How Rating Boards Change a Film

A film’s rating is often decided before the film is finished. A financier may require an R, a studio may refuse to release anything stronger, or the intended audience may expect a particular rating. When the finished cut does not meet that requirement, the filmmakers have to change it.

These eight commentaries describe what rating boards objected to, how filmmakers changed scenes to satisfy them, and what those changes cost. Cutting for a rating is an editing decision, and it can affect a scene’s tone and meaning as well as its content.

§1 The rating is part of the agreement

PolyGram required An American Werewolf in London to be delivered with an R rating. Paul Davis describes the executive producers’ reaction when John Landis first showed them the film. They were shocked by its violence and gore, and they believed he had ignored the requirement.

The film had not yet been submitted, so neither side knew which rating it would receive. Landis asked for time to address the producers’ notes before they judged the film again.

The Crimes of Passion commentary describes what meeting the requirement can cost. The studio insisted on an R, and the filmmakers removed a complete sequence to get it.

The commentary adds that without the sequence, the character has no moment of realization from which to change. The cut met the requirement and removed a step in the character’s development.

In both cases the rating was a business requirement, and the film had to accommodate it. Knowing the required rating before shooting tells the filmmakers how much of a scene they can expect to keep.

§2 Learn what the board objects to

A rating board does not judge a film only in general terms. It objects to specific shots, lines, and durations.

Tim Lucas reports that the MPAA’s objection to a scene in Videodrome was stated in seconds: a shot of James Woods and Deborah Harry ran too long. David Cronenberg and editor Ron Sanders kept the shot and shortened it.

The dissolve kept the shot in the film while reducing its length to one the board accepted.

The Dark Skies filmmakers trimmed a shot to receive a PG-13. Their account shows that the board considered the context of an image as well as the image itself.

According to the commentary, the same action would have been acceptable in a comedy. The objection concerned a dramatic depiction of a parent’s murder-suicide, so the filmmakers shortened the shot and kept the scene.

Duration, explicitness, and dramatic context are separate grounds for objection. A filmmaker who knows which one the board cited can change that element and leave the rest of the scene unchanged.

§3 A cut can change the tone of a scene

The RoboCop commentary describes the boardroom killing, which was cut to receive an R. Removing one overhead shot changed the audience’s response to the line that follows it.

The next speaker qualifies the claim: the line still gets a laugh, but a smaller one than at the preview of the original version. The removed shot was not itself a joke. It made the line funny by showing violence too extreme to take literally.

The RoboCop 3 commentary makes the same observation about the first film.

A trim intended to reduce violence can make the remaining violence seem more serious. After cutting for a rating, filmmakers need to watch the whole scene again, not only check that the objectionable frames are gone.

§4 Some films need more than a trim

RoboCop 3 was made for a PG-13 after two R-rated films. Its commentary describes the consequence directly.

The problem described here is not one scene. The first two films’ tone depended on violence the third could not show, so meeting the rating required a different approach to the whole film, not cuts to an existing one.

Rob Cohen describes the opposite method on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. He planned the villain’s death with the rating in mind.

The rating set the limit, and Cohen designed the death to reach it.

§5 A rating can also be a target

Ratings do not only restrict a film. The Leprechaun filmmakers received a PG-13 and changed the film to get an R.

They added profanity because their intended audience preferred R-rated films. The change came from the audience’s expectations, not from what any scene needed.

§6 Plan for the rating before shooting

These accounts suggest five practical steps:

1. Confirm the required rating early. Find out whether the financier, distributor, or studio requires a specific rating, as in An American Werewolf in London and Crimes of Passion.
2. Identify the scenes at risk. List the shots likely to draw an objection for duration, explicitness, or context, and decide what each of those scenes must communicate.
3. Shoot alternatives. Cover a risky moment so that a shorter version, a cutaway, or a dissolve is available, like the dissolve Cronenberg and Sanders used in Videodrome.
4. Review each trim as part of the scene. After cutting for the board, check the scene’s tone, humor, and character development, as the RoboCop and Crimes of Passion accounts show.
5. Decide whether the project fits the rating. If the film’s tone depends on material the rating excludes, as the RoboCop 3 commentary argues, trimming will not solve the problem.

A rating requirement is a production constraint, like a budget or a schedule. Filmmakers who plan for it can decide which scenes contain the material at risk and prepare versions that meet the requirement. Filmmakers who discover the problem after the edit have fewer options, and each cut may change more than the board asked for.