FAITH & FAMILY: Movieguide puts faith in film ratings

“Hollywood is doing a much better job of cutting out sex and violence and foul language,” says Baehr, who is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission and publisher of Movieguide. The studios are apparently doing so without losing anything: “There’s plenty of romance,” he says, even without sex, “and they seem to be making money.”

The nonprofit business is supported by donors, and full access to the Web site is available to subscribers for $40 per year. Baehr declined to provide Web site traffic or subscriber numbers. The company’s site also links to Internet retailer ChristianMoviesDirect.com, which sells many Christian products, including some books written by Baehr.

The home page of Movieguide.org displays its ratings for current theatrical films. Movieguide bills itself as a family guide, so the films are arranged mainly in order of how suitable they are for families. Toward the top are films with “wholesome” ratings, followed by “caution” levels, with films at the bottom of the list rated “excessive,” or worse, “abhorrent.”

Toward the top of the list are Kung Fu Panda, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, all scoring squarely in the “wholesome” range. And even above that is the new Wall-E, listed as “exemplary,” the organization’s highest rating.

Sex and the City is in the “abhorrent” category. But the site does try to be fair; besides rating family and faith-based criteria, it also ranks production and entertainment quality, where Sex and the City gets three out of four stars.

Beyond those general designations, Baehr’s ratings are extremely detailed, with a series of abbreviations used to define various elements of each film. He rates films based on their “dominant worldview,” which includes everything from “Biblical” and “Christian” to “Romanticism” and “Paganism.” He also rates films on more tangible content elements, such as smoking.

“We try to be as comprehensive as possible,” Baehr says. He acknowledges that, compared with others who dissect films, Movieguide is looking through “a different lens.”

Definitions of the ratings can be found on the Web site and in Baehr’s in-depth annual report, which includes detailed information on the role of conservative Christian elements in films. The report cites various entertainment sources, including data from Video Business, in showing that, like the theatrical movie business, the DVD business has benefited from the types of movies Baehr advocates.

According to the report, movies with family, moral, biblical and Christian aspects have done better in theaters and on DVD in recent years than films without those elements. The report puts more films in approved categories than one might expect, including four of the five highest-grossing box-office films of 2007. No. 4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, for example, got Movieguide’s highest rating for a Christian worldview: triple Cs.

Baehr explains of the film, “It’s pretty clear that the world is a fallen world, a dark world that can only be saved by the blood of an innocent man.” He adds that, from conversations they’ve had, filmmakers such as Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer seem to understand that Baehr’s point of view comes across in their films.

The other films receiving good ratings for worldview were the Top 3 box-office films of 2007, Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Transformers.

The exception among the Top 5 was No. 5 on the box-office list, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which has a predominantly “Pagan” worldview, according to the Movieguide ratings. But even that film has some moral elements, Baehr says: “Harry does act in moral ways and does have messianic qualities.”