The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

Matters reached a head in 1984, when the vio-
lence in two Steven Spielberg films sparked national
outcries. BothIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
and the Spielberg-produced Gremlinscontained
graphic sequences of hearts being ripped from vic-
tims’ chests and animals exploding. Faced with pro-
tests from both parents and the press, MPAA presi-
dent Jack Valenti announced on July 1 the creation
of a new PG-13 rating, with the explanatory lan-
guage “Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material
may be inappropriate for children under 13.” The
first film to receive the new rating was the science-
fiction thrillerDreamscape(1984). The first film actu-
ally released bearing a PG-13 rating was the Cold
War action filmRed Dawn(1984).

Impact The creation of the new rating reflected au-
diences’ growing tolerance of strong language while
highlighting parents’ desire to prevent exposing
pre-teen minors to strong violence. It also reflected
the perception in Hollywood that teenagers would
shun films that they perceived as being innocuous
because they contained insufficient sexual or violent
content. The rating thus allowed the studios to cater
to teenagers’ tastes without alienating their parents.
During the 1980’s in particular, the new rating al-
lowed films to incorporate adult language without
being rated R. As a result, a whole subgenre of teen
films includingSixteen Candles(1984) andThe Break-
fast Club(1985) appeared that more accurately por-
trayed the language and lifestyles of 1980’s teen-
agers.

Further Reading
Keough, Peter, ed.Flesh and Blood: The National Soci-
ety of Film Critics on Sex, Violence, and Censorship. San
Francisco: Mercury House, 1995.
Vaughan, Stephen.Freedom and Entertainment: Rating
the Movies in an Age of New Media. Cambridge, En-
gland: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Richard Rothrock

See also Academy Awards; Action films; Brat Pack
in acting; Film in the United States; Horror films;
Hughes, John;Ordinar y People;Raiders of the Lost Ark;
Science-fiction films; Spielberg, Steven; Teen films;
Terms of Endearment.

Phantom of the Opera, The

Identification Hit musical based upon Gaston

Leroux’s classic horror novel

Director Hal Prince (1928- )

Authors Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

(1948- ); lyrics by Charles Hart (1962- ),

with Richard Stilgoe (1943- ) and Mike Batt

(1949- ); book by Stilgoe, Hart, and Lloyd

Webber

Date Opened on Broadway on January 26, 1988

Among the most successful Broadway musicals in histor y,

The Phantom of the Operawas a national phenome-

non in the late 1980’s.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to create a

musical based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novelFan-

tôme de l’opéra(The Phantom of the Opera, 1911), the

book was largely forgotten, and the story was known

primarily through campy horror-film adaptations.

While Lloyd Webber emphasized the romantic as-

pects of the book, the horror and mystery elements

provided opportunities for him to indulge his love of

spectacle: In the play, gas candles mysteriously ap-

pear, lighted, from a fictional lake, and chandeliers

fall to the stage. As he had inCats(pr. 1982), Lloyd

Webber brought the audience into the spectacle.

The set was designed to merge the fictional opera

house with the actual theater, so that, when the char-

acters in the musical were performing operas, the

play’s audience would become the fictional audi-

ence within those operas as well. As a result, when

the Phantom’s face was dramatically revealed in the

show’s climax, the audience participated as part of

the drama.

Like many of Lloyd Webber’s works,The Phantom

of the Operacombines older musical and theatrical el-

ements with modern music and effects. Elements of

twentieth century music, including rock, are used to

symbolize the Phantom’s incompatibility with soci-

ety. The story is set in the 1880’s, and Lloyd Webber

wrote the Phantom’s opera,Don Juan Triumphant,as

a twentieth century opera. The cast members scoff

at it, but the Phantom is merely ahead of his time.

Impact In 1988,The Phantom of the Operawon seven

Tony Awards. The Phantom’s mask joined the Statue

of Liberty and the Empire State Building as symbols

of New York City. Many theatergoers saw the show

more than once, and its success was driven in part by

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Phantom of the Opera, The The Eighties in America