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EXCLUSIVE: The MPAA has overturned the NC-17 rating on the Derek Cianfrance-directed Blue Valentine. The film will be given an R rating after Harvey Weinstein personally argued his position in today’s hearing. That clears up all kinds of potential problems that awaited the film had it been released with that rating or unrated. The rating was given for a sex scene between a married couple played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as their relationship disintegrates. I’m told the appeal board’s decision was unanimous.
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There is some justice in the world…
Looking forward to seeing it.
This is great news! But for the love of all that is right in the world…will someone please use this as the catalyst for causing/implementing REAL change in the CARA rating system? All that likely comes out of this from their end is, “The system works, we’re going to continue to do things the way we have been and filmmakers, distributors and studios can go through the fair appeal system that we have set up to ensure all films are fairly assessed and accurately rated.”
Hey…that actually sounds pretty good. CARA, you need a PR guy to draft up even more BS for you?
YAY!
get that free pr harvey. go girl.
Did he bring the baseball bat or the chainsaw?
Happy Hanukkah, Harvey.
Kudos to Harvey for standing up and fighting for his position, and his victory! We look forward to seeing the film. The controversy should only help their ticket sales if PR’d in the right manner.
Seems like a fairly anticlimactic ending to what could have been a turning point in the way ratings are given out. Overturning the rating has bought the MPAA ratings board some extra time, and eased TWC’s fears of having to distribute an NC-17 film theatrically.
Oh well, maybe one day we’ll see a more successful attempt at a “Hatchet 2″ type unrated theatrical release.
thank god. this is a beautiful, wrenching film that needs to be seen. it’s crazy that this giot an intial NC-17 while “The Passion of the Christ” got an R! No sex, please, we’re American….
wowzer; i am absolutely stunned! is there any way to get a handle on what harry had argued? PLS UPDATE!!!!
Disgusting.
Glad the filmmakers fought the good fight! All the studios need to turn their back on that antiquated, fascist organization and render it irrelevant.
Do that — and theater chains and newspapers that run ads really won’t care — they will still want movies in their theaters and adapt to the change. We don’t need a “morality” police in this country.
Yeah, getting rid of the MPAA would open the door for government intervention. Good luck with that, Hollywood.
Get rid of the ratings system. It’s as relevant as a rotary telephone in 2011.
Again, if the MPAA doesn’t rate them, the government will. Think it through, geniuses.
There’s nothing that says the MPAA needs to be THE ratings system we use. What’s to stop someone from creating a transparent organization that has more appropriate guidelines when it comes to the violence vs. sex discrepancy?
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! This is my favorite movie of 2010 and i’m Soooooooooooooo glad this happened! YES! YES! YES!!!
This is great news! (We still need an entire revamp or dismissal of the rating system though.)
Sources tell me the MPAA agreed to change BLUE VALENTINE’s rating to R only because Harvey’s rant was far more NC-17 and the film looked tamer by comparison.
There should be no ratings, the system is a fraud anyway. The only real rating system is the number of people who go to see a film.
This is a pretty uninformed comment… they have a rating/classification system in the UK (and other European countries). All content isn’t suitable for all audiences… no eight-year old needs to see the torture-porn violence that masquerades as psychological horror films of the last 5 or 6 years.
There’s no “specific” and/or “demonstrable” guidelines to what each Rating Classification means… we know that showing female sexual pleasure will get you an NC-17 any day of the week, and male frontal nudity will do the same. And two fucks too many will get you a R-Rating, but the highly subjective nature of the quasi-censorship is what has to go, not the concept of Classifying/Rating a film.
Ironically, payTV pushes the boundary in terms of content more than most films (i.e. The Shield, OZ, Spartacus) and there’s less uproar.
I am glad that Cianfrance, the director, did not change this amazing film to appease the MPAA and that they put up a good fight at the appeal hearing today!! Congrats to everyone involved!!!
Harvey should’ve argued harder for The King’s Speech to be rated PG-13. That’s the real travesty with the MPAA this year.
That movie would garner even more award attention (hence revenue) than it might already get.
As a parent, I struggle to understand the usefulness or validity of the MPAA. When I want to know if a film is appropriate for my son, I look to websites like ComonSenseMedia that give extensive and reasoned analysis from a chorus of child development experts and fellow parents. I don’t know a single parent who trusts their childs’ development to an organization with as extensive a history of bad decision making as the MPAA.