vf wing said:
Methinks the MPAA ratings might be a more worthwhile discussion. I find it quite ironic that the harder-edged first two films are still PG's, but i guess the MPAA doesn't go back and change ratings for films that already received a rating.
They've done it on occasion, but I think the filmmaker / studio has to resubmit it for a new rating.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was originally G and is now PG,
Saturday Night Fever has been both R and PG, and George Lucas' own
THX 1138 was originally PG and is now R.
In all those cases, though, the movie was changed, and the different ratings apply to different versions, which I believe is the reason they were resubmitted. In the case of
Saturday Night Fever, the movie was recut specifically to get the milder rating so it would be more accessible to young audiences. The recut is 11 minutes shorter!
Perhaps if the first two Indy movies were resubmitted for ratings today they'd get PG-13s, but I don't think there's any reason to resubmit them unless they undergo substantial alterations (i.e., more substantial than the little digital tweaks and fixes Lucas has applied to a few shots).
