The MPAA ratings are helpful to a certain degree to make decisions on the content of films. As a parent, I use them to a degree when deciding if I'd let me kids see a film. It is not wise to rely too heavily on the ratings system when making these kinds of decisions. Parents, and others concerned with a film's content should understand that the ratings themselves actually tell a parent very little. They will mention that a movie has nudity, which is all well and good, but there's no sense of context. As far as the ratings are concerned, the shower scenes in Porky's and Schindler's List both contain full frontal nudity, and are therefore equal. I think we can all agree the context of these scenes are vastly different, and we'd rather have our teenager see one over the other. Since the ratings fail to give context they really don't offer much beyond simple citations of potentially offensive material.

What is important is not content, meaning nudity, violence, sexual activity or cursing, but context - this is the key. The concern shouldn't be if there is a violent death, but why its there and how it is handled. Use the ratings system as a high level guide, but that's all. If you're concerned about content then your best choice is to read critics - notice the "s", plural - more than one critic. Find a few critics you trust, I suggest Screen It, James Berardinelli's ReelViews, and/or Decent Films Guide, but you can find your own. Look for someone who shares your values and clearly understands film. A good critic will provide some sense of context that, combined with the rating itself, will give you a better idea of what is happening in the film.

Labels: miscellaneous, movie watching tip