I know in the early 70s the MPAA and studios were sort of feeling their way into what content would garner what rating (I am talking solely about the USA here), but how a movie as full of graphic violence (easily as much as The Godfather, a movie that was released only a few months earlier) could get a PG. There's even a brief topless scene. This has to be the most violent PG movie of all time. How it wasn't classified an R seems very very odd.
shareIt was originally rated R and re-rated PG, perhaps with a few edits. But you're right---the MPAA was new and could not decide what content made an R, and what made a PG (PG-13 was not around then).
The Al Pacino film "Panic in Needle Park" is similar--constant profanity, heavy drug (heroin) use, nudity, but it got a PG.
I remember Valachi Papers being very violent too, complete with a castration scene.
Times have certainly changed--when SMOKING in a movie now gives the movie an automatic PG-13. And smoking a joint gives it an R.
Needle Park was rated R when it came out.
shareThere are a lot of bizarre unspoken rules. The lack of clear rules is a constant pain for Hollywood but many have been learned over time. One is you can get away with some language in a PG film if you use the word once. Also brief nudity is some times acceptable so long as there isn't a lot of violence. There was brief nudity in the Godfather and I think all the blood in the horse head scene was a factor. Also Sonny's death was one of the more violent put to film. Add it all up and The Godfather was going to get an R. The Valachi Papers was violent but had little language. So long as there isn't excessive blood or gore or language you can get away with a lot in a PG film. PG-13 opened up things even more but has almost by dividing the rating caused more caution with PG films. Remember at one time they were all part of the same rating. Look at it this way, in a PG film you could get away with a single piece of adult content just don't dwell on it or repeat it. If there's lots of violence and some language you need to limit the language and keep your clothes on. Look at The Vanishing Point. There was a surprising amount of nudity with modest language and violence. PG was a balancing act.
shareI doubt this was PG rated when it came out at the time.
Its that man again!!
It was an R when first released in '72, but somewhere along the way was downgraded to PG. What baffles me is that I saw this on HBO not too long ago, and it was every bit as bloody and nasty as I remember it was upon first seeing it in the '70s. I think someone at the MPAA was asleep at the wheel that day, because there's no way this film, in its uncut version, is a PG!
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