Ratings (MPAA / BBFC)

Yeah, a little bit of Oriental eroticism. Yes, and the ratings board. Oh, yeah, didn't they cut that out? Yeah, they didn't want that in there. I don't know why. But anyone, any bookshop has those. In fact, I got them from a local bookshop on Oriental art. So Kit can wander in a bookshop and see them, but he's not allowed to see them on a screen, even for a few seconds, whereas in the bookshop, he can pore over them for hours on end if he wants.

13:48 · jump to transcript →

there on the script. And then back in this country, it was touch and go for a while because there was a new regime at New World and they were, you know, they weren't sure whether they were going to move forward on it because it was such a controversial subject. Yes. They must have changed their mind because they did. Because we did. Then we had a lot of trouble at the end, didn't we? Well, with the ratings, you mean.

19:27 · jump to transcript →

Some of my films, not all, are ahead of their time. And I think if The Devils was generally released again in its original form, that would become a cult movie. You had a similar problem with the ratings on The Devils too. Didn't it get an X rating in this country? Yeah, yeah, yes. Yes, religion often gets an X rating. Yeah, yeah. This is a religious film. In my book, you see, I'm a lapsed Catholic and...

30:59 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

This film dates from the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic, and it's unlikely that the shot of Max licking the blood from the needle would have been permitted by a major studio picture even one year later. Jimmy and Debbie are both outstanding in this scene, which is genuinely erotic, as so little in mainstream North American cinema is. In America, the MPAA objected to how long James Woods was shown with a leg physically between Deborah Harry's legs in terms of seconds.

17:27 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

To abbreviate the shot to a length the MPAA considered acceptable, Cronenberg and editor Ron Sanders inserted a dissolve that allowed the shot to get to the point prematurely.

17:55 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

think that ending was much welcomed by Universal, who insisted on an R rating, so Cronenberg's wild imagination was becoming increasingly curbed and redirected by the corporations that employed him, and which were essential to his continued forward movement.

1:01:11 · jump to transcript →

Paul Davis

guaranteeing you the the money for the movie once it's delivered with specific requirements so for this it was that it had to be an r rating um and PolyGram pictures it was Jon Peters and Peter Guber who who were big fans of john after the the blues brothers and an animal house uh

25:22 · jump to transcript →

Paul Davis

think it was one or the other. But they were very distressed, very angry, felt that John had betrayed them on the requirements for the film, but the film hadn't been rated yet, so there was no telling that it wouldn't get an R rating as opposed to an NC-17, which was PolyGram's proviso. And John said to them, give us 10 days to address the notes, come back, watch the movie.

42:01 · jump to transcript →

I also like, I'm just... There's Luis. I just love the way he looks. He's a security guard. That's like a typical... Uh-oh. Great. This is where you need security against the security guards. The sea starts it. That's great. Yeah, yeah. I remember they were worried about the rating or it being too bloody, so you had to use it where it hit the ketchup bottle so that there were red... Oh, that's right. To justify all the blood, we had to show the ketchup being broken first. Right. Yeah.

1:13:29 · jump to transcript →

Sounds like a conversation I might have been having. Yes, probably. That was very realistic. I wanted to get it past the MPAA. We needed to get it to the theaters. Not that we did. Not that we did. Not that we ever got it. But it was a good idea to hit the ketchup, though. It was. It was a good idea to hit that ketchup and get that red everywhere. That's a great line. She's a great character. She really is.

1:13:59 · jump to transcript →

William Friedkin

in a trial and error basis to do it the way I just described, even if you miss, even if it doesn't work right away, all they have to do is clean up the actor and then do it again until it does work. I don't know what's acceptable. The film got an R rating and there were no cuts.

1:45:45 · jump to transcript →

William Friedkin

requested. Same is true of The Exorcist when it came out in 1973. That got an R rating with no cuts. Today, of course, the envelope has been pushed a lot farther than anything we did. But I think if a film is depicting violence and a violent world, that it's up to the individual filmmaker to decide where to draw back.

1:46:15 · jump to transcript →

I was very cranky about the character Faye Dunaway played because I thought it was farcical. So much of that picture appeared to be like farce. And I was a little snotty about farce. And there she was sitting on this guy, having sex with him and talking about ratings. And then a minute and a half later, that woman was everywhere you went. I mean, it was just extraordinary. And I think the Jane Craig's of the world proliferated after that. You know, the very brilliant type A

26:33 · jump to transcript →

Pardon the pun. But trim that shot in order to keep our R rating and not get an X rating.

1:01:09 · jump to transcript →

What's fascinating to me about the two versions, if you are lucky enough to see them both, is that in one version, the MPAA unapproved version, there's a huge laugh when Johnson says, someone call a paramedic. But because they cut out the overhead shot where the guy is just made into a hamburger, that you don't get a laugh anymore.

12:25 · jump to transcript →

Now, there's a really cool little lucky bit here with the hubcap. Watch this. Yeah, it flies off. Boink! Right over camera. Right. It was a mistake, isn't it? I think you should say you planned that. Ah, yes. Life is so kind. When they previewed this picture, the audience's most favorite thing was... Was coming up here. ...was getting hit by the... The melding man getting hit by the car. Right here. And the MPAA wanted us to cut it out of the picture.

1:30:23 · jump to transcript →

We didn't tell her that was going to happen, did we? No. We wanted to do a real surprise. It was also David's cousin. This took two weeks to shoot. I'll tell you, if we did this movie today, we'd never get the PG-13. No. The thought police that are watching movies today. We'd get an R for erection. I remember having discussions with the design guys about what the exact shape of that appendage should be and what was best for hanging and lifting. Yeah.

47:27 · jump to transcript →

Oh, this scene was taken from Clint Eastwood, from the first Dirty Harry. When taken, you mean an homage? Not the joke. Not like a joke jacking. I think Clint Eastwood was saying, when I see a guy running after people in full view with a knife... We know how to fix that knife. We made it into a nice PG-13 joke.

49:12 · jump to transcript →

Now, here is the shot where we had full frontal nudity, and they said that will make this an X movie. And I said, how come you can see naked girls and you can never see naked guys? And the rating board said because the male organ is aggressive. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Now, look at that shot where his foot's shaking. My God, that's fantastic. But there was so much more, and they cut it all out. And then they said, look, we fixed it for you because we made it better.

58:32 · jump to transcript →

I did appreciate that you kept the idea of a vampire being able to crawl upside down or just hanging upside down in the window. That's always one of my favorite vampire images, you know, when vampires do that. And it's a cheap special effect. It's easy, yeah. Some rope. Yeah, and it's a pretty sweet-natured film. I mean, I think this was rated by PG, I think. Oh, I'm sure it was. PG-13. I mean, was there any talk about...

59:18 · jump to transcript →

John McTiernan

In terms of the rating, I think we had the normal sort of negotiating from the MPAA about, take a few frames off this and a few frames off that.

1:11:42 · jump to transcript →