When the Motion Picture Association of America ( MPAA ) developed the modern film rating system in 1968 , the X recording label wasintendedto signaling to audiences that a moving-picture show dealt heavily in adult themes , overt sex , or graphical violence . Films likeMidnight CowboyandA Clockwork Orangewere given hug drug ratings , but did n’t suffer any of the brand associate with it . ( Midnight Cowboywon an Oscar for Best Picture , the only X - rated film to ever do so . )
Before long , audiences begin to consort X ratings with porno , so in 1990 the MPAA moved to mark moving-picture show inappropriate for children under 17 with an NC-17 tag instead . In either case , the Association insisted that filmmakers excise footage if they wanted to earn an R naming — a rating much better served for world-wide audiences and box agency revenue . Take a tone at eight films that were to begin with rated for adults only before directors made the necessary changes to appease the whims of the often - inscrutable rating plug-in .
1.AMERICAN PIE(1999)
come - of - age stories often involve intimate awakenings , though not often with pastries . For 1999’sAmerican Pie , conductor Paul and Chris Weitz had star Jason Biggs attempt an intimate encounter with a pie . The picture was patently engineered for its shock and word - of - mouth value , but the MPAA did n’t find it comic . The film was submittedfourtimesto trim shot of excessive pie thrusting before the NC-17 label was modified to an R.
2.ROBOCOP(1987)
Director Paul Verhoeven has long been a thorn in the side of the MPAA : HisShowgirls , Basic Instinct , andTotal Recallwere all cite for gratuitous subject . Verhoeven ’s first brush with the board come after he submit 1987’sRoboCopfor evaluation . The flick , which depicts the struggle of cop Alex J. Murphy ( Peter Weller ) to retain some semblance of humanity after being gun down and transubstantiate into a law enforcement machine , is among Verhoeven ’s bloodiest . In one tantrum , Omni Consumer Products administrator Mr. Kinney ( Kevin Page ) is annihilated by a malfunctioning ED-209 . Verhoeven wasso intenton a macabre death as a result of ED-209 ’s firepower that he reshot the scene with over 200 squibs attached to Page , then called him back a third time so special gist artists could use spaghetti squelch to emulate his intestines come in out .
Not surprisingly , the MPAA react to this grandiose showing with an ex rating . Verhoeven was able-bodied to stop up an universal gas constant by omitting just two s of Kinney ’s death along with two sec of Weller being shot .
3.SCREAM(1996)
call — Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson ’s deconstruction of the slasher - film genre — wouldn’t have been complete without adopt some of the gore pervasive in those movie , though the MPAA had other things to speak when they decided to hand down an NC-17 rating . harmonise to Craven ’s theater director commentary on the DVD press release , the board wasconcernedthat the baddie of the film who engage in self - harm with a kitchen knife so as to stage a convincing offence panorama could be “ imitable . ” Additionally , theypreferrednot to see the intestines of one dupe and complained about the intensity of the opening scene , in which Drew Barrymore ’s fictitious character is methodically taunted and stalked by the killer whale . Cravenobliged most of their request and the film went on to gross $ 170 million — plus spawn three sequels and an MTV television serial .
4.CLERKS(1994)
Kevin Smith’sdebut moving picture , chronicling the woes of public convenience store employee Dante Hicks ( Bryan O’Halloran ) , is entirely absent of any violence , nudeness , or depictions of sexual activity — the common defendant when it hail to the NC-17 label . What the low-down - budget featuredoeshave is an copiousness of very expressed talk about intimate relationships , copious amount of profanity , and one character ( slacker clerk Randal Graves , recreate by Jeff Anderson ) reciting a list of adult moving picture deed of conveyance . The speech communication wasenoughfor the MPAA to bypass an universal gas constant and assign an adults - only NC-17 rating . The boardrevisedit to an universal gas constant after an ingathering , admonish viewers about “ explicit , sexual activity - related talks . ”
5.TWO GIRLS AND A GUY(1998)
Robert Downey Jr.was about 10 years away from an all - consultation tenure asTony Starkin the Marvel universe when heappearedin this indie film about an histrion who despairs when his girlfriend ( Heather Graham ) finds out about his other girlfriend ( Natasha Gregson Wagner ) . The film go through 13 edits of a scene in which Downey and Graham appear to be engaged in a intimate act that theLos Angeles Timesdescribed as “ being illegalize in some state . ” The film lastly received an R , though it remain one of Downey ’s lesser - known drive .
6.TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE(2004)
Movies that apply technique typically link up with children ’s entertainment are n’t nontaxable from controversy . Director Ralph Bakshi’sFritz the Cat , released in 1972,earnedan X rating for salacious animated contentedness , and 1999’sSouth Park : Bigger , Longer , and Uncutwas in danger of an NC-17 before deletion were made . For 2004’sTeam America : World Police , South Parkco - creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker engross in extended negotiation with the MPAA , who perceived the film — about peacekeeping mission marionette - style puppets — to be in poor taste .
One scene of special worry involve puppets having intimate relations . “ Our graphic symbol are made of wood and have no genitalia , ” producer Scott RudintoldtheLos Angeles Times . The board eventually agreed to an R , but only after the scene was submitted multiple times for editing . Parker would subsequently point out the MPAA had no problem with puppets resembling Tim Robbins , Susan Sarandon , and Janeane Garofalo all meeting spectacularly fierce ends ; it was the puppet sex that stumble them up .
7.SUMMER OF SAM(1999)
It ’s not often that the Disney corporation finds itself in the status of potentially ride on an NC-17 film . But when the company ’s standard standard discharge Spike Lee’sSummer of Samin 1999 , they wereconfrontedwith the MPAA ’s insistence that Lee had made an adults - only film . Detailing the 1977 summertime in New York where tangible - life in series killer David Berkowitz terrorize the metropolis , Lee ’s photographic film was singled out for an orgy scene that the board get hold objectionable . A bemused Lee observed that they did not look to take takings with fit depicting Berkowitz slay his dupe . Lee eventually bring the film in with an R evaluation , trimmingfour shotsinvolving sex , but told theNew York Daily Newshe was get that “ we did not hear one affair about the ferocity in the movie . ”
8.EYES WIDE SHUT(2000)
mayhap the most mainstream film wiz of all meter , it seems unlikelyTom Cruisewould ever be caught in a rating panel disputation . But forEyes Wide Shut , he and then - wife Nicole Kidman concord to give in to the whims of Stanley Kubrick , a notoriously exact managing director who want to create an explicit limning of a married couple ’s descent into unfaithfulness . Kubrick delete the film , which received an NC-17 assignment from the MPAA , then had itdigitally alteredso previously au naturel actors wouldappear clothedduring an bacchanalia sequence . After the theatre director died in March 1999 , Warner Bros. , which wasdistributingthe moving picture and wanted to verify it had the best possible prospect of seeing a profit , had it reedited further to conform to an gas constant rating . This rankled movie critic Roger Ebert , who objurgate the studio apartment for not taking the chance to help legitimatize the NC-17 rating by have it link up with a star like Cruise .
rather , studio have remain wary of the label , and few films are released bear the evaluation . Blue is the Warmest Color , released in 2013 , was a rare exception . The film , about a love function between a French teenager and her sometime distaff mate , wonthe Palme d’Or in Cannes and was shown in one New York theater that ignored the military rank and allowed teen to buy ticket .
