Submitted by Stephen Blank, Oct 3, 2007 08:12

I grew up in a small town of six thousand people. We had only one theater. We saw whatever was playing on Friday night and often paid little attention to the film. We had no ratings then. But, the theater was owned by a local family. They were Catholic. They would not allow any member of the their Church to attend a film prohibited by the church hierarchy. Thus, we had censorship of a more personal nature. Being Jewish I was not affected by this form of censorship. I am not affected by the current rating system either. I believe this is true for most people.

Nonetheless, find the ratings system somewhat useful for its nominal purpose, as a guide. For me, films on either end of the ratings spectrum seem to me to be more worthy of my attention, especially the not-rated films. Cinema, like other endeavors, can be a business, as well as an expression of our common humanity. Should a film be excluded from serious personal consideration as art or entertainment because of a "G" rating? Or an NC-17 rating? Or because it is intended to make money? Or not?

Let's pay attention to the ratings system. It is often better as a guide than movie critics.

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