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A Coherent Thread About the Rating for The Getaway

posted 18 years ago by inspectors71
13 replies | jump to latest

This is so clearly a PG-13 movie, now. I know there wasn't the MPAA rating of PG-13 in 1972, but the intensity of theme and violence seems way above a PG. Yet, there is no frontal nudity, no f- or a- bombs (and I think the studio really wanted a PG to make money; PG's generally make more than R's), so unless the MPAA decides to rerate it, expect Peckinpah's The Getaway to remain an anomaly.

"Tell me, Cliff, what color is the sky in your world?"--Dr. Frazier Crane

[–] FinnurE 18 years ago

This film would most definitely be 'R' now, it's currently rated '18' in the UK, the violence is too bloody and graphic for PG-13.

Just one question: What is an a-bomb?

[–] inspectors71 18 years ago

Gee, I don't know Revolution9000. It's a close call for the MPAA. Remember that some folks see PG-13 as R-Lite. I just don't know if it meets the threshhold for an R. Then again . . .

An A-Bomb is an a$$hole. They're getting pretty common. You hear one every week on ER and there was one last night on Medium.

Well, gotta go. Merry Christmas!

I71

"Tell me, Cliff, what color is the sky in your world?"--Dr. Frazier Crane

[–] FinnurE 18 years ago

True, there's no-one called an a$$hole but there some 'sh!t' exclamations throughout. But that is not what would earn it an 'R'.

I'd think that some of the shorter moments like McQueen shooting the dead guy lying at the bottom of the stairs a second time with his shotgun, or Rudy shooting Frank in the crotch would get the rating up to an 'R' rather than 'PG-13'.

[–] Big333223 18 years ago

I was surprised at the rating as well, I would have definitely thought it was more of a PG-13, although I don't know anything about how movies where rated in the 70's.

- Don't tease me about my hobbies, I don't tease you about being an assh*le.

[–] inspectors71 18 years ago

As far as I remember, PG-13 came into being as a result of the first of the Indiana Jones sequels. There is a scene in the Temple of Doom when a man's heart is ripped out of his chest. Steven Speilberg didn't want an R for the movie (although that scene would have earned it one, so the MPAA found a middle ground). I believe there was movement toward a new rating before that, but the mutilation scene in TOD tipped the balance.

"Tell me, Cliff, what color is the sky in your world?"--Dr. Frazier Crane

[–] TV Boy 17 years ago

Absolutely correct, Inspector.
IJ and the T of D was the impetus for the PG-13, but what was the first film to be released with that rating? Anyone? Anyone? "Red Dawn." The graphic violence alone in Sam P's films would easily today net a PG-13 or an R for sheer volume.

[–] jeffoneonone 18 years ago

It was a different time. I don't think violence was as considered as big a deal to the MPAA back then so much as profanity and explicit sex (even nudity often got the PG thumbs-up back then -- Papillon is an example of a movie that had some pretty graphic violence and nudity to boot yet still got off with a PG).

[–] inspectors71 18 years ago

As with all human endeavors, the older G-PG-R-X ratings had lots of incongruities. Roman Polanski's 1971 Macbeth probably got an X because of its production company more than the content (Playboy). Woody Allen dropped an F-bomb in 1976's The Front and it kept its PG. The Omega Man had a female lead doing two extended nude scenes, but it's possible it kept its PG because the gal was black (why this matters I don't know) and the nudity was not sexual. The Getaway is so obviously old-school R in theme and intensity, but nobody drops an A or F bomb, so it got to be a PG.

"You eat guts."--Nick Devlin

[–] SALEMS-LOT 17 years ago

I'M SURPRISED IT HASN'T BEEN RE-RATED YET.THE STUDIOS HAVE BEEN SO MUCH TIGHT ON RE-RATING MOVIES NOWADAYS.I MEAN SOME OF THOSE OLDER MOVIES(MOSTLY THRILLERS & WESTERNS),DIDN'T HAVE RATINGS,SO THEY WERE RATED WHEN THEY WERE PUT OUT ON DVD.SOME THAT I KNOW OF MOSTLY WERE THE HITCHCOCK FILMS.

[–] wetcamelfood 9 years ago

There was a movie critic in the 70s, Lynn, someone, can't remember her last name, started with an M, I know that. In 1972 her son was 12 and they went to see The Getaway seeing it was PG. She was upset after seeing it as she felt it should've be R. She called the MPAA and they said the only reason it wasn't R is because no one was stark naked in it. She released a "movie review" book in which she didn't so much review the movies for being good or not but went by what she felt they should be rated (as she had degrees in child psychology) and the above story is what she used in the forward as to why she started the book because she felt the MPAA values were much different to her own in many movies she had seen over the next decade which she felt had conflicting ratings and in this case she obviously felt they didn't see violence as a big deal but did see sex/nudity as a big deal.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 9 years ago

Lynn Minton....her column was titled "A Movie Guide For Puzzled Parents."

[–] Slurrysback 9 years ago

I saw The Getaway when it came out, and it looked like a PG then. It is a bit tame for Peckinpah. It certainly wouldn't get an R now, either.

[–] meguroutsubo 8 years ago

I just watched this on youtube this week, and I was watching for the language and nudity.

If you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of Ali McGraw's nipple in her first nude scene on the bed. But in the theater, you couldn't rewind (of course), so it's not as explicit, I guess.

Also, clearly, some of the dialog does not match the movements of the actors' mouths on film. After Al Lettieri is shot for the first time, he is tending to his wounds and says something like, "I'll kill that..." You can see that his lips are forming something like the word "f--ker" or "motherf--ker," but we don't hear it. It seems clear that The Getaway was re-dubbed before its theatrical release.

I have to wonder if, in the US, the MPAA changes its members enough to cause confusion regarding the ratings. (They do in Canada, IIRC.) So, someone might see a naked actress sunbathing on film and say, "Hey, this is an R-rated film," but someone else will say, "Well, she's naked, but it's not a sex scene, so it doesn't deserve an R-rating."