Panel Puts R Rating On ‘Private Ryan’

Tue., June 16, 1998

The Hollywood Reporter

Steven Spielberg, whose complaints about the inflexibility of the movie rating system resulted in the creation of the PG-13 designation, apparently has pushed the envelope again.

Reports from early screenings of his “Saving Private Ryan” indicate that many were overwhelmed by graphic violence in the “D-Day” sequence. Some felt that any filmmaker other than Spielberg might have been stuck with an NC-17 rating for such mayhem.

The ratings board gave the film an R, but in unusually strong language. Board members said the R was “for intense, prolonged, realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language.”

DreamWorks marketing head Terry Press said: “Of course, it’s violent; it’s a war movie. War veterans have all told us that (the film’s depiction of D-Day) was the way it was.

“But we do want to make sure everybody respects the R rating. We do not want children wandering in.”

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