PG-13 controversy and the MPAA's hypocrisy
I recently re-watched this film and was floored by the MPAA's decision to rate it PG-13. Here is a family film if I've ever seen one, and the brief drug reference is so fleeting that by rating the film a PG-13, I believe that the MPAA actually did more to bring the "pipe" in question to the public's attention. You literally have to be looking for a drug reference to find it at all, and the controversy did more to make people actually look for it.
I also just read up on Ebert's opposition to this rating, particularly when the MPAA pressured studios to remove Ebert's quote from the ads that this film was one to "take your kids" to. Since when is a PG-13 film one that discourages children from watching it, first of all? Every comic book superhero movie that came out this summer was PG-13, and the action figures that helped promote the film makes clear who the target audience was. Second of all, I used to own a VHS copy of the 1990 film "Captain America," which is also rated PG-13; the cover of that VHS includes a quote from a critic the says the film is "fun for the whole family." That film featured an opening sequence in which a young boy's family is massacred in front of him, and he is forced to watch while he screams for his mother. A little more traumatizing for kids, I would imagine, than a fleeting pot reference. I'm curious why the MPAA let that slide, yet they fought the Ebert quote tooth and nail. The answer is probably that "Captain America" premiered quietly direct-to-video, and "Whale Rider" was a major release; the MPAA therefore had more to lose if the Ebert quote, which they viewed as a direct challenge to their rating, was allowed to be in the ads. Nevertheless, we see the standard of the MPAA being utterly inconsistent--both films could have been found on Blockbuster shelves at the same time, back when VHS was standard ("Captain America" has only recently been released to DVD--notably, without the "fun for the whole family" quote).
I thought of all this while I watched "This Film is Not Yet Rated" last night, the invaluable 2006 expose on the MPAA. I'm wondering if any of their absurd regulations have slacked a bit since that film called b.s. on the way they rated their films. Regardless, the case of "Whale Rider" clearly revealed that the MPAA did not have their fingers on the pulse of the public, but on their own rigid sense of archaic values.