Thirty-odd years ago, the movie A Bridge Too Far generated a movie-ratings controversy; a character, a 101st Airborne lieutenant, gets shot in the head by a German sniper.  James Caan picks up the lieutenant and loads him into the jeep, appearing lifeless; the audience briefly saw a smear of blood covering half the looey’s face. 

“Too gory”, was the response from many not-that-far-off-the-mainstream groups.

Today?  Leave aside the gore of everything from Alien Versus Predator and Saving Private Ryan; a “PG13” movie will include drinking, drug references, and the sort of peek-a-boo, almost-sex references that would have gotten a movie a serious “R” when I was a kid, and furthermore all you little bastards get off my lawn.

But just when you wonder if there’s any point to having standards at all anymore, we see that someone is drawing that line in the sand and taking a stand:

The cigar-puffing General Thaddeus Ross is a bad guy, all right. So bad that leading medical organizations think that the Incredible Hulk should be rated “R.”

No, it’s not the violence and mayhem Gen. Ross inspires in his quest to capture Hulk that draws objections. It’s his cigar.

Rumors that the filmmakers tried to defuse the controversy by having a stripper use the cigar for something else – safeguarding the PG13 – are reported to be unfounded.