Assessing a ‘For Adults Only’ Rating Proposal for Movies

To differentiate serious adult films from pornographic ones would be a disaster. It is precisely because no such distinction exists that there is no true censorship in America today. Calling certain films “art” and other “pornography” could easily become a justification for banning the latter.

It’s not inconceivable that the guardians of our morality might someday see fit to withhold an A rating from a film like “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,” thereby denying it even the limited exhibition it now receives.

JEFF M. ROSS, Northridge