10 R-Rated Movies That Should Have Been PG-13

3) A Film Unfinished (2010)

History can be brutal, but learning about the most difficult events of the past is not only important, but essential. Yael Hersonski’s documentary about an incomplete Nazi propaganda film called Das Ghetto is vital viewing, yet the MPAA gave A Film Unfinished the dreaded R rating on the grounds that it contained disturbing imagery and nudity. The nudity in question refers to a moment in the film when a group of Jews are stripped and forced to take a ritual bath, which is about as far from titillating as one could imagine.

The film’s distributor Oscilloscope, appealed to the MPAA over the rating, arguing that Holocaust Memorial Museums visited by school children contain more graphic footage, yet they were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid. No one is suggesting that A Film Unfinished would make delightful viewing for five year old children, but surely it’s important that teenage students are given the chance to watch this vital historical documentary. It’s a sad day when a movie like this is kept from teenage audiences, while a raunchy film like Coyote Ugly is deemed as perfectly suitable with its PG-13 rating.