A couple of days back, I saw an ad for an otherwise uninteresting movie that's opening this Friday, called Pathfinder (IMDB), and I've seen it a few times since. Maybe it was my mood at the time, but the end of the commercial made me chuckle:
Rated R for strong brutal violence throughout
I'm sure that it's happened before, but I had a hard time recalling any other movie that so obviously and blatantly used its MPAA rating as part of its appeal.
The South Park boys were always good at that, and the "unrated" versions of teen films seem to try to play on that appeal.
And of course there's the documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated, which sold itself precisely on the fact that, well, it wasn't rated.
But yeah, I noticed that about Pathfinder, too.
Oh, I've heard of this movie. It's a remake of Nils Gaup's 1987 movie Ofelas. Gaup's movie is set in Scandinavia, with Lapps playing the role given to Native Americans in this remake. Great movie, with a good representation of Scandinavian shamanism. And the dialgoue is in Lapp!
I like the ad more than, I suspect, I would the movie. I particularly like the tantalizing use of "brutal." Nice touch.
The old Samurai Cinema titles always had "warning" labels on them, even though the films were not usually rated in America. (See the aforementioned This Film Is Not Yet Rated for more information about the rating of foreign films.) The old school Samurai Cinema warnings were pretty typical: brutal violence, strong language, nudity, etc. However, recently the film company AnimEigo took over the Samurai Cinema catalogue, and I've noticed a change in their warning labels.
At first they seemed fairly standard. The box for Shadow Hunters reads "Warning! Contains bloody violence, strong language, and sexual content." The only unusual thing about this warning would be the promise of bloody violence. However, I've noticed that the warnings have become more and more whimsical. I've included a short list of examples for your amusement:
The Fearless Avenger -- "Warning! Contains violence, strong language, brief nudity, villainy."
Shogun Assasin 2 -- "Warning! Contains violence, nudity, and rivers of blood."
Dora-Heita -- "Warning! Contains violence, debauchery, and masterful direction."
Portrait of Hell -- "Warning! Contains violence, philosophy."
The Trail of Blood -- "Warning! Contains violence, strong language, nudity, and improper use of hand tools."
Shogun Assasin -- "Warning! Contains violence, nudity, and extremely hypertensive villains."
Lots to add to your Netflix queue here.
That is pure awesomeness. I may very well change my blog's name to Dora-Heita, and put that warning on it.