An R is an R is an R

George Costanza once famously quipped on the television show Seinfeld, "Why can't I just be?" When it comes to the recent trend in Hollywood regarding R-rated films, I'm wondering why an R film can't just be an R film?

You're probably wondering what I mean by this. Well to understand my question you first have to understand the trend I mentioned. Over the last decade or so there has been a big push by Hollywood to recuts film that have an R rating in order to get them to a PG-13. Ostensibly this is to make them more commerically appealing but in reality it's just so the studios can get more money. Obviously not as many people (e.g. underage teenagers with expendable income) can get into an R rated film as a PG-13 one.

To quote Charles Barkley from the recent NCAA tournament coverage, this situation is "turrible" and a "travessy." That's "terrible" and "travesty" for those of you don't speak Barkley. In any case the sentiment remains the same.

Does Hollywood have any self respect left at all? Why sacrifice artistic integrity for money? Oh that's right....BECAUSE IT'S HOLLYWOOD. Take Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch for example. Although it is clearly solid as a PG-13 movie I couldn't help thinking that there were several times that scenes (death scenes mostly) demanded to be more graphic, in fact may have even been shot that way, but couldn't because it had to meet that PG-13 rating. Or take for example Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven. Scott had to recut the film, outwardly because the studio said it was too long. In reality it was code for "too violent Rid, make it more bankable."

Even worse is the trend of making PG-13 sequels, when the original movie was R. Alien vs. Predator falls into this category. Really? We needed to tame down the creatures of Alien and Predator? Can you imagine if the studio execs in Hollywood told Todd Phillips that he had to make The Hangover Part II into a PG-13 movie??? That movie should be nothing but a hard R.

Bottom line Hollywood: let a movie stand on it's own merit. If it's an R let it be an R. If it's PG-13 let it be PG-13. Anything less than that is just disingenuous.