MPAA to Pass Judgement on Cinema Smoking

Smoking, however unhealthful, has always been a part of our Cultural output, in films, and books.

Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit.

MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said his group's ratings board, which previously had considered underage smoking in assigning film ratings, now will take into account smoking by adults, as well.

That adds smoking to a list of such factors as sex, violence and language in determining the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 ratings.

Film raters will consider the pervasiveness of tobacco use, whether it glamorizes smoking and the context in which smoking appears, as in movies set in the past when smoking was more common.

Some critics of Hollywood's depictions of tobacco in films have urged that movies that show smoking be assigned an R rating, which would restrict those younger than 17 from seeing them.

Think of all the great films of the 20's thru the 60's, and how this new way of considering the actions of characters, in rating a film, would affect who could, and could not, watch them, and how they were made.

Think how this would have impacted morale during WW 2 as many of the most important films of the Era would have had their audience restricted, been made differently, or even made not at all.

Look, I don't smoke, and never have, but this decision is utterly ridiculous, and unneccesary, and another sign that, as a friend of mine said, upon learning of this, "The Left is eating thier own."

Faster Please...preferably in time for the 2008 Elections to be swept by Republicans.