When this movie came out, it got an X rating. Yet the DVD I just got from Netflix has it with an R rating. DId they make cuts to get it down to an R, or did they just re-rate it according to today's less rigid standards?
shareThe most likely scene to be cut I think would be the one where Coral Browne is stroking and sucking Susannah York's nipple, so if that's there then it probably hasn't been cut. The disc I had from NetFlix several years ago included it, but I don't remember what rating it was labeled with.
shareIt was lowered from an X to an R in 1972 with no cuts. In 1968 it got an X just because it dealt with lesbians. The director said he would cut the seduction scene but the MPAA said it would STILL be X rated. Four years later though with gay liberation and all this wasn't considered too shocking. The 1970 film "Boys in the Band" also almost received an X rating for--get this--homosexual dialogue! But the MPAA let is pass with no cuts with an R.
shareWell Boys in the Band should still get an X rating just for the level of BITCHINESS!
shareReally? I don't think a film deserves an X rating just for language or tone. Extreme violence or sex is another matter altogether.
shareSarcasm dear.
shareOops! Sorry--couldn't tell :)
shareWell it shows I didn't carry it off well. :) I am slightly annoyed at the RABID bitchiness in Boys in the Band and in The Killing of Sister George even though I love both movies. I think SOME people take it that it is part of being gay. There IS some truth to that because some people who have had a hard time ARE bitter and bitchy and it is hardly limited to gays and lesbians.
In The Killing of Sister George, I take her character to be bitter because of the pressures of show business and her alcohol abuse, not because she happens to be a lesbian.
I take it as a sign of the times. Back when they were made it was still against the law to be gay and it was classified as a mental illness until 1974 or so. No wonder these characters are so bitchy and negative!
shareWell I live in San Francisco and there are some people in the Castro of all ages who act that way or WORSE. On the other hand some of the most wonderful, happy, generous and loving people I've met were gay. I guess it goes to show that gays are the same as everyone else. Good and bad.
Sorry to get off topic.
It's funny that on Amazon, the VHSs are X-rated and the DVDs are R-Rated. Did the system/society change by the time the DVDS took over so they had to water down the movie?
shareIt may also be worth remembering that the UK X, and the US R are the same thing.
Let Zygons Be Zygons.
Standards have changed a lot since then but I didn't realise it was as early as 1972 that The Killing of Sister George was re-rated with the lower classification. It's a powerful and certainly very adult movie.
In some parts of the world, its content would still be a big deal, sadly. Here in Singapore the thoroughly innocuous Love, Simon was released with a R21 rating - as milquetoast as a gay-themed movie as one can imagine, and a rating that automatically prevented the target audience from seeing it. Meanwhile, ultra violent films are routinely released with 16 or 18 ratings.