Harvey Weinstein vs. the MPAA

It’s no secret that Harvey Weinstein is not a fan of the MPAA’s R rating. The producer—once king of Miramax and now co-founder of The Weinstein Company with his brother Bob—is no stranger to controversy surrounding the Motion Picture Association of America's harsh R ratings, having last year made the controversial decision to release a re-cut PG13 version of The King's Speech so that “more people can see the film.” Now, though, he has an even bigger controversy on his hands, with his company's new doc Bully.

The MPAA gave Bully an R-rating for “some language” and Harvey Weinstein, who fears that this rating is going to prevent the documentary from being shown in schools, is... a little bit upset. After losing an appeal to have the film re-rated to PG-13, Weinstein sent out a press release saying that the Weinstein Company is considering a "leave of absence" from the MPAA in protest of the rating, to which the MPAA responded that even though they agree “that Bully can serve as a vehicle for such important discussions,” they have “the responsibility, however, to acknowledge and represent the strong feedback from parents throughout the country who want to be informed about content in movies, including language.”

Our take: put simply, the American film rating system is broken. That a rule exists that treats swear words in films like rat hairs in food (one is fine, two is poison) is ridiculous on its face, and that language can dictate a film's rating without regard to the film's actual tone, intention or meaning is hilariously puritanical and serves no one's best interests, despite the MPAA's cries about parents and chilren. 

The irony here north of the border is that, even though Canadians are probably more familiar with the American film ratings than their own (since they are bombarded with American media), films in Canada are rated independently by provincial boards and it's no illusion that they're more lenient in terms of language. Take The King’s Speech for example (which also received an R rating in the US for language before it was recut). With the language intact, the film received a PG rating in Ontario, with the content advisories of “Mature Theme” and “Language may Offend.” As such, I expect Bully to get a similar rating (or at least no higher than 14A).

While leaving the MPAA may be a bit of overreaction on Weinstein’s part, I can easily sympathize with his frustrations, especially since (according to the same press release) he had to cancel plans to show the film to 40,000 students from the Cincinnati school district. The trailer for Bully is included with this post. Decide for yourself if it should be kept out of schools because of swearing:





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