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Various_Succotash_79 t1_j9wwx15 wrote

They didn't have PG-13 yet. That didn't start until 1984, largely thought to be inspired by Gremlins and Temple of Doom.

And at least one person probably had Poltergeist in mind too, lol.

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The_Presitator t1_j9y66ak wrote

People now don't realize that Jaws, which features horrifying, onscreen body dismemberment, is only rated PG. I like to ask people what they think it's rated and they're usually guessing R.

Imagine if that movie came out today.

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Mountain_Sweet_5703 t1_j9zi22l wrote

There’s the Bad News Bears(1976) a movie about a youth baseball team being coached by an old alcoholic who recruits a girl. It’s a weird relationship, don’t think about it.

One kid says (I’m sorry) “Jews, Spics, Ni**ers, and now A GIRL??”. He says that multiple times I think.

This movie was a smashing success that inspired many sequels, including one set in Tokyo.

You guessed it, PG lol. It was just around before anything else.

Fun fact: this movie starred Jackie Earle Haley, who played Rorschach in Watchmen and Freddy Krueger in the 2010 remake. He’s a slightly-older child who smokes cigarettes, rides his dirt bike onto the field, hits on older women, and hits dingers during intentional walks to win the game.

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HPmoni t1_ja90ch0 wrote

Cancel him!

But the movie showed a racist growing as a person. We've lost that in our society.

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Mountain_Sweet_5703 t1_ja92qis wrote

Uhh, wrongo, Tanner did anything but grow out of his racist shitty ways in that movie. Maybe in the later ones idk, but he was an unrepentant shithead as are most naughty children.

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french-caramele t1_j9ylccm wrote

Sex and drugs were much more taboo than violence. Things that lead to free thinking and happiness are extreme threats to oligarchy and crony capitalism. Violence just creates more anger and makes it easy for bad actors to sow division among society (aka the poors).

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Scottland83 t1_j9zzbn9 wrote

Does that line help you get laid by college chicks?

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LobsterMassMurderer t1_ja0lomd wrote

And airplane! Was rated PG as well. It has boobies! Imagine how excited young me was the first time I saw it

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FlimFlamStan t1_ja0hnll wrote

Star Wars had to fight to get a PG. It originally came in with the dreaded G rating.

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Scottland83 t1_j9zyz22 wrote

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is rated G, for fuck’s sake, with the hardest scene to watch in any Star Trek until Picard.

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Theyos t1_ja2lni6 wrote

Which scene?

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Scottland83 t1_ja2prc4 wrote

Transporter malfunction. And not the fun kind, the death kind.

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Theyos t1_ja2u3rs wrote

Oh yeah, fair enough.

Though I will say some of those assimilation/Queen death scenes in First Contact went hard, and Tuvok's Event Horizon fantasies were around before Picard brought the mood down.

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Scottland83 t1_ja2xsu8 wrote

I don’t mean the gore in Picard, I just mean Picard was a terrible experience to watch.

What Event Horizon fantasies?

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Theyos t1_ja2zsqq wrote

>I don’t mean the gore in Picard, I just mean Picard was a terrible experience to watch.

Ah, fair enough, thought you were talking about the age rating still.

>What Event Horizon fantasies?

This scene

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Venturin t1_ja0opo1 wrote

It does? I don’t recall the featured onscreen body dismemberment, which scenes were those?

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RevanTheDemon t1_ja0kkdt wrote

PG and PG13 are both red flags for a very poor quality movie today. If I'm iffy about a movie and I see it's rated PG13, I'm not going to watch it. Because more often than not it's a terrible movie.

If I'm iffy on it and it's rated R, however, more often than not it ends up being worth the watch and effort. PG13 means they've watered down an R Rated movie to garner a larger audience. IE the upcoming Daredevil movie, which is self admitted to be less violent and "Friendlier to a larger audience". Completely disregarding the fact that what made the show a success is the violence and adult themes.

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Bruce-7891 t1_ja1t9u0 wrote

It depends ok the genre really. October sky is a good movie based on a true story and has a PG rating. It didn’t require any sex or violence to tell the story so why change it for the sake of making it edgier? If it’s a horror, war or crime movie, I agree with you.

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HPmoni t1_ja8zyyp wrote

The violence in Jaws is now pretty corny.

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klsi832 t1_j9x71o3 wrote

Red Dawn

On August 10, 1984, the action thriller Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze, opens in theaters as the first movie to be released with a PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which oversees the movie rating system, had announced the new PG-13 category in July of that same year.

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nlshr t1_j9x9pli wrote

"Inspired by" meaning they were the reason that there was a PG-13 rating to give to Red Dawn.

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Various_Succotash_79 t1_j9xs5dy wrote

That was the first one, yeah.

But the reason they came up with the rating was supposedly all the complaints they got about Gremlins and Temple of Doom.

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Peazo t1_j9xvutm wrote

The original uncut version of Gremlins, when it hit the UK was a 15.

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Various_Succotash_79 t1_j9y9tq4 wrote

Do you know when the UK's rating system was established?

(I'm sure I could google it, just lazy, haha.)

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res30stupid t1_j9zw4aj wrote

Related to this, the original Ratchet & Clank was released as T for Teen because while the game was aimed closer to younger fans, the dirty jokes meant that the game was just unsuitable for younger players in the regular E for Everyone (5 and up) category. As a result, the ESRB invented the E-10 age rating which was used for the sequels.

Also, the PEGI release of Kingdom Hearts was rated for 7+, with one of the content warnings on the back of the case being a massive spider denoting the game had intense horror elements.

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Double_Distribution8 t1_j9x4u2m wrote

>many adult themes including the smoking of marijuana and a deep dive into the occult.

And also a gentleman violently scraping the skin off his own face while he gazes into the bathroom mirror.

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Schellhammer t1_j9y0iwf wrote

But Marijuana=bad

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HPmoni t1_ja90mx4 wrote

Marijuana is pretty bad.

But do drugs... Get hit by a truck. Makes sense.

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GibsonMaestro t1_j9xh6ps wrote

How is this not the top comment?

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Landlubber77 t1_j9y2f03 wrote

The majority of Redditors are Americans, where we're allowed to see extreme violence as long as there's not a stray female nipple or something. We'd be more likely to expect a more adult rating for this movie because of the scene where the wife gets dragged all over her ceiling and you see her panties, then when the older daughter runs out in the front yard and you see hers. The puritans can't help but lose their minds over that ^^^after ^^^pausing ^^^and ^^^masturbating ^^^to ^^^it.

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vemenium t1_j9zdpfs wrote

Bare breasts in Airplane: PG. You’ve always been able to have some nudity without an R rating. Of the sex and nudity in Titanic, the sex steaming up the car is way more pushing the envelope than nudity not involved in sex.

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res30stupid t1_j9zwj5x wrote

Funny little detail, but the lead actress in Final Destination 2 was completely fine with being in such a violent, fucked-up horror film because as a Mormon, she was only upset if they were to ask her to swear.

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heylookatme t1_j9ymbnr wrote

I'm descended from Puritans on both sides of my family tree. Can confirm that I masturbate to everything.

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BlackWidow1414 t1_j9y7jcy wrote

Yeah, that was the scene that messed me up as a kid watching this movie.

That and Robbie's clown doll.

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Darth_Corleone t1_ja0n55v wrote

The steak moving across the counter and ol boy peeling his face off stuck with me for a long time. I forgot about it until I got to college and took LSD. Then... I remembered.

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thisusedyet t1_j9xscq8 wrote

Yeah, the face peeling scene is the one that got me

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flippythemaster t1_j9wxtwq wrote

Backlash to Poltergeist is one of the events that led to the establishment of the PG-13 rating, along with similar reactions to Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Before the establishment of PG-13, it was G for general audiences (that is, parents wouldn’t need to be involved at all) PG for parental guidance (that is, there are scenes and content a parent might have to discuss with their kids afterwards), R for restricted (that is, this has scenes that are not appropriate for kids regardless of parental intervention) and X (typically considered “extreme content”*). With the dawn of the 80’s it became clear that film productions were pushing at the edges of these categories and, while certainly PG’s name would imply that a parent should be aware of potentially objectionable content, there were pearls to be clutched and most parents didn’t want to go through the effort of screening the films their kids watched—which were typically substitutes for babysitters—anyways. Remember that this is the same era that brought us the great Satanic Panic over D&D!

So a stopgap was established and PG films pretty much became exclusively the stuff of kids fare, with PG-13 becoming the go-to rating for content of the kind you’d see in those wonderful Spielberg films of the 80’s

*not to be confused with XXX, which was adopted by porn distributors who figured that if ONE X was saucy, imagine how good THREE would be!

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_j9wzhyi wrote

Thus making Disney the "go to" baby-sitter of Earth whispering moral obfuscation into the ears of billions of mesmerized children.

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_Fun_Employed_ t1_j9xgxew wrote

This is one of those comments where I can’t tell the author’s intent and it worries me.

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Captain_Naps t1_j9xcj5a wrote

> whispering moral obfuscation into the ears of billions of mesmerized children.

If Disney hadn't taught me to be perfectly happy with the bare necessities, I'd be living an overindulgent and stress-filled life in these turbulent & inflationary times.

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typewriter6986 t1_j9y45z4 wrote

It's 5 in the morning and I just realized that The Bare Necessities and Hakuna Matata are basically the same song.

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shalafi71 t1_j9xha8r wrote

What sort of moral obfuscation? "Corrupting the youth" is a charge that must be heard. And you must be serious.

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_jaamg0l wrote

Moral obfuscation like:

You don't have to do what your parents say even if your father is the king. You know better than he does..

And if you see a cute guy, you should totally give up everything including EVER seeing your family again, and losing your gifted singing voice in a voodoo ritual so that you can go shack up with a sailor.

And then if it turns out that you're not happy with your choices you can breach any contract you entered into and if the other party doesn't want to oblige then it's perfectly okay to steal your payment back from them.

The Little Mermaid did it, and everything worked out well for her!

Also it's perfectly alright to break into places you're not allowed to be. And if you're hungry, you can totally steal food, because if you don't you'll starve and die. And while surviving, if you're have to destroy other people's possessions, or ruin their chance to make a living, so be it. Aladdin could have gotten a damn job. "Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat!"

Shall I go on?

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shalafi71 t1_jaar9sy wrote

Ah! Makes more sense. But I see Disney simply telling stories that resonate with children, making 'em money. Every example you give is a child's power trip fantasy. "Yeah! I could do that thing!" Got any kids around? They're dumber than rocks when it comes to nuance; They're not reading life lessons into a cartoon.

Do you honestly see Disney having some sort of moral agenda? Reddit tells me all corporations are mindless money-making machines with no morals.

If you state that Disney does have some sort of agenda, especially a liberal one, why aren't they publicly dropping the hammer on DeSantis for his shenanigans? (May be getting far off track here, especially if you're not up-to-date on the story.)

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_jab2tlw wrote

The moral agenda is, I admit, an illusion as everyone knows their agenda is profit based. But in an effort to maximize profit they cater to the child's disdain for rules and authority. Kids want to see examples of how it's possible to do bad things but still be liked, loved, and get everything that they want.

I mean if Aladdin got caught doing 90 percent of the things he does, during the era that is suggested, he would have a knife plunged into his abdomen and then he would pathetically bleed out on the cobblestone as wild dogs fight over his fingers. No ambulance, no lenient judges if you survive the stabbing, no investigation into your murder if you don't survive it. But that wouldn't make a good movie for babysitting, soooo....

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antieverything t1_j9yengg wrote

Yep. PG became the new G and G is super-G.

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peach_dragon t1_j9zdjiy wrote

I remember my G rated movies having the word “damn” in them. And when PG 13 came out, they could say “fuck,” but only once.

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Shas_Erra t1_j9xvjqo wrote

In the UK, the classification was:

U - Universal. Anyone can watch.

PG - Parental Guidance. Maybe some adult themes, situations or language.

15 & 18 - pretty self explanatory.

The 12 rating wasn’t introduced until 1989 and 12a (a bridge between PG and 12) in 2002.

In other words, growing up in the 80’s was wild. There’s a tonne of films I remember watching as a kid that I wouldn’t dream of showing to my daughter yet.

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krukson t1_j9xzg6k wrote

I remember watching Robocop when I was just 10. That was a wild ride.

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areseven t1_j9yauya wrote

Yeah, this is exactly it. At that time, G was seen as just for kids, and R was seen as just for adults. So PG was the standard. I’m not sure why the author of the article is so confused about how it got a PG rating. I guess you had to be there to understand!

Also worth mentioning that it’s funny now to think that The Sound Of Music was rated G in spite of largely being about the rise of Nazis. It just simply meant “this film is fine for everyone”. But they were still trusting that people would actually know what kind of movie it was and what it was about. Clearly a mistake!

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MickJof t1_j9x0ryv wrote

The skeletons in the pool were real human skeletons.

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McMacHack t1_j9x43wa wrote

We didn't raise pussies in the 80's now go get me another PBR while I light this cigarette with my last cigarette. Now go play with your Robocop toys in your pajamas that will melt to your skin if there is a fire.

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jaimonee t1_j9x62v9 wrote

But how can you light that cigarette without sending your 7 year old to pick up another pack of camel lights at the variety store and telling them they can spend the change on Spider-Man comics??

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samuellbroncowitz t1_j9xc6ex wrote

I remember going to the local 7-11 with my neighbor to get smokes and beer for his mom with a note saying it was OK. The clerk would happily send us on our way with a pack of Camels and a six pack of bud, no questions asked.

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McMacHack t1_j9x9w9o wrote

Well then you just hit them until they figure it out. Now let's all crack open some yellow bellies around this 1 year old's birthday cake.

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LorenzoStomp t1_j9yqnvo wrote

"Shit, where's my lighter? Don't blow those candles out yet, Timmy!"

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McMacHack t1_j9yru9n wrote

There is nothing more 80's than lighting a cigarette off of your kids birthday candle

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shalafi71 t1_j9xhos0 wrote

> pajamas that will melt to your skin

You must have been there in the day. Hung my footies on the wall-unit bathroom heater after The Muppet Show. It was Sunday night, I had to shower!

Dripping plastic and black smoke.

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LieutenantNitwit t1_ja0batc wrote

My transformers toys were made of metal.

And I turned out...what was the question again?

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McMacHack t1_ja0iyjn wrote

Made in America covered in Lead Paint with lead mined straight from US soil.

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klsi832 t1_j9x7dmn wrote

Four cast members died during and soon after the filming of the series. The older sister was murdered by an ex in 1982. There's a poster in the boy's bedroom of a future Super Bowl for no reason, and that ended up being the date Heather O'Rourke died.

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MickJof t1_j9x7mje wrote

Yeah, I know this also. But I don't believe in curses and that kind of thing. It was just a sad coincidence.

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EMPulseKC t1_j9y3i66 wrote

"Swimming With Skeletons" would be a great name for a "Poltergeist" documentary, or a JoBeth Williams memoir.

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Catbird_jenkins t1_j9wxu4u wrote

The Blue Lagoon was PG also and could never be shown in its original form today.

Poltergeist scared the everlasting shit out of me and my siblings

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Cute_Consideration38 t1_j9wzusi wrote

Yeah. I was already about to piss myself when the chairs got stacked. "Wait. Wut? Oh HELL no. Pack it up. We moving."

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shalafi71 t1_j9xj91c wrote

That was the most unnatural damned thing. Got the frisson thinking about it...

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[deleted] t1_j9x1lh1 wrote

Also, Ghostbusters. There was a ghost blowjob

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Ras1372 t1_j9x3jcw wrote

"Bustin' makes me feel good!"

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bijhan t1_j9x36o0 wrote

Ghostjob

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[deleted] t1_j9x4gup wrote

Now that’s just when you get too drunk at work and leave without saying goodbye

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Vince_Clortho042 t1_j9x405s wrote

Poltergeist was actually very nearly given an R rating but Spielberg was able to argue it down by pointing out that despite the intensity of the scares (and some of the gore like the face ripping), nobody is killed in the movie.

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bucko_fazoo t1_j9x4v2z wrote

elliot called his brother "penis-breath" in ET

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res30stupid t1_j9zwze0 wrote

Also, the mom couldn't help but burst into laughter when berating Elliot because the actress found the insult so funny.

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Ras1372 t1_j9x3kug wrote

Just watched the clown scene and practically shit my pants.

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lukin187250 t1_j9zknj8 wrote

When I was a little kid that scene was used as a threat for punishment. If I misbehaved I would be forced to watch it.

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Ras1372 t1_j9zo9se wrote

Damn that’s like the definition of “cruel and unusual punishment”

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janisemarie t1_j9xeatf wrote

Oh, honey. It was a different time. My neighbor's parents took us to see Animal House when I was like 12. Even though my parents had seen the movie, they let us go. Kids in the 80s were not at all protected from sex or horror. Look at Carrie! That movie wouldn't be made now.

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shalafi71 t1_j9xj1qi wrote

It's funny when they discover stuff like Animal House or Porkies.

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thisusedyet t1_j9xsg73 wrote

I used to like Revenge of the Nerds, until I got old enough to realize how rapey it gets

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Dom_Shady t1_j9y6b9u wrote

>Animal House

I dp not know this film would have assumed it to be a nice wholesome movie for kids, based on the title.

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SharpieBass t1_j9xd3qa wrote

The dude ripping his own face off in the bathroom scared the shit out of me as a kid. Surprised was PG based on that scene alone!

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WCAttorney t1_j9xuomo wrote

There was a poltergeist sequel with an old man preacher ghost that gave me nightmares for weeks ~ does anyone else know the movie ?

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MaherMcCheese t1_j9xwegr wrote

“You’re all going to die in there”

Poltergeist 2. He is also on the cover of Among the Living by Anthrax.

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typewriter6986 t1_j9y4vta wrote

🎶God is in his holy temple...🎶

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WCAttorney t1_j9zeztn wrote

That was it!!! My sister used to walk around singing that creepy song to freak me out. Unlocked memory right there

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FormalWare t1_j9x6d3y wrote

Scared the crap out of me! I spent half the movie hiding behind the seat of the patron in front of me. (Was probably 13 or so. Went with a couple of friends.)

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shalafi71 t1_j9xiatr wrote

LOL, and we were prepared for horror by Rikki Tikki Tavi and the like. JFC, who thought having proto-Darth Vader, Orsen Wells, narrate would make it a kid's film?!

First day of fifth grade, next day. Didn't sleep, wouldn't eat, passed out in the 105° Oklahoma heat. Made it to the hallway! They scooped me up and took me to the front office, only place with air conditioning.

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Alchemae t1_j9xoe7n wrote

Deep dive into the occult? I think not.

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Derpy_County t1_j9xqbf5 wrote

Scariest thing about the marijuana scene is him trying to roll it directly on his bed covers, giving up because he can’t do it and then jumping about on the bed - weed everywhere!

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Life_Less_Ordinary t1_j9xjb1g wrote

The 80s were a different time. We used to ride around in the back of station wagons in a seat that faced towards the back of the car....not exactly safe by today's standards by a long shot.

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Flaxmoore t1_j9y91pg wrote

That seat was freaking premium when we would go on camp trips when I was a kid. We would just watch the world go by, and sometimes try to mess with the driver behind you.

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brunus76 t1_j9znwk9 wrote

The rear-facing seats were so you could watch to see if your friends on the roof fell off.

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leadingzer0 t1_j9y3crm wrote

In the 70s, our station wagon had two bench seats in the back that faced each other sideways. There were four of us back there when my mom got into a low speed crash. Our heads slammed sideways into each other and into the metal back of the forward facing middle bench seat.

Edit: I guess it was the ford country squire. Holy shit that brings me back.

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xanthraxoid t1_j9xyaxu wrote

I thought it also included usage of the word "[[cunt]]", which is generally considered to be at or near the strongest end of the swearing spectrum, but after trying to verify that, I was probably thinking of The Exorcist!

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Ehgadsman t1_j9xlaft wrote

I was 11 years old, it fucked me up!

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Due_Platypus_3913 t1_j9xryxe wrote

This movie scared the shit out of people in the theater!I was in 7th grade,it was 100% of what I could stand.Many people fled the theater,some with bawling kids!

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Nivekian13 t1_j9z1fn6 wrote

"Deep dive into the occult"

Have you seen the film? Occult was nowhere in this film, it's a Ghost Story of a haunted new house built over a cemetary, not conjuring demons from a netherrealm.

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duganaok OP t1_j9zn8zp wrote

Occult for it’s time. Obviously.

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Nivekian13 t1_ja2s4dx wrote

There was no “occult” in the first film.

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duganaok OP t1_ja2w6zn wrote

Then whatever you call the non-Christian oriented psychic lady.

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Nivekian13 t1_ja3v8c0 wrote

The church going, cross wearing psychic is now “occult”? Reeeeaaaaccccchhhhh….

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PiemarchGeneseed513 t1_j9zefiw wrote

Saw it in the theatre. The last movie that legit gave me nightmares.

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igby1 t1_j9xy33w wrote

I was 10 when my mom took my older sister and I to see Poltergeist. My mom was pretty strict about what we watched and I’m sure she saw the PG rating and thought it’d be alright. Yeah I told her I wanted to leave, probably after the clown.

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GreenNMean t1_j9y14sk wrote

My father let me watch this when my mom was out for the day. I was five. For years I refused to have any dolls in my bedroom at night, and for my entire childhood I would always have to check under the bed at night for clowns.

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Supersnazz t1_j9y2371 wrote

Also there's a scene where the workmen sexually harass the 16 year old daughter, and her mother literally laughs out loud about it.

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dabudtenda t1_j9y8j15 wrote

Lol I'm a gamer that predates the esrb rating and I'm an ex movie buff I used to love movies. It was always fun to find something that didn't quite match the rating system. There was a jacket Chan movie operation condos 1 or 2 I think. Had a half naked woman having her tits painted in preparation for a human sacrifice. Oh no "brief nudity" in the description

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jolinar30659 t1_j9ygqtb wrote

1982 is a much different world with ratings. PG really meant “maybe you shouldn’t let your kids watch this”

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deliciousbeetvodka t1_j9yosg4 wrote

This movie still holds up. I watched it many times from a kids point of view. I enjoyed watching it now from an adult and parent's point of view.

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duganaok OP t1_j9znce1 wrote

I watched it, and I JUST fucking realized as an adult the parents were smoking weed and high as balls in many parts of the movie.

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karituba t1_j9zig9g wrote

This is my first indoor movie…. I was 8

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BackWaterBill t1_ja03rqj wrote

yeah the pot is the issue in poltergeist

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duganaok OP t1_ja05xs3 wrote

It is for Karen’s who make these stupid policies.

0

randomcanyon t1_ja0j9cw wrote

When that guy ripped off his face in the mirror I cringed. What a great special effect.

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AidenStoat t1_j9xnzg8 wrote

The alternative was R, there was nothing in between PG and R at the time

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En-papX t1_j9xx8v2 wrote

Then Satan made them panic.

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_haha555 t1_j9zr46k wrote

One of the scariest movies I’ve seen

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climberdc202 t1_ja06vb1 wrote

I begged to see this movie in the theater when I was 11, one of my arguments was that it was only PG. I couldn't sleep alone in my room for 3 months or have any stuffed animal near me. 😂

Seems so tame now.

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drygnfyre t1_ja0l1s4 wrote

Most movies prior to 1968 (when the modern rating system was created) have never been officially re-rated, so they'll just be rated "G" regardless of content. Kind of funny turning on TCM, watching stuff like "Night of the Hunter" and noticing it's rated G. A movie the whole family can enjoy!

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drygnfyre t1_ja0kw9j wrote

PG-13 didn't exist until 1984. Movies like "Poltergiest" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" were cited as one of the reasons why a rating between PG and R needed to exist.

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ProjectDirectory t1_ja17izo wrote

That scene where the mom is in her Tshirt and panties and rolls around on the wall and ceiling made me feel funny as a young boy.

The clowns still haunt me.

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Blankmindplasty t1_ja0oygn wrote

Why would “diving into the occult” have anything to do with the ratings?

0