MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Where has the idea of rating come from?

Where has the idea of rating come from?

posted 6 years ago by Starman (412)
7 replies | jump to latest

I wonder who else finds it very foreign to them to compare art to other art by thinking what is better or worse. I remember even as a very little child that thought itself never even occured to me to start thinking this film best, and this film is the worst, especially when it comes to franchises some people seem to rate films in them like that, and to this day I still can't understand it. I know it's fun like in sports having your team win and the other lose, but I've never engaged in any deliberate comparing in a sense of better/worse like that. If anything, I would just watch what I like, period. I would believe that actually children don't do that, only some adults start doing this futile mind exercise, for a reason I am not sure of.

[–] TexasJack (12516) 6 years ago

Well said. I rate your post 9/10.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) 6 years ago

Nice😬!

[–] AmeriGirl26 (15121) 6 years ago

Are you talking about ratings like G, PG, PG-13, R, etc? Those were relatively recent, because moviegoers had issues with knowing what films were okay for kids to watch, and which weren't. They had a lot of problems even as far back as the birth of motion picture, keeping the pornographic stuff away from those who shouldn't watch it. It wasn't until the 1970s they finally came up with the early versions of the rating system they have today.

Now if you're talking about IMBD, or Rotten Tomatoes ratings, keep in mind that such sites take advantage of how competitive people are, and like watching people rate their favorite or least favorite movies.

[–] Starman (412) 6 years ago

Yes I'm meaning rating like from 1 to 10. I understand that actually on Imdb it can be useful in some way now, I can make a picture of what a certain section of society values as quality, it says more about society than the product actually, however it is unnecessary to me, imagine the world where there are no critic reviews or ranking of movies (or any art), and all we had to decide whether the film is good for us to watch is the story and a poster, I believe lots of people don't need more than that anyway, personally I avoid trailers as they tend to show too much. I am old school, I didn't grow up reading critic reviews where they rated films 1/10, in the old days critics used to be more like Ebert by going deeper into the film's content and truly delve into and examine the depth of the art.

[–] chilidoggg (14605) 6 years ago

Rating art goes back a loooooooong time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H7IUbwFG40

[–] snepts (11123) 6 years ago

Not long ago I started looking for Ranks of a music group's albums to get a sense for something I might be missing, so I sort of recognize the allure of Rankings (or Ratings). I feel like I recall a time when such things weren't so prevalent, but I feel it's an easy idea that some opportunistic magazine editor realized was recognized to grab eyeballs, and with the interwebs, it's become that much more common.
I don't mind them, but they are a little lazy.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) 6 years ago

Roger Ebert had a pretty sane way of rating movies
In his opinion a movie should be judged by how well it accomplishes what it set out to do
As an extreme example...

Ebert was no great fan of most horrors but he gave The Last House on the Left (72) a 3.5 out of 4 rating, which I consider very fair
He rightly criticized the absurd antics of the Sheriff characters as the writing here blunted the impact of the terror but admitted the film was brutal, frightening and twisted
The viewer understands how awful what they are viewing really is and LHOTL remains a major exploitation and horror film 4 decades later

He didn't bother to rate Chaos (05) which is more or less a remake only with 100% more racism and violent destruction toward young girls...it is hopeless, utter trash and the seedy voyeurism of the violence is disturbing
Chaos was the same material as LHOTL but directed and seemingly intended to function as woman-hating porn for guys we wouldn't want to know

I like Ebert's opinion of reviewing movies, a movie should be judged by how well it does it's job