker: the filmmakers then submit that version of the documentary to the MPAA ratings board. Though it received an NC-17 rating, the final version of the film ended up released as (and will forever remain) unrated.[[note]]At least in America.[[/note]]

* BlatantLies: The filmmakers managed to snag two members of the MPAA appeals board who would speak on camera; one of them insisted on anonymity. The film intersplices the two interviews, which give completely contradictory explanations on how the process works.

* GayPanic: In-universe. The film dedicates a brief section to how the MPAA often rates scenes with explicit gay content higher than scenes with explicit heterosexual content, even if the straight version is more explicit than the gay one (e.g. a lesbian [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]] through her bedclothes in ''Film/ButImACheerleader'' risks an NC-17, but Creator/KevinSpacey's character miserably whacking off in the shower in ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' gets an R).

* OneJudgeToRuleThemAll: According to many of the interviewed directors, MPAA president Jack Valenti had absolute veto power when it came to ratings decisions. He used it quite often, too.

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The film tries to show the MPAA as a RealLife example with an emphasis on vagueness (saying that it's more vague than the {{CIA}}). According to other sources, filmmakers can try to hazard a guess as to why their film received a particular rating and edit accordingly, but... well, to use a popular stereotype as an analogy, the MPAA is like a woman telling her boyfriend that if he doesn't ''know'' what he did to piss her off, [[YouKnowWhatYouDid he doesn't deserve to be told]]. Trey Parker says he received the "vagueness" treatment with his independently-financed comedy ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}'', but got an itemized list of things to tweak when he and Matt Stone submitted the studio-backed ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', which initially received an NC-17... and they later regretted only giving an R.

[[caption-width-right:308:Even the DVD cover had to be {{bowdlerized}}.]]

** Numerous clips of Jack Valenti show him asserting that the members of the board "are neither gods nor fools, just parents" and represent the "average family". Jamie Babbit, the director of ''Film/ButImACheerleader'', wonders if Valenti thought that meant gay and lesbian parents such as herself. [[ForegoneConclusion You can probably guess the answer.]]

* ContentWarnings: Part of the film's purpose is to examine which films get which warnings, and why.

* MoralGuardians: The MPAA says it supposedly has no religious affiliation. Kirby Dick's account of his appeals process, however, says a priest and a Presbyterian minister attended his appeals -- and he never really learned why.

* ExplicitContent

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: How Trey Parker and Matt Stone's movies ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' managed to get away with what they did.

Oh, and here's the kicker: the filmmakers then submit that version of the documentary to the MPAA ratings board. Though it received an NC-17 rating, the final version of the film ended up released as (and will forever remain) unrated[[note]]at least in America[[/note]].

*** Of course, you can't really define the term "average family" in America because of all the different co-existing cultures. Unless the MPAA refers to "anything that we can't construe as mentally or physically abusive under US law", then their defintion can't make sense given everything that they won't allow in an R-rated movie.

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The film tries to show the MPAA as a RealLife example with an emphasis on vagueness (saying that it's more vague than the {{CIA}}). According to other sources, filmmakers can try to hazard a guess as to why their film received a particular rating and edit accordingly, but...well, to use a popular stereotype as an analogy, the MPAA is like a woman telling her boyfriend that if he doesn't ''know'' what he did to piss her off, [[YouKnowWhatYouDid he doesn't deserve to be told]]. Trey Parker says he received the "vagueness" treatment with his independently-financed comedy ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}'', but got an itemized list of things to tweak when he and Matt Stone submitted the studio-backed ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', which initially received an NC-17... and they later regretted only giving an R.

'''''This Film is Not Yet Rated''''', a 2006 {{documentary}} film directed by Kirby Dick, explores the film rating policies in the US in exhaustive detail -- and [[ExecutiveMeddling how those policies affect a film's distribution and overall content before its release]]. (For the record: a ratings board managed by the Motion Picture Association of America, which is a private industry group not officially sanctioned by any government, handles the US film ratings system.)

** Numerous clips of Jack Valenti show him asserting that the members of the board "are neither gods nor fools, just parents" and represent the "average family". Jamie Babbit, the director of ''ButImACheerleader'', wonders if Valenti thought that meant gay and lesbian parents such as herself. [[ForegoneConclusion You can probably guess the answer.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar - How Trey Parker and Matt Stone's movies ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' managed to get away with what they did.

----

-->Fucks (or derivations of): 20
-->Motherfuckers: 3
-->Humps: 220
-->Nipples: 10
-->Intercourse with pie: 1
-->Cartoons/puppets in sexual situations: 15
-->Sploshing: 1
-->Felching: 0

'''''This Film is Not Yet Rated''''', a 2006 {{documentary}} film directed by Kirby Dick, explores the film rating policies in the US in exhaustive detail -- and [[ExecutiveMeddling how those policies affect a film's distribution and overall content before its release]]. (For the record: a ratings board managed by the Motion Picture Association of America handles the US film ratings system.)

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* InsistentTerminology: The MPAA ratings board wants you to know that they do ''not'' consider themselves censors.

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The film tries to show the MPAA as a RealLife example with an emphasis on vagueness (saying that it's more vague than the {{CIA}}). According to other sources, filmmakers can try to hazard a guess as to why their film received a particular rating and edit accordingly, but...well, to use a popular stereotype as an analogy, the MPAA is like a woman telling her boyfriend that if he doesn't ''know'' what he did to piss her off, [[YouKnowWhatYouDid he doesn't deserve to be told]].
** Trey Parker says he received the "vagueness" treatment with his independently-financed comedy ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}'', but got an itemized list of things to tweak when he and Matt Stone submitted the studio-backed ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', which initially received an NC-17... and they later regretted only giving an R.

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The film tries to show the MPAA as a RealLife example with an emphasis on vagueness (saying that it's more vague than the CIA). According to other sources, filmmakers can try to hazard a guess as to why their film received a particular rating and edit accordingly, but...well, to use a popular stereotype as an analogy, the MPAA is like a woman telling her boyfriend that if he doesn't ''know'' what he did to piss her off, [[YouKnowWhatYouDid he doesn't deserve to be told]].

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The film tries to show the MPAA as a RealLife example with an emphasis on vagueness (saying that it's more vague than the CIA). According to other sources, filmmakers can try to hazard a guess as to why their film received a particular rating and edit accordingly, but...well, to use a popular stereotype as an analogy, the MPAA is like a woman telling her boyfriend that if he doesn't ''know'' what he did to piss her off, he doesn't deserve to be told.

* GayPanic: In-universe. The film dedicates a brief section to how the MPAA often rates scenes with explicit gay content higher than scenes with explicit heterosexual content, even if the straight version is more explicit than the gay one (e.g. a lesbian masturbating through her bedclothes in ''Film/ButImACheerleader'' risks an NC-17, but Creator/KevinSpacey's character miserably whacking off in the shower in ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' gets an R).

* GayPanic and GetBackInTheCloset: The film dedicates a brief section to how the MPAA often rates scenes with explicit gay content higher than scenes with explicit heterosexual content, even if the straight version is more explicit than the gay one (e.g. a lesbian masturbating through her bedclothes in ''Film/ButImACheerleader'' risks an NC-17, but Creator/KevinSpacey's character miserably whacking off in the shower in ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' gets an R).

** Trey Parker says he received the "vagueness" treatment with his independently-financed comedy ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}'', but got an itemized list of things to tweak when he and Matt Stone submitted the studio-backed ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' (which initially received an NC-17).
*** and the MPAA regrets NOT rating the South Park movie we have NC-17

** Though the MPAA promotes itself as a preferable alternative to government-mandated regulation/censorship of film? Many believe MPAA ratings do carry the force of law. Imagine an unaccompanied small child trying to buy a ticket to an R or NC-17 film. Would any American theater allow this? The MPAA is a private organization with '''no ''law-enforcement'' authority'''. ''De jure'', yes. ''De facto''?