I'm not sure if anyone read this on Llyod's myspace but here's a little that he sent to the NY Times about Jack Valenti's death:
To the Editor:
Regarding your recent articles about Jack Valenti and the MPAA rating
system, the greatest failure has been overlooked. That is a double standard
regarding treatment of the major media conglomerates vs. the independent
movie companies.
Material removed from independent films, like "Troma's War" and "The Toxic
Avenger", was permitted in more mainstream films like "Die Hard."
Whereas the MPAA was never supposed to express opinions concerning artistic
merit of a film, the MPAA verbally abused us during the rating process for
one of our films, "Troma's War." A top MPAA executive, in essence, told us
that "Troma's War" was a terrible film and would never ever receive an R
rating.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone informed me in an interview that the MPAA was
very unhelpful and even hostile towards their independent films, "Cannibal!
The Musical" and "Orgazmo", but for their big budget Paramount film, "Team
America", the MPAA was extremely helpful and sympathetic.
Over the years, I believe that the MPAA's rating system's double standard
has been responsible for the failure of many independent films to compete in
the marketplace. A major reason why only a handful of long-lived independent
movie studios still exist is due to the MPAA's unfair behavior.
Troma Entertainment
by Lloyd Kaufman, Pres
That is a very well written question. Unfortunately, I doubt that Lloyd could ever get any sort of equal treatment from that group. They have shown, time and again, that their only concern is big money and maintaining their monopoly.
Everyone should see THis Film Is Not Yet Rated... it's probably my favorite documentary ever
Quote from: Andrew on May 09, 2007, 06:23:53 PM
Unfortunately, I doubt that Lloyd could ever get any sort of equal treatment from that group.
It's interesting to note that John Waters has never had any complaints about the MPAA. And certainly if anyone's films are of less socially redeeming significance than Troma's, his are. Perhaps this is because he is from an older generation of filmmakers that used the negative connotations of an X rating to their advantage, whereas now it is considered an obstacle to profitabilitiy. (There's no such thing as bad publicity...) Or maybe it is because John Waters' films make their point on a deeper level, one which can't simply end up on the cutting room floor... Okay, that might be a stretch.
:drink: :drink:
But on a totally unrelated side note to distract me from the point of this post: Before Divine passed away, John Waters visited Troma Studios, as they had expressed interest in producing his sequel to
Pink Flamingos entitled
Flamingos Forever. He took one look at their editing equipment and politely declined.
:drink: :drink:
Although I must admit, while watching Robert Rodriguez's
Planet Terror all I could think was, "Wow, Troma never could have gotten away with this."
Quote from: DodgingGrunge on May 09, 2007, 10:01:45 PM
Quote from: Andrew on May 09, 2007, 06:23:53 PM
Unfortunately, I doubt that Lloyd could ever get any sort of equal treatment from that group.
It's interesting to note that John Waters has never had any complaints about the MPAA. And certainly if anyone's films are of less socially redeeming significance than Troma's, his are.
Actually... rent This Film is not Yet Rated... he complains about the MPAA and they're refusal to give a Dirty Shame a R rating becuase he had alot riding on that movie. Of course in John Waters style he more so makes fun of how obsurd it all is
Quote from: SaintMort on May 09, 2007, 10:55:37 PM
Quote from: DodgingGrunge on May 09, 2007, 10:01:45 PM
Quote from: Andrew on May 09, 2007, 06:23:53 PM
Unfortunately, I doubt that Lloyd could ever get any sort of equal treatment from that group.
It's interesting to note that John Waters has never had any complaints about the MPAA. And certainly if anyone's films are of less socially redeeming significance than Troma's, his are.
Actually... rent This Film is not Yet Rated... he complains about the MPAA and they're refusal to give a Dirty Shame a R rating becuase he had alot riding on that movie. Of course in John Waters style he more so makes fun of how obsurd it all is
Yeah, I was going to mention A Dirty Shame as there was some trouble over that one. Waters ended up releasing it as NC-17 and R if I'm not mistaken. It was up to the theater as to which version they wanted to run.
I ended up seeing it in it's R rated version initially and it was terrible. Very little of it made sense.
Later I caught the unrated or NC-17 version and it's shocking just how much ended up being cut to make it R.
Quote from: SaintMort on May 09, 2007, 10:55:37 PM
Quote from: DodgingGrunge on May 09, 2007, 10:01:45 PM
It's interesting to note that John Waters has never had any complaints about the MPAA. And certainly if anyone's films are of less socially redeeming significance than Troma's, his are.
Actually... rent This Film is not Yet Rated... he complains about the MPAA and they're refusal to give a Dirty Shame a R rating becuase he had alot riding on that movie. Of course in John Waters style he more so makes fun of how obsurd it all is
This Film Is Not Yet Rated has been on my list to see for a while but obviously I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll bump that up! Waters hasn't ever spoken out against the MPAA or what he feels their intentions are/were (or, at least until this documentary). Rather, he's repeatedly badmouthed the demonization of those ratings by organizations like Blockbuster Video and Walmart. (Here's a clip from
TFINYR: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mRpAwEAdPpg ).
As for
Dirty Shame, on the commentary Waters refrains from badmouthing the MPAA and instead extends his gratitude to Fineline Features for releasing an NC-17 film (the only version shown theatrically). Besides, I get the feeling he anticipated that rating long before production began. I saw him speak at Southern Illinois University a bunch of years back and he announced the upcoming project as a "return to his filthy roots". He went on to say that, in part because of the successful reissue of
Pink Flamingos, he had the opportunity to do something explicit and absurd for the studio. Oh, and theatrically, the only version released was the NC-17, mostly through Landmark Theatres. The R-rated version didn't come into being until the video release. And in that case, he actually wanted a PG-13 version as a joke, which is why so much was cut. The MPAA obviously still felt it deserved an R-rating. :drink: