Braveheart: An MPAA Guide

Last week, we watched Mel Gibson's latest movie, Apocalypto (and for some reason, my hands keep wanting to type Apocalypso...that would be a very different movie). We knew going in that it was brutally violent and, yes indeed, it has a scene that makes the infamous heart scene from Indiana Jones of the Temple of doom look tame in comparison. I eagerly watched to see what the MPAA rating would say about this movie. Surely something along the lines of "Rated R for scenes of human sacrifice and hearts being cut out of people." Surely something equally icky. But no, they merely told us it was "Rated R for sequences of graphic violence and disturbing images." We all knew that from the reviews. Where's the creativity, I ask?

Turns out the creativity was with an older Mel Gibson movie that also has sequences of graphic violence and disturbing images, but received this warning instead:

Rated R for brutal medieval warfare

That's right, forget the scenes of torture and disembowelment at the end, it's all about the brutal medieval warfare.