Che Guevara, Meet Sally Field

Two random notes about culture and politics:

1. Finally got around to watching The Motorcycle Diaries (now out on DVD). Good movie with fine performances by Gael Garcia Bernal (as the young Che Guevara) and Rodrigo de la Serna (as his friend Alberto). But when the movie ended, Mary-Jo turned to me and asked, "Why did that get an R rating?" Excellent question. There were no sex scenes, no nudity, and no violence. There was a little talk about sex, but no more than in an average episode of Friends (and a lot less than in an average episode of Sex and the City).

The only explanation that I can come up with is that Che was a communist. I have no idea whether the movie rating rules make specific reference to the political affiliations of the movie characters, but I suppose there's some general clause about "morality" that could be made to fit in a pinch . . .

2. Channel-surfing half an hour later I came across CMT, the country music channel, which, as you may know, sometimes shows movies and old TV shows--things like Smokey and the Bandit, Coal Miner's Daughter, and episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard. But tonight they were showing Norma Rae, the old Sally Field picture. Interesting--we associate country music with conservatism, but here's the "official" network for country music showing a movie about a heroic union organizer. Why? Because the characters talk with southern accents.

Illustrates how culture can trump politics--as Howard Dean tried clumsily to acknowledge with his talk about reaching out to the guys with shotguns and confederate flags in their pickup trucks. Unfortunately, Dean--like John Kerry--couldn't talk with a southern accent if his life depended on it.

P.S. Turns out there is a website that lists the reasons for movie ratings (www.mpaa.org). It says that The Motorcycle Diaries was rated R for "language"--a one-word explanation that doesn't clarify much. Maybe the board members feel that sex talk sounds dirtier when it's in Spanish . . .