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(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

British actor Christian Bale poses during a photocall for 'The Dark Knight' film in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. Batman star Christian Bale has swept into Barcelona to attend a glittering Spanish premiere of "The Dark Knight." Bale came in a 15-car motorcade and appeared calm in the wake of allegations he assaulted his mother and one of his three sisters at a top London hotel. He did not speak to reporters and made no comment about the incident.

CLEMSON — “It’s an R-rated movie in a PG-13 package.�

That’s how Clemson University Performing Arts professor Mark Charney described “The Dark Knight,� a hit film based on the Batman comic book character.

The movie opened to a record-breaking $155 million last weekend. But some images from “The Dark Knight� — including a skull impaled with a pencil, a videotaped torture session, knife slashes to the face and a skinless profile — have left some parents cold.

Warner Brothers, which released “The Dark Knight,� has issued a statement claiming 51 percent of audiences had been 25 or older. However, the studio has not issued numbers on children attending.

Charney said whether a film ends up with a more severe rating or not can often depend on a few seconds of content.

“There was no way the studio was going to go for an R-rating for something like ‘The Dark Knight.’ But it’s about as near to an R-rating as you can get.�

According to Charney, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is much quicker to hand out R-ratings for sexual content, adult language or even scenes with characters smoking cigarettes than for violence.

“That’s partially because the violence in movies has become almost cartoon-ish,’ he said. “At one point I made this agreement with myself not to see a movie with explosions in it. But that seemed to eliminate at least half the movies made. Even comedies have explosions in them now.�

For all the grisly events depicted in “The Dark Knight� few are carried out onscreen. For example, the aforementioned “disappearing pencil trick� carried out by The Joker, the film’s villain, is shot in a way that doesn’t reveal spurting blood — the kind of image that generates R-ratings, Charney said.

The impact of “The Dark Knight� on children is being noted because younger persons are often drawn to movies featuring comic book characters. “The Dark Knight� action figure TV ads have appeared in curious slots, including during airings of “SpongeBob Squarepants� on Nickelodeon.

In his weekly blog, noted film critic Richard Roeper said he felt PG-13 to be an “appropriate� rating for “The Dark Knight.�

“But that PG-13 means ‘some material might not be suitable for children under age 13,’’ Roeper wrote in the blog. “A mature 12-year-old could probably handle the intensity onscreen, but an 8-year-old? I don’t think so.�

According to the MPAA, “The Dark Knight� is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence and some menace.�

But Charney, who has taught film courses during his academic career, said ratings too often fail to address themes in their calculations.

“I think it’s funny the criteria does not include the psychological effects of the film.�

Charney lambasted the lack of consistency in ratings, particularly when it comes to nudity. Male frontal nudity, he said, will result in more severe ratings than female nudity.

"That’s because 99 percent of the studios are run by men. I wish there was more integrity to the system,� Charney said.

However, Charney said he believes some filmmakers couldn’t be happier with an R-rating. For example, he said the slew of Judd Apatow comedies, including “Superbad� or “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,� benefit from the delineation — particularly with viewers under 17.

“As soon as a movie gets to that rating level from sexual or crude humor, young teens are going to want to see it,� Charney said.