(Warning: Spoilers follow for both films)

After years of studios cutting, slicing, and tip-toeing their way to a PG or PG-13 rating, this winter brings us two unabashedly adult movies: Shame and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The latter is even a mainstream studio release which makes its sex and violence rather gratifying.  (Let me stress that I don’t mean “gratifying” in a oh-isn’t-that-hot sense.  I simply enjoy being treated like a grown-up capable of handling mature themes.)

With two such frank movies out and about in the mainstream, the obvious temptation is to compare them – not in terms of subject, obviously, but of sexual content.  How, exactly, does one earn an NC-17 and the other get away with an R?

Let us first consider the ratings, taken from the MPAA website:

An R-rated motion picture, in the view of the Rating Board, contains some adult material. An R-rated motion picture may include adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements, so that parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously.

An NC-17 rated motion picture is one that, in the view of the Rating Board, most parents would consider patently too adult for their children 17 and under. No children will be admitted. NC-17 does not mean “obscene” or “pornographic” in the common or legal meaning of those words, and should not be construed as a negative judgment in any sense. The rating simply signals that the content is appropriate only for an adult audience. An NC-17 rating can be based on violence, sex, aberrational behavior, drug abuse or any other element that most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children

I’m not going to completely delve into the crazy and arbitrary nature of the MPAA. There’s an entire documentary you can watch  (This Film Is Not Yet Rated – available on YouTube!) about its intricacies and it does a far better job than I can. I simply want to examine these two films, and underline just how they fit into that kooky decision making.

First and foremost, Shame has that most taboo of views: Male full frontal nudity.   The scenes containing it are (given the subject matter) surprisingly blase.  Brandon simply walks, naked, back and forth in front of the camera a few times within the confines of his apartment. He walks from the bedroom to the bathroom. He’s not erect. He’s just naked.  It’s simply the sort of thing a man does in his own four walls.   I suspect the MPAA had a problem with the time spent with Fassbender’s penis, but perhaps most damningly, that one of these scenes involves him stopping to urinate. (Interestingly, it’s shot from behind. Think of all the scenes – including this year’s The Change-Up – where male characters visibly pee, but without sound effects or flesh. But only when its realistic does it cause people to squirm.)

By contrast, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo features only one kind of nudity: Female.  You see very little of Daniel Craig in his sex scenes with Rooney Mara and other assorted ladies, but Mara (in some quotes heard round the world by now) had to bare all in order to show she was edgy and sexual.  If you want an R, nudity – with few exceptions, usually named Jason Segel or Viggo Mortensen — falls on the women.  Craig may have gotten away with a flash or two, but if he had displayed 007′s gun as long as Mara displays her breasts or merkin, an NC-17 rating might have been slapped on.

But it’s the sex that tilts the balance to NC-17, right?  Shame is about a sex addict. That means there is SEX.  That means it’s porn, regardless of how the MPAA tiptoes around labeling it as such. Right?

Wrong.  Shame has a lot of sex.  I hesitate to even say it’s explicit.  There’s no visible penetration, just a lot of Fassbender thrusting. The most overt scene is a threesome at the end and Brandon performs some acts usually only seen in hardcore films.  It’s… honest.  In a comedy, it can be labeled and loudly laughed at (a certain Kevin Smith scripted monologue springs to mind), but Shame just does it, and it gets an NC-17.

However, nothing in Shame is “aberrational behavior.” (All right, sex addiction is, but so is murder, and that rarely gets an NC-17.)   In NC-17 terms (and I’m basing this on Not Yet Rated), this generally means masturbation, sex that’s not missionary, or homosexual sex. All three crimes have earned other films NC-17, which makes me suspect they’re also the culprit in Shame.  (I don’t want to drag a ton of films into this article for comparison, but in a sign of the times, it’s worth noting that Cruising initially earned an X, but was cut down to an R.  This is still the only cut you see today, and it’s way more explicit than anything seen in Shame.)

When it comes to “aberrational behavior,” Dragon Tattoo takes the prize.  As you probably know by now, the ugly heart at the center of the film is the rape of Lisbeth Salander.  She’s actually raped twice – first by being forced to perform oral sex on her guardian, and again by being handcuffed and violated by him. Both are shot as most movie rapes are (emphasis on the victim’s face, action implied rather than truly shown), but it’s still disturbed early audiences and reviewers, and will undoubtedly be a talking point once the film goes wide.  Salander takes revenge on her rapist by sexually assaulting him, and the film doesn’t leave it to the imagination.   Despite packing the double whammy of violence, sex, and “aberrational behavior,” it walked off with an R.  Rape is apparently not outside the pale, but if oral sex is freely given (as it is in Shame) then it’s slapped with an NC-17. (I can’t help but remember a similar stink earlier this year over Sucker Punch. The MPAA was reportedly just fine with handing it a PG-13 if the film’s sex scene had rapey overtones, but not if Emily Browning was seen to enjoy Jon Hamm’s attentions.)

Dragon Tattoo also features that other warning sign:  gay sex.  But it’s the mainstream Hollywood kind – hot lesbians/bisexuals kissing and groping each other, and sharing a bed.  While lesbian sex has been slammed in the past (once again, Not Yet Yated has more specifics) it’s generally the more acceptable homosexuality.  Like female nudity, lesbianism is “hot” whereas men enjoying men is considered “gross” or “aberrational.”   There’s not a huge amount of difference between the same sex action in Shame and Dragon Tattoo (both are implied more than shown), it’s simply the context and the performers.

The real deciding factor isn’t what movie shows what, or who does what to whom, but that Dragon Tattoo is a big-budget studio flick, based on an enormous bestseller, and directed by a well known name.   Shame is an independent film from a sophomore director, and is (horror upon horrors) an original story.  Only one is going to wiggle through the MPAA’s guidelines.

Now, I’m not saying Tattoo deserves an NC-17 – given where it could go, it’s fairly restrained – but in a just world, Shame doesn’t deserve it either.  They are both adult films, made for mature audiences, and they explore themes and topics no one under 17 should be exposed to.   It’s truly bizarre to think the film full of sexual assault  is the one that the MPAA theorizes a parent should simply “take this rating very seriously,” but allows them to still take their family to should they decide to.  They could not, however, take them to see the movie with consensual sex.  Again, I don’t think anyone under the age of 17 should see either film, but the MPAA clearly isn’t too worried about a 12 year old going to see Tattoo with her mom and dad. If they were, out would come NC-17.

Think about that for a moment, and then shudder for what it means for our country’s sexual outlook.

Tags: nc-17, Shame, the girl with the dragon tattoo