Luke Owen looks at why we don’t need an R-rated Deadpool…
Well, we finally have the news that many comic book fans have been clamouring to hear for years – we are getting a Deadpool movie. After the positive reaction to the test footage that leaked online back in July, 20th Century Fox have taken notice and put the wheels in place for the long-gestating movie to go into production and it even looks like Ryan Reynolds will be taking on the role. However one of the sticking points with fans is that the movie “must” be an R-rated film to allow for blood, violence and strong language.
But, does it really need to be?
The PG-13 (or 12A) certificate doesn’t quite mean what it used to. In the past the certificate has only allowed for brief moments of action, mild excitement and a small amount of language, but if 2014 has shown us anything it’s that you can get away with more in a PG-13 or a 12A than you were once able to. If a Deadpool movie was to be released as anything other than an R, it won’t be the lifeless failure some think it will be.
Take a look at Transformers: Age of Extinction, a movie that was classified as a 12A here in the UK and a PG-13 in the States. While it’s harder to get guidance from the MPAA, we can look at what the movie “got away” with at the 12A rating via the BBFC’s fantastic website. The report reads, “there are a number of intense and sustained large-scale battles between the giant robots, in which they use powerful futuristic weapons and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Heavy impacts result in parts falling off and brightly-coloured liquid spurting from their bodies. The robots are also damaged by weapons employed by human characters. The humans are involved in some fights among themselves, although these lack injury detail.”
And what about language? Well the report states, “there is one use of strong language (‘f**k’), as well as various uses of milder bad language, including ‘shit’, ‘crap’, ‘hell’, ‘ass’, ‘badarse’, ‘bummer’, ‘son of a bitch’, ‘frigging’, ‘damn’, ‘bastard’, ‘pissed’, ‘freaking’, ‘a-holes’ and ‘bitch’.”
Hmm – so you can do and say quite a lot in a rating that is apparently very neutered.
But I hear what you’re saying – that applies to robots, what about humans? Well, let’s look at what Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was also classified as a 12A. “Frequent scenes of moderate action violence include battles between Captain America and various enemies in which he uses his shield to strike them, or fights with martial arts punches and kicks,” the report reads. “Many characters are also shot or, occasionally, struck with knives but in the majority of these scenes there is no blood or visible injury. Some scenes do show small bloody cuts on faces and blood staining clothes, but there is no focus on the blood and, again, no sight of injuries. There are also multiple explosions in which cars and aircraft are destroyed.”
The key to both of these reports is that the violence, while there, is not focused upon or sustained. This does mean that Deadpool will not have Evil Dead levels of violence, but it will not be a wimpy kids movie. Besides, there are ways around this supposed “issue”.
During the 1980s, Paramount and the makers of the Friday the 13th movies were going head to head with the MPAA over every film they released. They would send them a print, the censors would go back to them with dozens of cuts to make, the filmmakers re-edit the movie to pass and then it goes into theatres. What this meant however was that the filmmakers couldn’t release the version of the movie they wanted people to see because the men in suits were censoring their art. But the 80s also gave rise to the popularity of home video. And so in the early 90s, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday director Adam Marcus came up with the ingenious idea of sending the MPAA the already cut version of the movie, allowing for New Line (who now owned the property) to sell the “uncut” version on home video to increase sales. The censor board got a movie they were happy to pass, Marcus still got to release “his” version of the film and fans didn’t get screwed over. Everybody won.
Deadpool can take this road. Tim Miller can provide the censor boards with a PG-13 cut of the film and then release a more violent version (which will truthfully be only a few frames longer on certain shots) on home video. Not only will this increase revenue theatrically as more eyes will be able to see it, but it makes the Blu-Ray release more worthwhile and something of “an event”. Not only that, but this decision to “cut” the movie can play to the one strength that makes Deadpool a unique character in the comic book universe.
Deadpool knows he is in a movie, so therefore he knows that the movie is censored.
You could have a huge action sequence filled with guns, blood and violence, but censor it in a comical fashion only for Deadpool to be annoyed at the end of the scene that his work has been cut. Add in a joke about “waiting for it on DVD” and you not only do you play to the character’s strengths but you also give the promise to fans that they will get to see the Deadpool they’ve always wanted to see. It works for everyone and it doesn’t piss off the fans who feel that a PG-13 version of the character is a waste of time.
The announcement of a Deadpool movie is an exciting one, but the fact that it could be PG-13 is really the least of its problems. This is a business after all and a PG-13 or 12A rating means you can get more butts in seats and more money in the cash register. A non-R rating might mean that you won’t see people’s heads cut off with huge spurts of blood, but it doesn’t mean that the film will be a sterilized version of Wade Wilson. As long as they keep him cracking wise and making fourth wall jokes, we should get a Deadpool movie worth watching.
Besides, it can’t be worse than X-Men Origins: Wolverine right?
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
