ChatterBank1 min ago
Film censorship
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Well the I guess the most common reason for film being censored or banned is moral. If a given society's(or the persons in charge of censoring) morals can't accept the film, it is going to be banned or censored. One of the best examples I can think of is Life of Brian, it was banned in Norway for a very long time and quite a few other places.
You could do something about how film or art in general can clash quite hard with moral and even challenge it. You could also do a comparison between countries, there are big differences between what is allowed in one country and what is in another.
Just a personal rant, it irritates me no end with censorship. Here in Denmark you can say practically whatever you like on tv and some channels may be Danish but broadcast from England because they're a version of a English/British channel. This means we get those damned programmes filled with beeps and long silences and some very polite guests and host. Sorry I just get so annoyed and you got me going :)
On the market at the moment is a box set called "banned" or something like that it contains Driller Killer and other assorted nasties that are not particularly nasty.
Also the Texas Chainsaw massacre was banned in many parts of the country. I belive that Last Tango in Paris (possibly the most boring film ever) was only given a London release.
A nice quote:
"or as the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964 puts it: A film may be deemed obscene when taken as a whole the work has a tendency to 'deprave and corrupt' a significant proportion of those likely to 'read, see or hear' it"
the history of censorship, quite good I think. It sums it all up nicely.
from wikipedia more history
1926: Battleship Potemkin - That one apparently was banned, don't think it would be to day :) and in 1951 "The wild one" with Marlon Brando in it was banned
Another good one where you can find some films that was banned in the UK and other places. There should be some films on this site that would never be banned today
and just because I find it so funny - Article about banned films in Norway, if you press the link on the bottom of the page you'll get to a site that list the banned films, I know it is in Norwegian and you probably can't use it, but if you need some translation done just give a shout, I can manage some Norwegian :)
Thanks for a great question, I had fun finding those links even though I did stumble upon some rather bizarre sites...
Or there's Freaks, a 1932 film directed by Tod Browning, banned outright for about 35 years. It's about a bunch of circus sideshow artists who gain revenge on a female trapeze artist for seducing a midget and embezzling his money. It was banned because the "freaks" were real - real midgets and hermaphrodites, a real Human Torso (he had no arms or legs) and real "pinheads" - people suffering from microcephaly, a condition that results in abnormally small heads and seemingly rambling speech. Far from being exploitative, the film never mocks these people, but remains resolutely on their side, and to me the banning says far more about the prejudices of those who found it distasteful than anything else.
I'll leave you to do the Googling to find out more, but I hope that helps to get you started. :-)
Take a look at the British Board of Film Classifications own website here,
especially the FAQ section and the details about the categories themselves, eg. what sort of nudity is permissible in a U cert. film (yes, it is allowed!)
One suggestion for making it interesting would be to find scenes from films and have your peers 'classify' them and see what results you come with. I suspect it may well illustrate the point of how emotive and subjective the whole issue of censorship is!
The Animals Film. Heard it had been banned in places, but unsure as to wether it was the film boards or cinemas or television. I know it was banned from US television.
http://www.contemporaryfilms.com/classic_films/index.htm
Look under UK, The Animals Film.