Jerman's Rating Explained

The MPAA is broken, the rating system most of America uses. It doesn’t work how we want it to work. The reason we use it, and the purpose in creating it are two different things. The MPAA isn’t a scale of morality, which is what we need- the answer? We make our own.

I’ve been working of this for a long time. Is almost impossibly hard. I’ve recently dubbed this the JMPA or MPAJ, I haven’t decided which is better (‘J’ for Jerman…I know, How vain of me…

Lets start. Does each film start bad (F, 0%) and earns righteous points (raising the grade)? Does it start good (A+) and accumulates wicked points? Does it start neutral, a C (75%) on the grade scale, or a 50%(F) on the point scale? Is a number system good (1 dimensional)? Is 2 dimensions better, or 7? What kind of rubric do you use, or is using a rubric even possible? After bouncing around a few ideas, I’ve decided to use this system. Each film starts at zero, and earns points in both directions (moral, and immoral) at the same time The two vectors don’t cancel each other out. The highest and lowest is a 5, something you will rarely or never see. It’d probably be bell-curve-ish. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a +5 film. +4 would be Chronicles of Narnia. Lord of the Rings- possibly, M. Night Shyamalan- probably.

It gets more difficult when looking at the rubric you are forced to use, intentionally or otherwise. You have to use some sort of criteria to say how many steps forward, and backward. Example: Girl wears immodest skirt (please forgive me for using such a lame example, its just for illustration). However the filmmakers are using the Girl to explain how immodesty is bad. Do I still give points in both directions? Don’t worry about content because only morals matter? I don’t have an answer yet. For right now- content does have a place, maybe small, but it does have influence on the whole rating.

We love generalities so much, so here is a general rule. If it is glorified, it is encouraged (fighting and kung-fu in Matrix), if it is demonized it is discouraged (Killing people- just about every movie). If a liked character does something, that action is encouraged (James Bond drinks Martinis , drives nice cars, and has sex), if a disliked character does something it is discouraged (cutting down trees is bad, because Saruman did it).

At this point in time, I and I alone, have the power of discretion to say what things are good and what is bad. I’m working on a way to make it more objective and less based on me, but this is the way it is now, until it gets fixed. Still- its better than the MPAA, which really is broken. To everyone who has read through this (which looking at the numbers of people visiting this blog, is a heck of a lot of people) I would encourage you to decide on making your own rating system. Your own XMPA replacing X with your nickname. Tailor it how you want it, set it up as perfect as you can.

• +5 Teaches many many things, that are essential, rarely taught, and would elevate mankind to a higher plane. Don’t expect to ever see any of these films.
• +4 Teaches variety of and quality morals. Film this moral is rare.
• +3 Not as wide a variety, or less stressed than 4, yet retains a strong message which is generally outstanding. High class morals
• +2 Bulk of movies. Think low class Disney films.
• +1 Token morals, almost an afterthought
• +0 Only exists on paper, not in real film. Well…Maybe a Burger King training video would have nonexistent morality.

AND (not or)

• -0 Same as above
• -1 Things aren’t quite right, there is token immorality thrown in, almost as an after thought.
• -2 Glorify that which is bad, Demonize good things, This is a lot more common. Watch out, be sure to notice when this is happening.
• -3 Sex, Violence, Drugs, Language, all glorified. These movies defiantly are being made, they are more rare than 1 or 2, not usually popular by the common people, but you can find them without much trouble.
• -4 Super bad things taught, If the whole world followed these things, we’d be living in a very evil world. If a –4 movie has been made, it’d be really rare.
• -5 As bad as possible, If a +5 is teaching about Jesus, and becoming better, this would be the opposite, I highly doubt a –5 movie has ever been created.