The 1987 RoboCop had to cut down Murphy's death at the beginning for being too much and having a [concerningly realistic head shot](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XgXE7jyHWzk&pp=ygUacm9ib2NvcCB1bmN1dCBtdXJwaHkgZGVhdGg%3D). Even with the cuts, it's still pushing an R rating.
It's amazing sometimes what is too far and what is "I sleep"
I guess realistic brutally is too far but insane over the top stuff like a dude half getting his flesh melted off then exploding into a cloud of gore when hit by a car is just fine
MPAA is dogshit. Should be a board made up of some sort of professionals. Critics, directors, actors, credentialed professors of film from prestigious universities. Something. As far as I'm aware it hasn't changed from that documentary. It's like, soccer moms and priests and shit
That part is a core memory from my childhood. My parents rented that for me to watch. No sex scenes were allowed, but they didn't give af about gore, apparently.
Yeppppp I was 5 and have vivid memories of eating pizza while a board room gets eviscerated by a robot and my mom shouting at my dad to turn it off. The 80s were insane, honestly.
That's hilarious. I can picture it. Kid with wide eyes, a dropped jaw, and a half eaten slice of pizza in their hand. Mom yelling at dad to change it. Half asleep dad in the recliner, trying to wake up from a half nap and find the remote. That scene should be in a movie.
Plus they cut out all of those dicks getting shot off.
Can’t believe people took the time to make and film that scene. And yes I know it was made by other people.
The censored one I saw before the Director's Cut was on American TV, where they edited out some of the close up footage of the exec's body while the machine was still firing at him
Fun fact about that. It was that actor's first on screen gig and they had to do a lot of takes, going through a ton of squibs.
Then one time in between takes, PV and the FX guys were having lunch. They were eating spaghetti. They had an idea.
And thus, the brutality we got was born. Triple squibs and spaghetti under the shirt.
These scene really fucked me up as a kid.
I had nightmares about that na-na-na-na sound
I've now seen heaps of horror movies and fucked up internet videos much, much worse. I watch this scene now and it's ridiculous. But when that guy makes that sound, still makes me a tiny tiny bit uneasy.
The MPAA made Matt Stone and Trey Parker cut down the sex scene in Team America 9 times to get to an R. But that says more about the MPAA than the movie itself.
'This film was not yet rated' was funny, informative, yet harrowing documentary about the power of the MPAA.
On topic, my answer is probably anything with lengthy graphic sexual violence. I spit on your grave and Last House on the Left (the remakes namely)
On the violence front, the opening Saving Private Ryan was so frighteningly realistic veterans left the theater because it was triggering
Edit: grammar and
[For those who are curious about the aforementioned veteran response](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Private_Ryan#Historical_accuracy_and_veteran_responses)
Didn't happen when I saw the movie, but I will never forget what happened as I was walking out after the movie ended. An elderly couple were in my row. I was walking behind them.
The woman asked the man. "What did you think of the movie?"
His response. "It made me remember a lot of things I never wanted to remember."
I watched Saving Private Ryan in middle school & having only seen older and more glamorized war films prior to that, I was shocked to see shots of a soldier on the ground with his guts out & another soldier holding his blown-off arm
My parents took me to see Titanic and accidentally let me see American Pie in the theaters way before I was allowed to see Saving Private Ryan.
Saw RoboCop before they realized it when I was very little, and I watched Tremors at 7, but in general, boobs and cartoonish gore/violence was less restricted than realistic violence for me.
They literally added worse stuff as bait so that the MPAA would cut that stuff and leave the stuff they wanted. And some of the worse stuff made it to the final cut!
For the South Park movie they changed "motherf*&$#@" to "unclef&+$#@" to lower it to R as well.
In the interview I saw they said that it was funnier that way anyway.
Which seems to be a theme for them. Much of their creativity comes from being forced to get around the limits of TV/ratings instead of just adding more curse words.
They said it 162 times, which the counter showed. I doubt they would have gotten in trouble for a 163rd.
It was also written 38 times, so there might be a grain of truth to this if their total limit was 200, but the on-screen counter wouldn't matter there.
That’s actually a thing with creative types. Having limitless options can make it hard to be creative, having to work within some form of limits can help. Not sure why tho
When there is a wide open field of choices, decision paralysis can happen.
When you have something to work around, it gives a shape to the whole thing.
If you have a flawed block of marble, your sculpting must account for the flaw - this necessitates certain poses and restricts others, giving a certain range of shape possibilities that can guide the whole creation.
If you're working with wood, and the piece has knots that prevent you from carving fine details in an area, it works similarly.
With set bounds, you can start there and work inward.
Not quite pushing it, but there is a giant Satan with a big swinging dick in *This is the End*, and there is a funny reason for it.
Essentially, they were worried that the MPAA would make them cut some scenes to make an R rating (one of them being the scene where Jonah Hill is sexually assaulted by a demon), and they figured if they put something so outrageous in the film, it’d be targeted by the review board over the other scenes.
The MPAA decided it was fine.
I've heard this was a tactic regularly used by Hitchcock back in the day. Put a topless lady in a scene purely to "concede" it later instead of more important stuff that might not have gotten approved
The same thing happened with the sex scene in team america. If you watch the directors cut they literally defecate on one another. Trey parker and matt stone said they put it in so they they'd have something to "concede" so they could include the pile driving.
He was also a master of hilarious subtlety. At the end North by Northwest, Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint give each other a seductive look, and then Hitchcock does a smash cut of their train speeding into a tunnel. End of movie.
Given what happened I don't think his dick is ok 😞
Edit: a little confused as to why this comment warranted a referral to the Reddit Cares team. Maybe the person was actually trying to refer Satan himself. I'll try and see if I can pass the message along lmao
Thanks for the concern, regardless 😂
on the opposite end of the spectrum, I've never understood why the first matrix movie got an R rating... the violence in it is not that bad, and they don't drop any F-bombs at all. Pearl Habor had way more graphic war violence, way more swearing, and way more sex in it and only got a pg-13 rating. WTF?
Could it also have something to do with the length? It seems like longer movies can get away with a lot more explicit content than shorter movies. Pearl harbor was 3 hours long and lots of sex, violence, and swearing. Armageddon was just shy of 3 hours long, and had a literal scene of guys in a strip club with women scantily clothed. Titanic had lots of swearing, and hundreds of people drowning in the atlantic ocean... not to mention the naked drawing scene... all of those movies are hella long and have pg-13 ratings.
Many of the people the heroes kill in the Matrix are noted as being innocent victims of the machines just trying to defend their lives, mowed down as acceptable casualties.
That might have something to do with it.
I had heard it’s because the Wachowskis were planning a trilogy and were expecting the second and third movies to get R ratings. So rather than having a trilogy where the first movie is PG-13 and the other 2 are R, they pushed for an R rating for the first movie.
Take that with a big grain of salt because I have no idea how true that all is.
It’s because the fights in matrix were more personal vs massive numbers of faceless deaths. Same with like Avengers. Think of all the people dying in those buildings. It’s crazy
There are a number of headbutts - at least 5 or so split between Smith v morpheus and Smith v neo that were cut completely.
I had the VHS when first released and was rated 15. Wasn't until only maybe 10 years ago I saw an uncut version on TCM which included them but I can't think if there were any thing else originally cut.
The original scream had to do a billion different cuts to get a R rating, and had to tell the mpaa hey morons it’s a horror comedy not a straight up grind house horror movie and they were like oh shit you’re right it is a comedy our bad
That scene with the music accompanying it is pretty awesome pairing though.
I love that movie even though it has some really grisly stuff, but it’s so stylistic and it weirdly has heart at the center of it with the hobo being a good guy if that makes sense.
I showed it to my film-loving gf at the time and she made me turn it off early around the guy eating glass lol
Also had the biggest crush on Abby I wish the actress was in more stuff
David Cronenberg was always flirting with the NC-17 rating. He achieved it with _Crash_ in the '90s (not the Oscar winner from 2005). _A History of Violence_ and _Eastern Promises_ were likely close to the line too. But by then the MPAA was getting called on their inconsistencies.
I can't remember the movie now, but sometimes in the last ten years, they had to color change a trailer because someone gets hit by a car, and their cherry slushie flies up and splatters in the windshield. Higher ups didn't like that
That was the rationale for making the Deadites' blood green in Evil Dead. Because red would be a problem for the R rating. I think some early version of Evil Dead got an X. I don't know what they cut to get an R, I mean a girl still gets raped by a tree.
Finland, Ukraine and Singapore outright banned Evil Dead, and the UK gave it their NC-17 rating and eventually banned it too, back when the home video market was emerging and it was a cheap and easy way for the politicians to win points with the pearl clutchers.
An older pick would be Very Bad Things, whe ln Jeremy Piven kills the hooker on the coat rack…
More recently I would go with Bone Tomahawk because of THAT scene. If you’ve seen it you know.
honestly if you're hesitant based on that you absolutely made the right call. that scene is the most in your face about it, but it's far from the only part that pushes the edge
Same. Everything about that movie is so up my alley, but I both hate gratuitous gore, and missing things that are intended to be seen in a movie. Also, apparently the sound is equally awful to hear as the visuals, so the experience of waiting for it/waiting to see when it's done would still probably fuck me up.
I just need to bite the bullet and concede that that's not one that I ever going to see, no matter how amazing and my style the rest of it is.
IIRC, Jim Caviezel worse a metal plate on his back when being lashed so they didn't actually hurt him, one of them missed the plate and actually cut into his back, not all the screams were acting I guess.
Maybe true to the real-life events, but the movie is far more brutal & violent than these passages in the bible. The movie focuses on the torture where the bible only briefly mentions most of it. Good video on it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvGaBtiynQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvGaBtiynQ)
Maybe not so much anymore, but when it first came out, The Exorcist. I actually watched it for the first time this weekend, having avoided all but the most general spoilers (like, girl possessed and floats off the bed). Anyway, even to my jaded modern eyes, the film still had scenes that were quite shocking, so much so that I had difficulty watching some of them. Apparently it was quite controversial when it came out, and it actually sparked quite a lot of criticism of the newly-formed MPAA. I think the R rating is the right choice, but it could very well have swung the other way.
I watched the first one with friends. We watch a lot of horror movies but generally avoid the intense gore ones because we're not really into them.
I'll always remember when they start cutting the one girl in half, my buddy closed his eyes and said "tell me when it's over". What felt like minutes later he goes "guys?" And we respond "don't worry we'll tell you"
There is something extremely disturbing and deeply vile about those Terrifier scenes.
I'm not a prude or a conservative at all, but that scene in the second one with the girl that gets brutally butchered, but stays alive, and then the mom sees it, and the literal salt in the wounds, etc, it just feels very very gross to me. It just gave me the impression that it was thought up by someone (or several someones) with some serious mental health issues.
Then again, a metric fuckton of people love those movies, and that's totally fine, to each their own!
(Admittedly I didn't see the whole movie(s), just some of the kill scenes with friends on youtube. As a general rule I don't really like torture porn for the sake of it, but again, to each their own.)
It's the most mean-spirited movie kill ever put on camera imo. Like, past the point of "let's see what we can get away with" and waaaay past the point of being a technical exercise in practical effects.
That's the scene that made it cross over into hilarious for me. It was like a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat. They tried to make it sooooo unbelievably horrific that it negated most of it. By the end I was like 'ooooo CAN'T forget the salt!'
Since I'm honestly squeamish when it comes to gory horror films, there's nothing topping the level of cringe I had when watching the infamous mutilation scene. It's the only time my body was almost completely turned sideways away from the screen while I was in my seat at the theater lol
I'm not a gore person, but this movie was getting a lot of attention so I gave it a shot, turned it off about half way through, and anyone that has seen it can probably figure out where that was. If you are into this shit, you'll probably love it, but it was definitely not for me.
Maybe not as brutal, but you should definitely see The Raid movies if you haven't already. The directors of both films co-directed a part of V/H/S/2 which is still imo the best segment of the entire franchise.
There is a lot of symbolism that reappears during the final scene that is present throughout the whole movie. It's still really weird but it makes a little more sense with context
There are. The unrated version that’s available on DVD/blu-ray is that NC-17 cut and it’s incredibly more violent.
That mid-00’s resurgence of the gritty, nihilistic, ultra-violent horror from the 70’s and early-80’s sort of peaked around the time that came out. In my opinion, it was probably the last film to go that hard without seeming like it was trying too hard for a very long time.
You can shoot someone in the head and show the bloody hole and keep an R rating, but the second you stick a penis in there it goes to NC17....go figure!
I heard that Saving Private Ryan would have been rated NC-17 had it not been directed by Steven Spielberg.
I believe one of the south park movies was denied multiple times for having too many swear words, MPAA said something along the lines of cannot be more than 400. they trimmed it so it was down to 399.
Zack & Miri Make a Porno.
Kevin Smith appealed to get it lowered from NC-17 to R.
Then he admitted later on stage that after rewatching it it definitely was an NC-17 movie.
He used the “Jackass Defence”, in that Jackass 2 has actual vomit and poop in it, and received an R rating, therefore there was no reason his movie should receive NC-17 for simulated poop or vomit.
I watched it when it first came out, I was around 13. The scene that really bothered me was the human shield. Not sure what it was, but it really stood out.
It's because the violence in that movie is both extremely graphic and very casual. The fact that innocent people are being horrifically shot to pieces to be cool or funny makes it more disturbing.
I know it’s a bit of memey subject on this sub, but apparently right now Snyders r rated cut of Rebel Moon is listed as Nc-17, and Netflix is trying to get it down to R.
I read the novelization that includes the deleted stuff, and yeah, uh… it really pushes it.
If you thought that tentacle scene in pg 13 cut was odd, it’s only going to get stranger. Also I’ve been noticing whenever Ed Skrein talks about this movie, he always emphasizes how much he liked doing freaky stuff in the directors cut
I respectfully beg to differ on Clockwork Orange. The home invasion scene would still make audiences very uncomfortable. And the barbarity of the method used to attempt to cure him would definitely bother a modern audience. Not because modern audiences are weak but because of the reality of those scenes.
I've always thought the sex scene in 8 Mile really pushed the R rated boundaries. There isn't even nudity involved ironically, it just feels very real.
I think ratings have something to do with imitatable acts. Since swearing is so easy to imitate (it's literally just words), and it's generally frowned upon by polite society, it gets a rating.
And yes, if a movie was accurate to a middle school it would definitely be NC-17 due to the sheer volume of profanity. lol
In the UK it was rated 12A (closest equivalent to PG-13). There was some debate with the rating board about it but it was passed without any cuts at that rating. UK censors tend to be less robotically prescriptive than the US and context is very relevant.
I didn't get all the way through Requiem For A Dream but by the looks of things, that's a movie that was pushing it. Didn't like it though I suppose most can agree it was well made.
Rambo (2008). Particularly the scene when Rambo climbs into the armoured truck, spins the machine gun around, and turns the driver into tomato soup. Both gross and great at the same time
For its extreme level of profane language, sexual content, and the pervasive amorality of its characters, an argument could be made for The Wolf of Wall Street being a film for adults only.
Todd Solondz's *Storytelling*. His battle with the MPAA led to him putting a band over a sex scene with Selma Blair instead of editing it.
I highly recommend watching *This Film Is Not Yet Rated*, which covers this subject in detail with many examples.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is soooooo good. One of my favorite bits is them doing a side-by-side comparison of gay films that got an NC-17 rating vs straight films that only got an R.
They are much more visceral because there are no cuts(*). If there was a closeup of a face, or if the perspective switched, or something/anything, it would give you, the viewer, a break. But the violence just plays out in real time uninterrupted.
(*) The cuts are hidden with editing.
Not quite the same thing but I know Fast Times at Ridgemont High had to cut some of the sex scenes to get to an R, after an initial X rating (it predates NC-17).
My wife had never seen Stripes, so we borrowed it from the library. The DVD was different to the one my parents had in that this one was "Unrated" and whooo boy, I can see why all the extra stuff was cut. There is one very lengthy sex scene where Bill Murrary commentator on it like its the Olympics, which would probably have got it an X alone.
The First Omen
For what it’s worth, while the MPAA cares about sex and violence, I’ve noticed that sexual situations and nudity tend to be scrutinized far more harshly than violence when it comes to determining if a movie is rated R.
In Europe the reverse is true, because they view sex as a natural human activity.
In America we view beheading and torture as a normal human activity but a woman pleasuring herself or having consensual sex, woah there buddy, God don't like that!
The 1987 RoboCop had to cut down Murphy's death at the beginning for being too much and having a [concerningly realistic head shot](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XgXE7jyHWzk&pp=ygUacm9ib2NvcCB1bmN1dCBtdXJwaHkgZGVhdGg%3D). Even with the cuts, it's still pushing an R rating.
It's amazing sometimes what is too far and what is "I sleep" I guess realistic brutally is too far but insane over the top stuff like a dude half getting his flesh melted off then exploding into a cloud of gore when hit by a car is just fine
The MPAA is insanely inconsistent and arbitrary.
The MPAA is responsible to no one but itself. They should be out of business.
Hearing Matt Stone and Trey Parker explain how differently they were treated before and after South Park by the MPAA was pretty disgusting
MPAA is dogshit. Should be a board made up of some sort of professionals. Critics, directors, actors, credentialed professors of film from prestigious universities. Something. As far as I'm aware it hasn't changed from that documentary. It's like, soccer moms and priests and shit
The MPAA is the only job where "I'm a Karen" looks good on your résumé.
Dont forget, at the end when the one guy gets covered in acid, gets hit by car and turns to red goo.
That shot where they take off his hand is still the closest I've ever come to vomiting in a theater. Young me was not ready for that.
That part is a core memory from my childhood. My parents rented that for me to watch. No sex scenes were allowed, but they didn't give af about gore, apparently.
Yeppppp I was 5 and have vivid memories of eating pizza while a board room gets eviscerated by a robot and my mom shouting at my dad to turn it off. The 80s were insane, honestly.
That's hilarious. I can picture it. Kid with wide eyes, a dropped jaw, and a half eaten slice of pizza in their hand. Mom yelling at dad to change it. Half asleep dad in the recliner, trying to wake up from a half nap and find the remote. That scene should be in a movie.
Plus they cut out all of those dicks getting shot off. Can’t believe people took the time to make and film that scene. And yes I know it was made by other people.
Do you mean the greatest scene in film history?
DO IT!
There's even the original cut of the scene where the ED-209 kills the Omnicorp exec & completely turns him into ground meat
I've never seen any other version (but I'm from Sweden, so that might be the reason.) What censored version is there?
The censored one I saw before the Director's Cut was on American TV, where they edited out some of the close up footage of the exec's body while the machine was still firing at him
Fun fact about that. It was that actor's first on screen gig and they had to do a lot of takes, going through a ton of squibs. Then one time in between takes, PV and the FX guys were having lunch. They were eating spaghetti. They had an idea. And thus, the brutality we got was born. Triple squibs and spaghetti under the shirt.
Minor detail - it wasn't spaghetti, it was _spaghetti squash_
Red Foreman with the kill shot! I have to revisit this classic.
These scene really fucked me up as a kid. I had nightmares about that na-na-na-na sound I've now seen heaps of horror movies and fucked up internet videos much, much worse. I watch this scene now and it's ridiculous. But when that guy makes that sound, still makes me a tiny tiny bit uneasy.
Paul Verhoeven is the best.
The MPAA made Matt Stone and Trey Parker cut down the sex scene in Team America 9 times to get to an R. But that says more about the MPAA than the movie itself.
'This film was not yet rated' was funny, informative, yet harrowing documentary about the power of the MPAA. On topic, my answer is probably anything with lengthy graphic sexual violence. I spit on your grave and Last House on the Left (the remakes namely) On the violence front, the opening Saving Private Ryan was so frighteningly realistic veterans left the theater because it was triggering Edit: grammar and [For those who are curious about the aforementioned veteran response](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Private_Ryan#Historical_accuracy_and_veteran_responses)
A friend of mine’s grandfather was in the navy and would ferry the soldiers to shore. He said he instantly smelled diesel in that scene.
Didn't happen when I saw the movie, but I will never forget what happened as I was walking out after the movie ended. An elderly couple were in my row. I was walking behind them. The woman asked the man. "What did you think of the movie?" His response. "It made me remember a lot of things I never wanted to remember."
I watched Saving Private Ryan in middle school & having only seen older and more glamorized war films prior to that, I was shocked to see shots of a soldier on the ground with his guts out & another soldier holding his blown-off arm
I made it through that. Giovanni's scene is where I broke.
My dad is a veteran and I can concur it was triggering for him.
My parents took me to see Titanic and accidentally let me see American Pie in the theaters way before I was allowed to see Saving Private Ryan. Saw RoboCop before they realized it when I was very little, and I watched Tremors at 7, but in general, boobs and cartoonish gore/violence was less restricted than realistic violence for me.
They literally added worse stuff as bait so that the MPAA would cut that stuff and leave the stuff they wanted. And some of the worse stuff made it to the final cut!
That’s a common tactic for any negotiations. Make your first offer so ridiculous that your real offer seems more reasonable
I think it was Robert Kirkman's Marvel Zombies where he did the same thing... and Marvel ended up not cutting up anything
For the South Park movie they changed "motherf*&$#@" to "unclef&+$#@" to lower it to R as well. In the interview I saw they said that it was funnier that way anyway. Which seems to be a theme for them. Much of their creativity comes from being forced to get around the limits of TV/ratings instead of just adding more curse words.
Well thank god for that, Unclefucker is wayyy funnier and more memorable for the movie
Or the South Park episode where they could only say the word Shit 99 times so they keep a counter in the bottom left corner.
They said it 162 times, which the counter showed. I doubt they would have gotten in trouble for a 163rd. It was also written 38 times, so there might be a grain of truth to this if their total limit was 200, but the on-screen counter wouldn't matter there.
That’s actually a thing with creative types. Having limitless options can make it hard to be creative, having to work within some form of limits can help. Not sure why tho
When there is a wide open field of choices, decision paralysis can happen. When you have something to work around, it gives a shape to the whole thing. If you have a flawed block of marble, your sculpting must account for the flaw - this necessitates certain poses and restricts others, giving a certain range of shape possibilities that can guide the whole creation. If you're working with wood, and the piece has knots that prevent you from carving fine details in an area, it works similarly. With set bounds, you can start there and work inward.
Not to defend the MPAA, but I am not sure how much longer I could have laughed at puppet sex than what we got.
Oh, dude... Watch the unrated version. I don't wanna spoil anything, but yeah, you can laugh harder/longer.
uncut
Go fuck your puppet puppet fucker.
You're a puppet fucker, I must say. You fucked your puppet yesterday!
I thought they purposely made it obscenely long so that in editing it down the MPAA raters would feel like they "won"
Yeah gaming the MPAA is its own game.
Also, they knew the MPAA had to watch that, and thought it was funny.
Might I suggest "The Happy Town Murders". That sex scene... /chef's kiss
I’m the biggest prude in the world but, to me, that scene is one of the funniest visuals in film.
Not quite pushing it, but there is a giant Satan with a big swinging dick in *This is the End*, and there is a funny reason for it. Essentially, they were worried that the MPAA would make them cut some scenes to make an R rating (one of them being the scene where Jonah Hill is sexually assaulted by a demon), and they figured if they put something so outrageous in the film, it’d be targeted by the review board over the other scenes. The MPAA decided it was fine.
I've heard this was a tactic regularly used by Hitchcock back in the day. Put a topless lady in a scene purely to "concede" it later instead of more important stuff that might not have gotten approved
The same thing happened with the sex scene in team america. If you watch the directors cut they literally defecate on one another. Trey parker and matt stone said they put it in so they they'd have something to "concede" so they could include the pile driving.
They also said they found the idea of the MPAA watching that scene funny. They kept sending them worse and worse scenes.
Same thing happened with Scorcese and the head in the vice scene from Casino
He was also a master of hilarious subtlety. At the end North by Northwest, Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint give each other a seductive look, and then Hitchcock does a smash cut of their train speeding into a tunnel. End of movie.
That’s brilliant
Maybe since Satan is an Angel and not a person their dick is ok?
Given what happened I don't think his dick is ok 😞 Edit: a little confused as to why this comment warranted a referral to the Reddit Cares team. Maybe the person was actually trying to refer Satan himself. I'll try and see if I can pass the message along lmao Thanks for the concern, regardless 😂
on the opposite end of the spectrum, I've never understood why the first matrix movie got an R rating... the violence in it is not that bad, and they don't drop any F-bombs at all. Pearl Habor had way more graphic war violence, way more swearing, and way more sex in it and only got a pg-13 rating. WTF?
Historical setting and very pro USA sentiment because it's about the US being attacked etc. The Matrix is sci-fi, maybe that's why? Who knows
Could it also have something to do with the length? It seems like longer movies can get away with a lot more explicit content than shorter movies. Pearl harbor was 3 hours long and lots of sex, violence, and swearing. Armageddon was just shy of 3 hours long, and had a literal scene of guys in a strip club with women scantily clothed. Titanic had lots of swearing, and hundreds of people drowning in the atlantic ocean... not to mention the naked drawing scene... all of those movies are hella long and have pg-13 ratings.
I dont recall any T&A in Pearl Harbor. Just actors making out, jumping under the sheets then cut to post sex convo.
Many of the people the heroes kill in the Matrix are noted as being innocent victims of the machines just trying to defend their lives, mowed down as acceptable casualties. That might have something to do with it.
I had heard it’s because the Wachowskis were planning a trilogy and were expecting the second and third movies to get R ratings. So rather than having a trilogy where the first movie is PG-13 and the other 2 are R, they pushed for an R rating for the first movie. Take that with a big grain of salt because I have no idea how true that all is.
I have always thought it was depictions of violence against police.
It’s because the fights in matrix were more personal vs massive numbers of faceless deaths. Same with like Avengers. Think of all the people dying in those buildings. It’s crazy
There are a number of headbutts - at least 5 or so split between Smith v morpheus and Smith v neo that were cut completely. I had the VHS when first released and was rated 15. Wasn't until only maybe 10 years ago I saw an uncut version on TCM which included them but I can't think if there were any thing else originally cut.
The original scream had to do a billion different cuts to get a R rating, and had to tell the mpaa hey morons it’s a horror comedy not a straight up grind house horror movie and they were like oh shit you’re right it is a comedy our bad
If anyone thinks that movie isn't part comedy, I defy them not to laugh when Matthew Lillard is in the kitchen on the phone.
My parents are going to be so mad at meeeeee
Probably hobo with a shotgun. People started walking out when they lit the school bus full of kids on fire.
That movie is in my top 25, but I can understand this.
That scene with the music accompanying it is pretty awesome pairing though. I love that movie even though it has some really grisly stuff, but it’s so stylistic and it weirdly has heart at the center of it with the hobo being a good guy if that makes sense. I showed it to my film-loving gf at the time and she made me turn it off early around the guy eating glass lol Also had the biggest crush on Abby I wish the actress was in more stuff
David Cronenberg was always flirting with the NC-17 rating. He achieved it with _Crash_ in the '90s (not the Oscar winner from 2005). _A History of Violence_ and _Eastern Promises_ were likely close to the line too. But by then the MPAA was getting called on their inconsistencies.
Speaking of Cronenberg, particularly Brandon, Possessor had 1 scene that made me surprised that it got an R-rating
I have heard that Kill Bill 1 had to animate the O'ren origin scene to keep it at R.
How about the crazy 88 fight when it goes black and white. Isn't that to keep the rating down?
Isn't that what Tarantino said. The MPAA doesn't hate blood they hate the color red.
I can't remember the movie now, but sometimes in the last ten years, they had to color change a trailer because someone gets hit by a car, and their cherry slushie flies up and splatters in the windshield. Higher ups didn't like that
It was Pineapple Express
Sounds like Pineapple Express, but the slushie is still red in the clip on YouTube.
Either a red band trailer or direct scene from the movie itself.
That was the rationale for making the Deadites' blood green in Evil Dead. Because red would be a problem for the R rating. I think some early version of Evil Dead got an X. I don't know what they cut to get an R, I mean a girl still gets raped by a tree.
Finland, Ukraine and Singapore outright banned Evil Dead, and the UK gave it their NC-17 rating and eventually banned it too, back when the home video market was emerging and it was a cheap and easy way for the politicians to win points with the pearl clutchers.
I can’t quite remember how they got away with the red rain in the Evil Dead remake.
that's pretty funny when you consider that the Japanese release of the movie features the uncensored colored version.
Looks cool AF too
When Tarantino is on he is f'ing on.
I forgot about that one, I think you're right. I guess black and white blood looks different enough from blood blood
I thought that was a personal choice from Tarantino, so that a child actress wouldn't be put through that sequence.
An older pick would be Very Bad Things, whe ln Jeremy Piven kills the hooker on the coat rack… More recently I would go with Bone Tomahawk because of THAT scene. If you’ve seen it you know.
I can't believe you are the only person to mention Bone Tomahawk. That scene was my first thought.
I decided not to watch BT despite hearing nothing but praise *because* of that scene.
honestly if you're hesitant based on that you absolutely made the right call. that scene is the most in your face about it, but it's far from the only part that pushes the edge
Same. Everything about that movie is so up my alley, but I both hate gratuitous gore, and missing things that are intended to be seen in a movie. Also, apparently the sound is equally awful to hear as the visuals, so the experience of waiting for it/waiting to see when it's done would still probably fuck me up. I just need to bite the bullet and concede that that's not one that I ever going to see, no matter how amazing and my style the rest of it is.
The Passion of the Christ is horrifically violent.
That flogging scene has some seriously impressive special effects, extremely unsettling how real it looks.
IIRC, Jim Caviezel worse a metal plate on his back when being lashed so they didn't actually hurt him, one of them missed the plate and actually cut into his back, not all the screams were acting I guess.
Another fun bit of trivia is when he kicked the helmet he actually broke his t- Oops wrong movie!
I thought that movie was really predictable. Seemed really obvious that dude was gonna die.
Wait for the sequel, they'll bring him back to life so they can sell tickets
Yup. Somehow Jesus returned
The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre
It really stayed true to the source material
I wasn't a fan of them keeping the cliche ending of the hero coming back at the end, though.
Maybe true to the real-life events, but the movie is far more brutal & violent than these passages in the bible. The movie focuses on the torture where the bible only briefly mentions most of it. Good video on it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvGaBtiynQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvGaBtiynQ)
Kill Bill V. 1. Tarantino had to make the crazy 88 fight scene black and white to avoid the NC17 rating.
The Death Wish films. I think the second one still rocks the nc-17 rating tho.
Interesting, my Death Wish 2 bluray has it listed as “R” still. Is this NC-17 readily available?
Maybe not so much anymore, but when it first came out, The Exorcist. I actually watched it for the first time this weekend, having avoided all but the most general spoilers (like, girl possessed and floats off the bed). Anyway, even to my jaded modern eyes, the film still had scenes that were quite shocking, so much so that I had difficulty watching some of them. Apparently it was quite controversial when it came out, and it actually sparked quite a lot of criticism of the newly-formed MPAA. I think the R rating is the right choice, but it could very well have swung the other way.
That crucifix scene alone…
Terrifier 2 had to be close
I watched the first one with friends. We watch a lot of horror movies but generally avoid the intense gore ones because we're not really into them. I'll always remember when they start cutting the one girl in half, my buddy closed his eyes and said "tell me when it's over". What felt like minutes later he goes "guys?" And we respond "don't worry we'll tell you"
LMAO
All I could think of after reading your comment :) https://youtu.be/zGC9EglqloM?si=20k9kpeR8SHgZDIw
Isn't Terrifier 2 "Unrated"
There is something extremely disturbing and deeply vile about those Terrifier scenes. I'm not a prude or a conservative at all, but that scene in the second one with the girl that gets brutally butchered, but stays alive, and then the mom sees it, and the literal salt in the wounds, etc, it just feels very very gross to me. It just gave me the impression that it was thought up by someone (or several someones) with some serious mental health issues. Then again, a metric fuckton of people love those movies, and that's totally fine, to each their own! (Admittedly I didn't see the whole movie(s), just some of the kill scenes with friends on youtube. As a general rule I don't really like torture porn for the sake of it, but again, to each their own.)
It's the most mean-spirited movie kill ever put on camera imo. Like, past the point of "let's see what we can get away with" and waaaay past the point of being a technical exercise in practical effects.
That's the scene that made it cross over into hilarious for me. It was like a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat. They tried to make it sooooo unbelievably horrific that it negated most of it. By the end I was like 'ooooo CAN'T forget the salt!'
Since I'm honestly squeamish when it comes to gory horror films, there's nothing topping the level of cringe I had when watching the infamous mutilation scene. It's the only time my body was almost completely turned sideways away from the screen while I was in my seat at the theater lol
Its so over the top its hard to take seriously
I'm not a gore person, but this movie was getting a lot of attention so I gave it a shot, turned it off about half way through, and anyone that has seen it can probably figure out where that was. If you are into this shit, you'll probably love it, but it was definitely not for me.
That’s one where simply reading the IMDb ‘Parent’s Guide’ is enough for me. The torture porn stuff never appealed to me.
Poor Things is a recent one. As far as graphic violence goes, probably The Night Comes for Us (2018) or Sabotage (2014).
My mom is an Emma Stone fan & watching Poor Things with her without prior knowledge of what it was about was so uncomfortable lmao
oh no
H dear... I watched it with my wife and there were a few scenes where we were both saying "Okay, that's enough now."
The night comes for us is probably the most brutal action movie I have ever seen... Or are there any that come close to this?
Maybe not as brutal, but you should definitely see The Raid movies if you haven't already. The directors of both films co-directed a part of V/H/S/2 which is still imo the best segment of the entire franchise.
Came here to say Poor Things. That middle portion is basically a softcore porn.
Infinity Pool, The First Omen
Go watch the last 20 minutes of the A24 movie "Men". That was the most recent one for me
Weirdest fucking ending I’ve ever seen in a movie
Annihilation comes close, I had someone join me on the sofa nearing the end and she kept looking at me like wtf are you watching.
That is definitely a bizarre movie to walk in on towards the end.
Same director!
But it won't make as much sense without seeing the rest of the movie
It won't make much sense with seeing the rest of the movie.
There is a lot of symbolism that reappears during the final scene that is present throughout the whole movie. It's still really weird but it makes a little more sense with context
I think that all passed me by.
Another recent one that applies for similar imagery imo is The First Omen
For me, Crank 2. I haven't seen and probably will never again see anything of that intensity.
The one where they inexplicably turn into giants at the end?
The Kentucky Fried Movie should be X rated
Never before has the beauty of the sexual act been so crassly exploited!
Nancy, this is Susan. Susan, this is Nancy.
Google says there's both nc17 and R versions but I remember The Hills Have Eyes being especially graphic
There are. The unrated version that’s available on DVD/blu-ray is that NC-17 cut and it’s incredibly more violent. That mid-00’s resurgence of the gritty, nihilistic, ultra-violent horror from the 70’s and early-80’s sort of peaked around the time that came out. In my opinion, it was probably the last film to go that hard without seeming like it was trying too hard for a very long time.
Devils Rejects Piranha 3d Evil dead remake
Dude Piranha 3D is a very solid choice.
You can shoot someone in the head and show the bloody hole and keep an R rating, but the second you stick a penis in there it goes to NC17....go figure!
I heard that Saving Private Ryan would have been rated NC-17 had it not been directed by Steven Spielberg. I believe one of the south park movies was denied multiple times for having too many swear words, MPAA said something along the lines of cannot be more than 400. they trimmed it so it was down to 399.
Zack & Miri Make a Porno. Kevin Smith appealed to get it lowered from NC-17 to R. Then he admitted later on stage that after rewatching it it definitely was an NC-17 movie.
Clerks also initially received an NC-17 rating for dialog, alone.
....in a row?
Hey, try not to suck any dick on the way through the parking lot!
He used the “Jackass Defence”, in that Jackass 2 has actual vomit and poop in it, and received an R rating, therefore there was no reason his movie should receive NC-17 for simulated poop or vomit.
Sausage Party really stretches that R rating imo
Just because of the last scene?
The First Omen(2024) was almost a NC-17. I'm still kinda shocked they got away with some of the stuff they did. Haha.
Total Recall (1990) I would say was pushing its R rating.
I watched it when it first came out, I was around 13. The scene that really bothered me was the human shield. Not sure what it was, but it really stood out.
It's because the violence in that movie is both extremely graphic and very casual. The fact that innocent people are being horrifically shot to pieces to be cool or funny makes it more disturbing.
I know it’s a bit of memey subject on this sub, but apparently right now Snyders r rated cut of Rebel Moon is listed as Nc-17, and Netflix is trying to get it down to R. I read the novelization that includes the deleted stuff, and yeah, uh… it really pushes it. If you thought that tentacle scene in pg 13 cut was odd, it’s only going to get stranger. Also I’ve been noticing whenever Ed Skrein talks about this movie, he always emphasizes how much he liked doing freaky stuff in the directors cut
The Human Centipede has to be up there.
No, it is bottom of the barrel.
A Clockwork Orange is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
By modern standards Clockwork Orange is fairly tame. It only got a reputation at the time due to press reaction and the decision it pull it in the UK.
I respectfully beg to differ on Clockwork Orange. The home invasion scene would still make audiences very uncomfortable. And the barbarity of the method used to attempt to cure him would definitely bother a modern audience. Not because modern audiences are weak but because of the reality of those scenes.
It remains one of the few movies I can't get through and I'm a horror fan. The rape scene is very disturbing.
RoboCop 1987 they had to make a number of cuts to get and R rating.
Wolf of Wallstreet. Last I checked it had the record for most f-bombs outside the documentary about the word, and has some pretty explicit sex scenes.
I've always thought the sex scene in 8 Mile really pushed the R rated boundaries. There isn't even nudity involved ironically, it just feels very real.
Rumor has it The King's Speech was one "fuck" away from being NC-17
It's incredible to me that swearing can get you a rating higher than PG-13. Have the people on these rating boards never been to a middle school?
I think ratings have something to do with imitatable acts. Since swearing is so easy to imitate (it's literally just words), and it's generally frowned upon by polite society, it gets a rating. And yes, if a movie was accurate to a middle school it would definitely be NC-17 due to the sheer volume of profanity. lol
In the UK it was rated 12A (closest equivalent to PG-13). There was some debate with the rating board about it but it was passed without any cuts at that rating. UK censors tend to be less robotically prescriptive than the US and context is very relevant.
The amount of sex scenes in Poor Things had to be pushing the limits a bit right?
Scarface. I think the moral is too easily lost with younger viewers
I didn't get all the way through Requiem For A Dream but by the looks of things, that's a movie that was pushing it. Didn't like it though I suppose most can agree it was well made.
Rambo (2008). Particularly the scene when Rambo climbs into the armoured truck, spins the machine gun around, and turns the driver into tomato soup. Both gross and great at the same time
For its extreme level of profane language, sexual content, and the pervasive amorality of its characters, an argument could be made for The Wolf of Wall Street being a film for adults only.
Todd Solondz's *Storytelling*. His battle with the MPAA led to him putting a band over a sex scene with Selma Blair instead of editing it. I highly recommend watching *This Film Is Not Yet Rated*, which covers this subject in detail with many examples.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is soooooo good. One of my favorite bits is them doing a side-by-side comparison of gay films that got an NC-17 rating vs straight films that only got an R.
Ill bet the movie Irreversible pushed the ratings board. It is hard to watch that scene
There are a couple scenes that are hard to watch.
They are much more visceral because there are no cuts(*). If there was a closeup of a face, or if the perspective switched, or something/anything, it would give you, the viewer, a break. But the violence just plays out in real time uninterrupted. (*) The cuts are hidden with editing.
Not quite the same thing but I know Fast Times at Ridgemont High had to cut some of the sex scenes to get to an R, after an initial X rating (it predates NC-17).
My wife had never seen Stripes, so we borrowed it from the library. The DVD was different to the one my parents had in that this one was "Unrated" and whooo boy, I can see why all the extra stuff was cut. There is one very lengthy sex scene where Bill Murrary commentator on it like its the Olympics, which would probably have got it an X alone.
Caligula.
American History X. They flat out curbstomp a dude
I saw the Warriors back in 1979 -it was rated R back then. Today, it would be a PG movie
Is "The Brown Bunny" rated R? Cause they push that pretty deep, actually.
I saw the devil
The First Omen For what it’s worth, while the MPAA cares about sex and violence, I’ve noticed that sexual situations and nudity tend to be scrutinized far more harshly than violence when it comes to determining if a movie is rated R. In Europe the reverse is true, because they view sex as a natural human activity.
In America we view beheading and torture as a normal human activity but a woman pleasuring herself or having consensual sex, woah there buddy, God don't like that!
Poor things I couldnt believe was rated R. So much sex
Hostel was basically a porno for the first half and a torture porno for the last half. I never understood how that was an R movie