Film Studies Revision

Censorship and Regulation

The censorship debate
Cons: - secrecy/ unaccountability
- concentration of power in individuals
- relationship between board and government (is it really independent)
- restrictions on individuals liberties
- With Video certification is pointless
- How can we trust others to judge for us
- Who determines the nature of censorship
- There seems to be a bias based on subjective ideas about what constitute
s as art
- At times the cutting process can have the opposite of the desired effect
- Censorship compromises artistic expression
- Without proper enforcement the certificate system only has a partial suc
cess anyway
- People are capable making the separation between fantasy and real life.
Modern audiences have become much more sophisticated and can judge for themselve
s.
Pros: - Vulnerable groups do need protection
- censorship helps to suppress illegal activity in the film industry parti
cularly paedophile and sexually violent photography
- the certificate system is useful to many cinemagoers
- in some ways the industry can exploit the system to its advantages
- there are limits to what can be depicted based on taste
- there are limits to what can be depicted based on morality
- there is a danger that some aberrant acts on the screen will be repeated
in real life
- The Board can be flexible and reflect changing public tastes over time.

BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification
The BBFC is an independent, non governmental body and is funded by the service t
hat it provides to the film industry charging approx. £10 for every minute of runn
ing time, though the rate varies for certain categories of films and videos.
Set up in 1912
In practice the BBFC allocated certification, but it is local authorities that h
ave the statutory powers which enable it to over turn BBFC decisions. Local auth
orities can also stop the screening of a film e.g. Westminster banned the 18 cer
tificate Crash .
1984 Video Recordings Act
Videos for rent or sale had to be classified by a Hoem Office designated authori
ty. The president and Vice President of the BBFC were allocated in 1985 and char
ged with applying the new test of suitability for viewing in the home . The Board s t
itle was changed to the British Board of Film Classification to reflect the fact
that classification plays a far larger part in the Board s work than by tcensorsh
ip.
Video Nasty s
Was the result of the Video Recorder and created new anxieties about the leisure
viewing of feature film. initially video was not regulated at all and could be
watched at home by children, who it was feared could easily get a hold of them.
Also the films that had been censored for cinema were becoming available on the
new format. The moral panic of this led to the video recording act of 1984 and t
he coming of the term video nasty s . Many of the films that created the controversy
were horror films.
The director of Public Prosecutions drew up a list of titles that had been prose
cuted under the Obscene Publications Act. THE EVIL DEAD (SAM RAIMI, 1983) which
received a 18 certificate after cuts was often cited in the campaign. Lurid cove
rs and provocative titles contributed to the scare (Cannibals, Flesh Eaters, Zom
bie)

1988 Hungerford Shooting Michael Ryan killed 11 people was associated with Sly S
tallone s action film Rambo: First Blood Part Two (George Pan Cosmatos 1885)
1993 Death of Jamie Bulger the death of the two year old by two 10 year olds cre
ated a new panic. Linked with Childs Play 3 . The exposure to violence so how trigg
ered violence in the two boys, and that it led to imitation in the choice of spe
cific violent acts and that it had desensitised them to the pain of their victim
.
Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone 1994)
The film had been linked in the press to copycat killings in France and America.

Dunblane Massacre of March 1996

Thomas Hamilton opened fire in a primary school killing 16 children and their te
acher. Not linked to any particular film, it caused the country to look at the c
ulture of imported Hollywood GUN VIOLENCE and films such as Heat (Michael Mann,
1995).
Recent shootings in America (Denver and Colorado) led to soul searching amongst
the American and there are cases pending such as the film The Basketball Diaries
(Scott Kalvert, 1995) a film which shows the fantasy sequence in which a studen
t opens fire on his class mates.
Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate Research Findings 65 (1998) by B
rowne and Pennell of Birmingham University
Contradicted earlier research showed that young offenders interpretated and resp
onded differently to violent videos. The results showed that young offenders sho
w a stronger preference to violent films. 2/3 named stars such as Claude Van Dam
me, Schwarzenegger or Stallone. Violent scenes were more likely to be remembered
and offenders identified more with the violent characters and gave reasons rela
ting to the characters violence and that they enjoyed the violent parts best. Mo
st of the offenders didn t try to copy the films violence but one offender and one
non offender had tried to copy aspects of the film.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tony Hooper, 1974)
- Murphy regarded it as a good well made film
- Felt strongly against the level of terrorisation and focus on abnormal p
sychology
- The distributer reacted by making some minor cuts and formally submittin
g a slightly shortened version on March 12th 1975
- Rejected again on the 14th March 1975
- Many local councils would find it unacceptable
- Film relied on the atmospheric tone of madness and threat whilst shying
away from explicit detail.
- Made it difficult for the BBFC to cut the film to be acceptable because
there were so few moments of violence which even if they were cut wouldn t affect
the tone of the film.
- The distributers kept trying to submit the film and were dependant on at
titudes during society
- Rejected by new head of the BBFC Ferman who stated it was the extended t
errorisation of Sally at the end that created the on going fear.
- Film released in 1981 without any BBFC certificate but removed from shel
ves due to the Video Recordings Act 1984
- By modern standards the film was considered to be less likely to disturb
adult viewers
- Film was dated and feeble compared to more recent horror offerings.
- BBFC was impressed by the films reliance of atmosphere rather than expli
cit violence.
Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
- It was the complicated nature of the rape scene that led to censorship d
ifficulties for Straw Dogs
- It is Amy s complex reaction to the raping that makes for uncomfortable vi
ewing and could be seen, particularly if shown out of context, as a dangerous en
dorsement of the male rape myth that women enjoy being raped.
- BBFC secretary Stephan Murphy recommended some minor changes e.g. toward
s the intensity of the second rape and the violence at the end particularly the
man trap.
- Was released with a X rating, and was successful at box-office.
- Attracted the wrath of a number of leading critics and the film was camp
aigned against by Mary Whitehouse s Festival of Light and banned by a number of lo
cal councils
- Strew Dogs released on video prior to the VRA in 1984, with certificate X
- Straw Dogs was legally available on video in the UK, Uncut and without v
ideo certificate until March 1988
- Along with the Exorcist and Death Wish, Straw Dogs was ultimately remove
d from video shops in 1988 because the BBF director, James Ferman, didn t feel tha
t it was appropriate to classify this particular film at that time
- Partly because of the Hungerford Massacre in 1988 which led to an increa
se in sensitivity in general about violence, and partly due to the concerns of s
exual violence that had become a lot stricter since 1970.
- New technology allowed the rape scene to be played and replayed out of
context. Amy s reaction to the rape scene out of wider context could fuel the fan
tasies of potential offenders of the rape myth .
- Agreed in 2002 by expert opinion that the film as not likely to offend o
r encourage rapist behaviour.

Juno (Jason Reitman, 2008)

- Debate over the seriousness of teenage pregnancy
- Use of infrequent strong language
- Sex references
Irreversible (Gasper Noe, 2002)
- At the Cannes Film Festival many walked out in disgust during the openin
g rape scene.
- Controversy surrounding it was good publicity for the movie.
- Spinning camera, make you feel out of your minds says Noe.
-
9 Songs (Michael Winterbottom, 2004)
- The intention of the work was clearly to explore a narrative about a rel
ationship by showing two characters both having sex, talking and interacting in
other environments
- Thus the decision became an analysis of whether the real sex, which was
frequent and totalled over several minutes of screen time was exceptionally justi
fied by its context.
- Several letters were received, many of which arrived from people who had
not watched 9 Songs demanding it be banned, cut or removed from distribution. T
hese views from groups and individuals (most of whom felt real sexual activity w
as inappropriate in any nationwide release) were all carefully considered
New concerns refer to the tendency of many modern films to treat violence as a j
oke or present violent images of film as stylist or trendy. Tarantino s Reservoir
Dogs (1991) and Pulp Fiction (1994)
The 1950 s
The 1950s saw the emergence of the teenager. There was an increasing fear of the
young people by the older generation Rebel without a Cause (Nicholsas Ray, 1955
) and The Wild One (Laslo Benedek, (1954)
A Good Example of Political Censorship
The Battle Ship Potemkin (1925)
Banned by the BBFC in 1926, andn not passed for cinema exhibition until 1954.
Film features the famous Odessa Steps sequence which shows the brutal whit
e guard suppress and shoot protestors in the streets. Impact if the sequence is
strengthened by the editing technique of the soviet montage. The film was banned
on the grounds of its violence through political themes both Revolutionary aspe
cts and brutality of authority. The film is now a PG lol