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Jack Valenti has seen a lot of movies, some more meaningful than others to the film industry's top ratings policeman
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 5, 2002
Mention the name Jack Valenti around Hollywood, then get ready to duck. For the past 36 years Valenti has been a lightning rod for complaints as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, the agency that bestows movie ratings to inform moviegoers and restrict children's access to adult-themed films.
Valenti gets an earful from parents and politicians who believe the MPAA rating system isn't strict enough, allowing more mature content over the years to gradually seep into films with G, PG and PG-13 ratings. Valenti is quick to remind parents that they, not a group of Hollywood strangers, are responsible for what their children see.
Filmmakers often gripe when their works receive R ratings because the profitable youth market can't be served, and NC-17 has historically been a kiss of death for box office potential. For those artists, the ratings system is a form of censorship. Valenti reminds them that greed is forcing them to clean up their movies.
Certainly the MPAA rating system is overdue for an overhaul. But we'll give Valenti a break today since it's his 81st birthday.
After graduating from a Houston high school at age 15, Valenti went to work for an oil company, then flew 51 missions in the Army Air Corps during World War II, earning several decorations including the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he earned a master's degree from Harvard University and cofounded a political consulting agency.
That gig introduced him to Lyndon B. Johnson, then the U.S. Senate majority leader. Valenti's company organized media coverage of President John F. Kennedy's Nov. 22, 1963, visit to Dallas, making him part of the motorcade when Kennedy was assassinated.
Hours later, Valenti was selected by Johnson as a special assistant. Valenti resigned that position in 1966 to become the MPAA president.
The following list of home video selections include movies important to Valenti, both personally and professionally:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) -- Soon after Valenti accepted his MPAA post, he got his first challenge. Films were becoming bolder and there was no rating system. Mike Nichols' story of two eroding marriages (starring Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis) included two crude references to sexual activity. Valenti met with Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner for three hours and an agreement was struck to delete one of the references.
Blowup (1966) -- A few months later, another challenge. Michelangelo Antonioni's movie about a fashion photographer (David Hemmings) who accidentally films a murder was the first release from a major U.S. distributor (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) to include frontal nudity. Valenti supported a decision by the Production Code Administration to withhold its seal of approval. MGM had pledged along with other studios to avoid marketing films without that seal. The studio created a subsidiary distribution company, Premier, to skirt that agreement.
A Man for All Seasons (1966) -- Valenti's personal favorite is Fred Zinnemann's biography of Sir Thomas More (Oscar winner Paul Scofield), a scholar who stands up to corrupt Henry VIII (Robert Shaw). Although the film was released before the ratings system took effect, it was later classified G.
The Killing of Sister George (1968) -- The Blowup controversy led to the creation of a movie ratings system after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the power of local government to prevent children from seeing movies and books geared for adults. The first X rating, prohibiting anyone under age 18 from admission, went to this tale of a lesbian romance on the skids. The film was later re-rated to an R.
The Flamingo Kid (1984) -- After violence in the PG-rated Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom concerned parents, the PG-13 rating was instituted. Garry Marshall's comedy about a poor Brooklyn teenager (Matt Dillon) getting a taste of the high life at a posh resort was the first PG-13 release.
Henry and June (1990) -- Director Philip Kaufman struck a blow for artistic freedom when he refused to tone down this biography of erotic novelist Henry Miller (Fred Ward). The MPAA agreed that the X rating had been misappropriated by porn movie distributors and created a new rating -- NC-17 -- to be applied to artistic films with strong adult themes.
Editor's note: An MPAA spokeswoman contacted for this article confirmed that no records were kept to identify the first movies rated G, PG (or its previous forms, M and GP) and R.