{"id":1920,"date":"2006-11-13T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-13T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/11\/disturbing-images-yet-another-euphemism\/"},"modified":"2006-11-13T15:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-13T15:05:00","slug":"disturbing-images-yet-another-euphemism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/11\/disturbing-images-yet-another-euphemism.html","title":{"rendered":"“Disturbing images” — yet another euphemism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last summer, you may recall there was some confusion as to what the MPAA meant when it said that certain PG-rated films had earned that rating for their \u201cthematic<\/a> elements<\/a>\u201c. Now I\u2019m starting to wonder what the MPAA means by \u201cdisturbing images\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, last week, while finishing my review of Stranger Than Fiction<\/a><\/i>, I noticed that the MPAA had rated the film PG-13 for \u201csome disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, while looking up some info on Richard Linklater\u2019s adaptation of Fast Food Nation<\/a><\/i>, I noticed that this film was rated R for \u201cdisturbing images, strong sexuality, language and drug content.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do these two very different films have in common, that could fall under the rather vague label of \u201cdisturbing images\u201d?<\/p>\n

Scenes of animal death, is my guess. Fast Food Nation<\/i> revolves around the activities of a meat-packing plant \u2014 and yes, we do see cows getting slaughtered, though for my money the footage is nowhere near as challenging as what we see in documentaries like Our Daily Bread<\/a><\/i> \u2014 whereas Stranger Than Fiction<\/i> includes a scene of Will Ferrell sitting at home and watching a nature show on TV, about animal predators pursuing and devouring their prey.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is, some of the footage in Stranger Than Fiction<\/i> \u2014 such as the clip in which a bunch of crabs gang up on a wounded bird \u2014 is taken from the documentary Winged Migration<\/a><\/i> (2002), which the MPAA rated G without any warning whatsoever.<\/p>\n

I wonder, what other films have shown images of animals being killed, and how has the MPAA treated them? Apocalypse Now<\/a><\/i> (1979) famously included a scene of a bull being slaughtered, and when the Redux<\/i> version was released five years ago, the MPAA rated it R for \u201cdisturbing violent images\u201d, among other things.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Michael Haneke\u2019s Time of the Wolf<\/a><\/i> (2003) and Cach\u00e9<\/a><\/i> (2005) both included scenes of animals being killed \u2014 a horse and a chicken, respectively \u2014 and while the MPAA rated both films R for violence, it did not use the word \u201cdisturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s only the relatively mainstream films, and the relatively mainstream audiences they attract, that \u201cneed\u201d this warning?<\/p>\n

Have any films had the \u201cdisturbing images\u201d warning for something other<\/i> than scenes of animal death? And if scenes of animal death is the reason for these ratings, why can\u2019t the MPAA just say<\/i> that?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer, you may recall there was some confusion as to what the MPAA meant when it said that certain PG-rated films had earned that rating for their \u201cthematic elements\u201c. Now I\u2019m starting to wonder what the MPAA means by \u201cdisturbing images\u201d. For example, last week, while finishing my review of Stranger Than Fiction, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Disturbing images" -- yet another euphemism?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last summer, you may recall there was some confusion as to what the MPAA meant when it said that certain PG-rated films had earned that rating for their\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/11\/disturbing-images-yet-another-euphemism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Disturbing images" -- yet another euphemism?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last summer, you may recall there was some confusion as to what the MPAA meant when it said that certain PG-rated films had earned that rating for their\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/11\/disturbing-images-yet-another-euphemism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-13T15:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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