Cens*rship?

I'm watching a really facisnating documentary about the MPAA and how they have used extremely nonuniform practices to censor films.

While I neither condone nor enjoy gratuitous violence or sexuality in films, I do realize filmmakers are given the right to express themselves through free speech. Yet, the methods used to brand a film R vs. NC-17 are quite open for interpretation.

As this documentary was released four years ago, there may have been changes since in the method of rating films. Yet, I think we all have had an experience where an R rated movie has been significantly less explicit or offensive than a PG-13 rated movie. I feel that PG-13 movies will often push the envelope in every raunchy sense, while another movie exploring serious thematic elements involving war or abuse may receive an R rating (on that note, I recommend Screen It [http://www.screenit.com/all_titles.html], which breaks down a rating easily for you in numerous catagories).

Some kind of rating system must remain in place for those of us who do want to keep certain images far from our eyes and minds, and such rating system should be fair and completely objective. Numerous board members in positions to rate and view re-edited films appealing for new ratings were found to be film buyers, studio executives and even Catholic religious leaders- not "everyday American parents" as a representitive previously stated.

As much as I avoid films containing excessive violence and sex, I do want to know these films are being rated for informing the general public, not covertly as some kind of power play in Hollywood.