 |
|
 Home
Products
Store
Forum
Warehouse
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
|
|
Author
|
Topic: UK theaters defy censor board
|
Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001
|
posted 06-21-2002 10:57 AM
quote:
Coun Smith said: "I am not a killjoy. I believe there are parts of the film which would frighten younger children. "These days the censors are said to be slacker in any case than they used to be and I think it is right to be careful." Cineworld manager Carl Walmsley said a number of other councils had changed the rating and Bradford had made a mistake. He said: "I think they are killjoys but also too sensitive and maybe with the Capital of Culture bid they don't want to do anything which might upset anyone."
I'm in agreement. Although I don't believe that it is as violent as many people are making out, I think it's suited to the '12' certificate. Just.
| IP: Logged
|
|
David Rigby
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 134
From: Chorlton, Manchester, UK
Registered: May 2002
|
posted 06-21-2002 11:12 AM
One thing about the effect of artistic merit - apart from the obvious point that sex and violence in film always has a context that needs to be considered, the UK obscenity law explicitly states that the factors of a) artistic merit and b) ease of access to the material by children need to be taken into account when determining whether or not something is obscene. Although the law these days is fairly irrelevant as I've said before, clearly this provision has had a very strong influence over the years on the way the BBFC assesses films. The problem with a) is that it's extremely subjective and open to accusations of cultural elitism. I think the BBFC have pretty much dropped this criterion in favour of their rather more well defined rules - hence you now see all kinds of sleaze 'classics' being classified that previously would have fallen foul of a)...not that I'm suggesting that's in any way a bad thing  I won't bother discussing my DVD collection as it's tiny and none of them are rated! David
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 07-01-2002 07:40 AM
Back to Spiderman. I saw it yesterday and, at the risk of incurring the wrath of liberals, would put it firmly in the 15 category.My big problem with it was the attempted rape scene, which, IMHO, made a very clear causal link between sexual attraction and violent assault. Furthermore it was totally unnecessary in the context of the story - the scene would have worked perfectly well as an attempted mugging or robbery without any sexual element. BTW, talk about context being everything - when I saw the 'wet t-shirt' shot discussed in another thread on Spiderman, my initial thought was 'what is all the fuss about?', but the fact that it is shown as part of an attempted rape scene changes things entirely. The sex/violence idea was also followed up in the final fight scene in the disused church, in which Green Goblin describes how he intends to dispose of Kirsten Dunst (complete with phallic imagery on the screen, e.g. metal spikes). For me to be comfortable letting a 12 year-old see this, I would want those scenes either completely cut or reshot to eliminate the sexual element. Hopefully these scenes would go over the head of a well bought-up 12 year old, but one from a troubled family background or who had perhaps witnessed domestic violence might take them in a very different way, and not be able to differentiate between the 'good' violence of Spiderman and the 'bad' violence of Green Goblin - an understanding which (s)he would need to take in the dialogue in order to get. When the BBFC makes these decisions it has to take into account all 12 year-olds, not just the sensible ones. I now understand why they were talking in terms of a 12/15 borderline, and would personally come down on the other side of that fence. The fighting/kung fu scenes in themselves didn't worry me that much - as far as that goes, kids really are exposed to much worse on the telly.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic