Press for “Slumdog Millionaire” began today in New York and unfortunately we were too occupied with the dayjob to participate. But Cinematical spoke to director Danny Boyle and got his reaction to the unfortunate news that the film was slapped with an R-Rating — a seemingly grossly unfair move considering its joyful and exuberant tone. Sure, there’s some violence in the film, but “The Dark Knight” gets a PG-13 and ‘Slumdog’? The MPAA hypocrisy in standards is well-documented. The recent almost-NC-17 rating for “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” (a relatively tame Kevin Smith film) is just another example. We digress.
Needless to say, Boyle was not pleased with the MPAA’s decision.
“I was very disappointed. What happens is when you make a film, you sign a contract with the studio or whoever is financing it and there are several stipulations — like it has to be under two hours or what have you — and one of the things that’s in there is that it has to be a certain certificate (aka rating). And we all agreed that it would be a PG-13 or less. And so I shot the film very deliberately to achieve that certificate, and I’m very disappointed because there’s very little actual violence in the film at all. But the response was that the journey of the film was too intense — and then you think, but that’s the job! What’s wrong with somebody wanting to watch an intense journey? But yeah, I was very disappointed.”
Boyle said he tried to appeal and fight the verdict, but “the response was the same.” Hmm, sounds like there’s no time for nips and cuts and “Slumdog Millionaire” will just have to live with the R-Rating? The article doesn’t exactly say, but that’s what we’re inferring here, epecially since its November 12 release date is right around the corner and its probably too late (and too expensive) to cut new prints of the film.
The violence in the “The Dark Knight” was brought up too.
“Yeah, see and that’s what I thought was wonderful about The Dark Knight — because it was so real. And their argument is that’s fantasy. No, actually, the reason the movie is so effective is because it’s extraordinarily real and Heath Ledger’s performance is extraordinary. Just an extraordinary performance.”
