Hello. I attend a Christian university (Indiana Wesleyan University),
and our current school policies restrict the viewing of certain
R-rated movies. The source cited for the rubric against which movis
are judged is the "Sophisticated Films Movie Guide." Supposedly, the
rubric came from another university; unfortunately, no one is quite
sure which university. And, I cannot track down this source anywhere.
So my questions are as follows:

1) Where is the "Sophisticated Films Movie Guide" available?
2) What other university(ies) utlilize the "Sophisticated Films Movie
Guide" in their own policies regarding R-rated movies?

Thanks for your time. I have no complaints with the policy. I'm just
trying to better understand it.

Greetings, prattboy!

I found a copy of the policy that you are referencing:
http://www.indwes.edu/Student_Life/lifestyle.shtml#movie

Interestingly, while I searched extensively, I was unable to find
anything OFFICIALLY called the "Sophisticated Films Movie Guide",
either on a website, or as a published volume on bookstore sites such
as Amazon.com. This might explain why you have been unable to locate
it, and why no one knows what University(ies) are using it.

I recommend that you contact Indiana Wesleyan's Office of Student Life
http://www.indwes.edu/Student_Life
and explain to the person with whom you speak that you would like to
learn more about this Christian movie guide and ask if they can they
provide you with the website URL or the book's actual title (do they
have it in the library?). It may be that their policy was developed
from something someone heard from someone, who heard it from someone
else, who heard it from someone else, and that the actual name of this
resource got changed in the process.

HOWEVER: I did find a couple of Christian movie guide sites with
ratings systems that are quite close to the one in your University
policy.

This site, the Family Style Film Guide, looked suspiciously to me like
it may well be the one to which your University policy refers:
http://www.familystyle.com
A description of their rating system is described here:
http://www.familystyle.com/about.asp
and an example of their rating scale can be seen here:
http://www.familystyle.com/advscripts/movie_detail.asp?MovieID=5628
The levels:
"  Extreme
   Abundant & Graphic
   Abundant
   Heavy
   Moderate
   Some
   Mild
   Very Little
   None"
are applied in the following areas:
"  Profanity
   Nudity
   Sex
   Violence
   Drugs/Alcohol"

This site, the Christian Critic, might also be a possible source for
your University's rating policy:
http://www.christiancritic.com/movies.htm
They include overall movie ratings:
" 4 stars    Excellent 
  3 stars    Above Average 
  2 stars    Average 
  1 star     Below Average 
 no stars    Cannot Recommend"

as well as "Stoplight" ratings
"  red       intense or heavy 
  yellow     moderate 
  green      mild or none"
in the following areas:
" Nudity Alert
  Sexuality Alert
  Language Alert 
  Violence Alert 
  Drug Alert"
See an example here:
http://www.christiancritic.com/mov2002/aschmidt.htm


I have also found for you a number of other Christian movie review
sites with several different rating systems, where you can read more
about the criteria used in Christian movie rating systems.

This site, Decent Films, also rates movies based on Christian values.
http://www.decentfilms.com
Their rating system is described here:
http://www.decentfilms.com/about/ratingsintro.html
and it includes the ratings:
" +2 A Feast for the Spirit
  +1 Positive
   0 Basically Harmless
  -1 Problematic
  -2 Poison"

Another Christian movie review site, MovieGuide, with a similar rating
scale is at:
http://www.movieguide.org
Their ratings are broken out into the following 8 levels:
http://www.movieguide.org/images/moral.gif
"  Exemplary
   Moral
   Good
   Wholesome
   Caution
   Extreme Caution
   Excessive
   Abhorrent"

This site, Christian Answers, includes a movie review area:
http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/home.html
with the following "Morality Rating" scale:
"  Best
   Average
   Worse
   Worst"

Preview Family Movie & TV Review Online
http://www.gospelcom.net/preview/home.html
has the following Entertainment ratings:
" +4 Excellent 
  +3 Good 
  +2 Fair 
  +1 Poor 
   0 Not Entertaining"
the following Acceptability ratings:
" +4 No questionable elements 
  +3 Slightly questionable 
  +2 Moderately questionable 
  +1 Very questionable"
and the following ratings for Films with Objectionable Elements:
" -4  Extremely objectionable 
  -3½ Severely objectionable 
  -3  Very objectionable 
  -2½ Mostly objectionable 
  -2  Significantly objectionable 
  -1½ Quite objectionable 
  -1  Moderately objectionable 
  -½  Slightly objectionable"

Crosswalk.com uses the MPAA's ratings, but includes in its reviews
sections entitled "Plot", the "Good" aspects, the "Bad" aspects, and
the "Bottom Line":
http://new.crosswalk.com/fun/movies

Landover Baptist Church's movie guide section does not use ratings,
but does provide critiques of movies from a Christian perspective:
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/movies.html

Christianity Today Magazine's Film section is here:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/features/culture/film.html


In addition, links to some other Christian movie review sites can be
found here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010503074006/www.shelby.net/btoney/infoChristian/entertainment.htm


Universities using similar movie guide policies:

Fresno Pacific University
http://www.fresno.edu/dept/student_life/handbook/poli-movies.html

Cornerstone University
http://www.cornerstone.edu/Offices.nsf/7b910d44c8a71dba852568f0004935b2/05c5d5a7dcb4c92585256ad1004ad3b0?OpenDocument

Houghton College
http://campus.houghton.edu/offices/student_life/film_review_policy.htm

Ozark Christian College
http://occ.edu/sdo/behavioral.htm


Search Strategy

Sophisticated Films "Movie Guide"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Sophisticated+Films+%22Movie+Guide%22&btnG=Google+Search&filter=0

University Christian movie policy
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=University+Christian+movie+policy&btnG=Google+Search&filter=0

College Christian movie policy
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=College+Christian+movie+policy&btnG=Google+Search&filter=0


Before Rating this Answer, if you have any questions about this
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.

I hope that this Answer provides the excellent sources of
enlightenment on Christian movie rating values that you were seeking.

Regards,

aceresearcher

Great answer. And thank you to pinkfreud and all others for their added tidbits.

Here are a few tidbits to supplement the excellent material that my
colleague aceresearcher found for you.

Houghton College also uses rules from "Sophisticated Films Movie
Guide." Note that Houghton cites a specific source:

"The categories were adopted from 'Sophisticated Films Movie Guide', a
publication of Clem Williams Films, Inc."

Houghton College
http://campus.houghton.edu/offices/student_life/film_review_policy.htm

I haven't been able to track down Clem Williams Films. It may no
longer exist, since its founder died in 2001:

"WILLIAMS, A. CLEMENT SR., 88, of Seminole, died Monday (June 18,
2001) at Freedom Square Nursing Center, Seminole. He was born in
Wilkinsburg, Pa., and came here in 1979 from Pittsburgh. He formerly
owned and operated Clem Williams Films Inc."

Saint Petersburg Times Online
http://www.sptimes.com/Archive/062001/Obits.shtml

Also see: State of Pennsylvania corporate records for Clem Williams
Films, Inc:
http://corps.state.pa.us/basicentity.php?entityno=390548
http://corps.state.pa.us/coroff.php?curpage=1&entityno=390548&cornam=WILLIAMS,%20CLEM%20FILMS%20INC.

Please note that the entire "Landover Baptist Church" site (including
its movie reviews) is an anti-Christian parody. It is not an actual
church.