Stephen Spielberg has something to do with the emergence of the PG-13 rating and there’s an interesting story to it. It has to do with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. During the making of this film Spielberg and George Lucas were both going through relationship issues and were in a very dark place, as can be evidenced by the movie. TOD was perhaps the darkest movie in the Indiana Jones franchise as it features a human sacrifice and other dark elements that had parents who’d taken their children up in arms as they demanded to know what was going on. This was because it was rated PG at the time it was released, which by today’s standards, and those of back then, would be very erroneous. The trouble was that back then the PG-13 rating hadn’t been created yet.
If a film was cute enough with just a slight bit of an edge to it then it could be PG, but if it was too edgy then it was rated R. Those films that didn’t fit either profile kind of got lost in the mix and placed haphazardly since no one knew what else to do with them. So Spielberg made mention to Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Company at the time, that they needed a rating in-between R and PG so that films that couldn’t be so easily placed within either rating would have a designation. It was deduced that kids the age of 13 and up could easily acclimate to the content in such movies but could perhaps not yet handle the hard R-rated movies that were easily much more difficult because of their content. So the PG-13 rating was born, and Spielberg did have a hand in it.
To this day PG-13 movies are those that are deemed edgy enough to move past PG but not hardcore enough to be rated R. They’re the type of movies that adolescents are able to watch without feeling challenged and that adults can watch without feeling as though they’re being pandered to. The guidelines of the PG-13 movie have changed over the years but the general feeling is that they’re the kind of movie that’s still fun to watch but isn’t so over the top that they’ll be considered off limits for some kids. But really, the ratings don’t seem to matter sometimes since I’ve personally seen young kids brought into R-rated movies by their parents and adults fully enjoy PG and G-rated movies. If anything the rating system is a beacon to tell parents just what they might be able to expect from any movie their kid wants to go see.
One good example that comes to mind is the movie Tremors. It’s campy, it’s over the top, and it does feature some gore here and there, but it’s not so bad that one could compare it to the Night of the Living Dead or anything along those lines. It was rated PG-13 when it came out and I can recall being entertained but not grossed out by all the carnage. PG-13 is basically the equivalent of riding the fast roller coaster at a theme park versus the kiddie rides that excite the toddlers.
