MPAA Considers Using Smoking as Criterion for R Rating

Smoking = R Rating?

Do you remember the first R-rated movie you ever saw? I was fifteen when I went to see Sex, Lies, and Videotape, telling my ratings-obsessed mom that I was going to see some lame family movie starring Ted Danson. This was a whole new world for me. The characters talked openly about sexual dysfunction, masturbation, infidelity and, I mean, SEX WAS IN THE TITLE. Truthfully, it was a lot tamer than I had expected, although I do remember being impressed by the acting and cinematography. (No, I was never cool. I was a geek then, and I’m a geek now.) Years later, I still consider it one of my favorite films, but did I ever emulate any of the character’s? Um…in a word: No.

James Spader was some messed up guy who could only get off if he watched taped confessions of women talking about illicit experiences and fantasies. Andie MacDowell was some sad, repressed house frau, and Laura San Giacomo was a slut who was sleeping with her sister’s letch of a husband. These people were interesting and entertaining, but deeply flawed.

I bring up this shiny, happy memory of my youth because it has recently come to light that the MPAA is now considering smoking as a mitigating factor as to whether or not a film should be slapped with a “restricted” rating. Apparently, if the film “glamorizes” smoking, a PG-13 rating is out of the question. The reasoning behind this is simply because smoking is not a healthy activity.

Okay. I agree. Smoking is bad. The last time I checked, though, it is not illegal if the smoker is over seventeen, so if the character is of age, what are they doing wrong? Yes, they are polluting themselves, but does that mean that, say, a movie character who has unhealthy eating habits is just as likely to garner the big R? Shallow Hal was about a very overweight woman with a heart of gold, but she did not get that way physically by doing yoga and eating rice cakes. This film was rated PG-13. Would it be if it was being released this summer? I think so.

Isn’t childhood obesity just as much of an issue as kids lighting up? Are we going to get to the point where films with huge amounts of violence and torture (and yes, sex) are going to be put in the same category as a film that has none of those scenarios but shows Reese Witherspoon sucking on a Virginia Slim?

I know people who smoke. I know people who don’t. The one thing that these two groups have in common is that they did not make that decision based on what a character in a Quentin Tarantino movie did. Yes, smoking and second-hand smoke are bad, but isn’t extreme censorship (which is where this could be going) worse? I think so. Oh, and mom, that was the only lie I ever told you.