It wasn't until 1984 or '85 that the PG-13 rating came out. Before then, the R rating was reserved for ONLY severly violent/disturbing/strongly sexual films. If a film was rated R back then, it was bad. No questions asked. Not like today, when you only have to say fuck three times to garner an R rating.

Fuck fuck fuck.

There. This post is rated R.

Anyway, PG was pretty broad, and for years there had been parental outcry for the content in PG films. The last straws were films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and another Spielberg film, Poltergeist. Both graphic and disturbing, but not severe enough to get an R. (Not back then anyway.) Spielberg himself suggested a PG-13 rating, and it was created. But when the rating was still new, the MPAA was still fairly leniant on films. For instance, Mel Brook's Spaceballs, which would most likely garner a PG-13 or even an R today got a PG, and PG-13 had been around for a few years. The rating really took off in the early ninties, which was also the start of the MPAA being comprised of retards.

Ratings make zero sense anymore. They give an R rating to films that have no discernable R rated content in them, and an R to films that should be NC-17. (Think Jackass.) Ratings are just silly today. Anyone see snakes on a plane? It was rated R for good measure, but the list of reasons for it had sex BEFORE gore and violence. It had hardly any sex, but the MPAA thinks seeing a boob is worse than seeing a decapitation.

Sorry for the rant, I just think the MPAA is pretty stupid.