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By Adrian Pascua
By Adrian Pascua
On film, a guy walks into a bar, lights up a cigarette and kills the film rating.
Smoking will now become a contributing factor in a film’s rating. At first, only underage smoking was considered, but now the Motion Picture Association of America has said that violence, sex and smoking of any kind will be factors in determining a film’s rating.
It really hasn’t been a taboo for films to contain shots of the hero lighting up a cigarette to move up his bad boy persona. Nor has anyone ever thought twice about films glamorizing smoking so that it looks like all the cool people do it.
According to Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the association, smoking in films has dropped from 60 percent to 52 percent from July 2004 to July 2006-75 percent were rated R.
This move is being backed by the Directors Guild of America as well as many anti-smoking lobbyist groups.
Smoking on film has become a major issue as of recently, due to the fact that movies like “Good Night, and Good Luck” did not receive an R rating for the amount of people who were smoking on screen. Instead, it was rated PG.
It’s not exactly cutting down on violence or sex on film, but everyone has got to start somewhere. Hopefully, by cutting down on smoking in the movies, it might cut down a little of the pressure on kids to start smoking.
The association can not go back through the classics and
rerate iconic Bogart and Bette Davis films to make them apply to today’s youth.
The association hopes to start cracking down on films that contain the consumption of alcohol and that contain fast driving that a 16-year-olds with a license might want to imitate (“The Fast and the Furious”). This is a logical step that most of us would agree with, since we have such impressionable youth.
According to the association, smoking has become less acceptable in society and they would like to see less of it in films. American children’s bad habit has always been to imitate everything that they see on television or in the movies. We all know that little brother who wants to become the next Jackie Chan and do his own stunts. As a martial artist, I can tell you that I’ve met my fair share.
The fact that the Motion Picture Association of America has become hasher on films with smoking confirms how unacceptable smoking has become in the American society. Hopefully, one day they can start cutting down on bad movies that should never hit theaters, too.
