Which mainstream movie recieved the harhest treatment from the censors?!
Question: Actually, "Midnight Cowboy" was rated "X", not "R". (This was in the early days of the rating system, when "X" was still an official rating designation.)
This gives it the distinction of being the only X-rated movie ever to have won the Best Picture Oscar.
Movies today are not censored. But they are "rated" by the MPAA, which almost amounts to the same thing. If you are a filmmaker and the MPAA gives your film an "NC-17," you are very likely to go back and re-cut your own film, because many theaters refuse to carry NC-17; and most who do will refuse to admit 17 or under to see it.
BTW, the MPAA stubbornly refuses to reveal the criteria they use to judge films, or any details of the rating process, or even the identities of the raters. It is very arbitrary, based on some anonymous raters' personal feelings about community standards. See the documentary, "This Film is Not Yet Rated" for a revealing look at the MPAA.
Answers: Actually, "Midnight Cowboy" was rated "X", not "R". (This was in the early days of the rating system, when "X" was still an official rating designation.)
This gives it the distinction of being the only X-rated movie ever to have won the Best Picture Oscar.
Movies today are not censored. But they are "rated" by the MPAA, which almost amounts to the same thing. If you are a filmmaker and the MPAA gives your film an "NC-17," you are very likely to go back and re-cut your own film, because many theaters refuse to carry NC-17; and most who do will refuse to admit 17 or under to see it.
BTW, the MPAA stubbornly refuses to reveal the criteria they use to judge films, or any details of the rating process, or even the identities of the raters. It is very arbitrary, based on some anonymous raters' personal feelings about community standards. See the documentary, "This Film is Not Yet Rated" for a revealing look at the MPAA.
"Midnight Cowboy"the first R rated film to win an Oscar. They way I understand it,the director and the producers fought hammer and tongs with the censors to maintain the integrity of the plot. But then,even when the censors(or the gerbils as I call them)had even greater influence,the studios found ways around them(they weren't the brightest bulbs in the box)with as little compromise as possible
deepthroat