![]() It is PG, but that was before the PG-13 rating. Everybody said today I’m a man, and you still won’t let me see Jaws?' Sometimes the kids outsmart me. Because then they use the argument, 'Dad, I was bar mitzvahed last week. I showed Jaws to Sawyer when he was, I think, 13. "I haven’t shown Jaws to my 10- or 11-year-old, and I won’t. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, the interviewer asked Spielberg what age he let his kids watch Jaws. It was Steven Spielberg of all people who is credited for creating a new rating for films in between the wide gap of PG and R. The time had come to do something to warn parents about films that were a little too dark and violent for kids. Movies had been pushing the boundaries more and more throughout the 70s and into the 80s. Apparently, not everyone appreciated his efforts. Ironically, the original screenplay by Christopher Columbus was a hard R horror movie, but Spielberg suggested that it be toned down to be more fun and family-friendly. Spielberg did help to craft its tone though. This was not the heartwarming Christmas movie they were expecting. Gremlins themselves are stabbed to death multiple times, decapitated, and blown up in microwaves. Deagle ( Polly Holliday) is sent flying out of her second-story window to her demise. Others attack a man dressed as Santa Claus. One kills a teacher and stabs him with a syringe. Gizmo might have been impossibly cute, but the hellions that popped out of him were nothing but mayhem, especially when they eat after midnight and become scaly, sharp teeth, devilish-looking beings. Gremlins is pure fun but also pure chaos that is nothing like E.T. There's more violence as well, but it's one scene in particular that crossed a line for many on what young children should be seeing. It's darker in tone, and a little more serious compared to the fun serial adventure like the first film. There are a few disturbing images in that movie, such as the face-melting scene, but the violence was minimal and scenes like the one just mentioned were so unrealistic that there weren't any complaints. ![]() Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, released on May 23, 1984, was the follow-up to 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, which had been rated PG. In 1984, Steven Spielberg pushed a little too far. Jaws, for example, another Spielberg film, was rated PG, but with its intense and scary scenes, and a few bits of gore, it's really pushing those boundaries. ![]() There was the little-used X rating as well ( which became NC-17 in 1990), but there was nothing to cover the wide ground between PG and R. This rating was reserved for more adult fare with profanity and/or sexual scenes. Then there was R, which restricted anyone under 17 from watching a movie in a theater without a parent or guardian with them. Some scenes here might be considered a little too violent for small kids, and it was up to parents to decide if this was something they wanted their children to see. There was PG for Parental Guidance suggested. Most of your animated kids films and Disney pictures fell under this. There was the G rating for general audiences. In 1984, the movie rating system was a little simpler than it is today.
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