MPAA Spanks Kevin Smith’s ‘Porno’ with an NC-17 Rating
Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 22, 2008
Kevin Smith has never been one to make a discreet film. Even a romantic comedy like Chasing Amy had Jason Lee introducing a child to bestiality magazines. (Kind of makes you wonder what Kevin Smith does late at night.) It seems that Smith may have gone too far in his new film Zach and Miri Make a Porno, and the MPAA is ready to give the film an “NC-17 rating for some graphic sexuality.” A film about porn containing graphic sexuality? No way! Don’t worry, Kevin Smith fans, all hope is not lost. The boys over at View Askew have a bit more detail of how the producers of Zach and Miri are fighting the rating. At the MPAA website it appears the film is “pending appeal.”
According to View Askew, “Pending appeal tells us that the film’s producers have taken the “Clerks” route and have the MPAA taking a closer look, likely without any cuts, in the hopes they’ll be re-assigned an “R”. This isn’t new territory for View Askew, though the first scuffle in some time, as “Clerks II” surprisingly went through the ratings system with an “R” and no objections last time around, with Kevin very vocally expecting otherwise. A verbally graphic “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” scene with hookers was excised but eventually made it to DVD.”
The film will probably end up with an R rating, we hope, but this ratings scuffle highlights a serious issue that needs to be addressed. The MPAA really needs to look in the mirror and realize the hypocrisy their ratings system represents. We can’t see sexual intercourse but we can watch a woman bathe in blood in Hostel: Part II. We can’t see any full frontal nudity but a clerk at Mooby’s can talk about how his girlfriend has a pussy troll named Pillowpants in between her legs. How does it make any sense that any movie showing a maniac eating a woman’s entrails gets a free pass, yet the same thing we see when we take a shower goes on-screen and the MPAA starts a modern day Salem witch hunt?
America fashions themselves to be a trendsetter, yet we have the sexual maturity of an 8 year old who snickers when he hears the word dick. You can just imagine the MPAA making “That’s what she said” jokes in their meetings.
You can check out the rest of News Askew’s opinion on Zach and Miri’s fight to get an R rating here.
Read more articles by Adam Sweeney
