I hate to break it to you, folks, but the movie rating system is pretty arbitrary.
Although we find comfort in PG, PG-13, and R ratings when it comes time to pick movies for ourselves and our little ones, the standards for each are unclear at best and harmful at worst. In fact, they’re so hard to nail down that it’s almost impossible to track rationale on a movie-to-movie basis.
Take the good ol’ F-bomb, for example. The allowance of foul language in each category is not based on some hard and fast rule. If someone says the F-word in a sexual context, that movie gets an R rating. If someone says it to express disappointment or anger, a PG-13 rating could still apply. Similar trends can be seen when tracking movie violence.
You’d expect more extreme gore and violence in R-rated movies than in those with PG-13 ratings, right? But here’s the thing. PG-13 films are typically way more violent than the former.
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Whereas sexual situations typically fall into R-rated territory, rampant violence appears to be fine for PG-13 ratings. Seven out of the top 10 most violent movies of all time are rated PG-13. The top three have all been deemed kid friendly. Here are the 10 most violent movies in film history, their total body counts, and their ratings.
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1. “Guardians of the Galaxy” — 83,871 bodies, rated PG-13.
2. “Dracula Untold” — 5,687 bodies, rated PG-13.
3. “The Sum of All Fears” — 2,922 bodies, rated PG-13.
4. “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” — 2,798 bodies, rated PG-13.
5. “300: Rise of an Empire” — 2,234 bodies, rated R.
6. “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” — 1,741 bodies, rated PG-13.
7. “The Matrix Revolutions” — 1,647 bodies, rated R.
8. “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” — 1,417 bodies, rated PG-13.
9. “Braveheart” — 1,297 bodies, rated R.
10. “The Avengers” — 1,019 bodies, rated PG-13.
Read More: The Dutch Government Wants To Allow Something That Has People Losing Their Minds
What do you think about movie violence? Should people in charge of ratings crack down on it in PG-13 films, or doesn’t it matter? Let us know! To learn more, check this out.
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