R
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MPAA Rating is the rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America. Please note this is a voluntary rating, so some films (many times older films or obscure foreign films) are not rated.
G - General Audiences
PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
PG13 - Parental Guidance Suggested for those under 13 years of age
R - Restricted (those under 18 not admitted without parent or guardian)
NC-17 (X) - No one under 18 admitted.
USCCB Rating is the rating given by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Please note that some films are not rated simply because the Bishop’s Conference has not reviewed them.
A-I: General Patronage
A-II: Adults and Adolescents
A-III: Adults
L: Limited Adult Audience, problematic content
O: Morally Offensive
Fr. John’s Ratings
★★★★★ - Masterpiece. This film has to show aspects of cinematic excellence that are above and beyond the ordinary and even beyond the “excellent” classification. Because a true masterpiece can be determined only through its ability to endure through the passage of time, no film is even considered for this rating until at least ten years have passed from the date of its initial release.
★★★★ - Excellent
★★★ - Very Good
★★ - Fair
★ - Poor
Ran (1985) ★★★★★
Length: 160 minutes. MPAA Rating: R. USCCB Rating: A-II. Director: Akira Kurosawa. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Instead of three daughters, there are three sons. Instead of King Lear, there is Lord Hidetora. Other than that, and the obvious re-setting of the action in sixteenth-Century Japan, this is a faithful re-telling of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Designed over a painstaking ten years and filmed with dozens of extras atop Mount Fuji, Ran (pronounced like the name “Ron,” the Japanese word for “chaos”) is a tour-de-force and most definitely Kurosawa’s last great masterpiece. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a wealth of extras, documentaries, commentaries, a video using Kurosawa’s own preparatory paintings and sketches, and a 28-page booklet on the film and its appreciation. Don’t settle for other DVDs or streamed versions where they “fix” the bright colors to make them look more subdued. Kurosawa wanted bright colors (as you see in the Criterion Collection). The colors are part of the motif of his latter-day films, distilling the moving image into its basic components. Filled to the brim with far shots and almost no close-ups at all, it is clear we are invited to view, at some distance, the chaos (“ran”) of swirling colors and armor as a fable of selfish humanity at war with itself.
Rashomon (1950) ★★★★★
Length: 88 minutes. MPAA Rating: Not rated. USCCB Rating: A-III. Dramatic depiction of rape and murder. The content is very tame by today’s standards but is still not suitable for very young children. Director: Akira Kurosawa. Black-and-white. In Japanese with English subtitles.
The story of a rape and murder is told from four different perspectives. Was it a rape? Was it a murder? As two men wrestle with the maze of conflicting testimonies, struggling to discover the truth, they enter into a deep discussion about the nature of truth itself, and the meaning of life. This film, which put both Kurosawa and Japanese cinema on the map, became so acclaimed that the word “Rashomon” eventually made its way into the vocabulary of law practice (the “Rashomon effect,” in which people contend with the complexities of conflicting testimonies). Despite its dark theme, the film has an ending that is spiritually uplifting and underscores the universal thirst for love and beauty in a broken world.