Research: Censorship - Miss Begum

As discussed in my other posts on age certificate the BBFC control anything that is allowed or suitable to be produced and viewed in the United Kingdom. They are the general commanders or head inspectors of the British film industry in terms of handing out age certificates and deciding whether a film should be banned, cut or censored. Their known role is to protect the viewing public from any offensive material or anything that could cause harm to society, such as the visible promotion of drugs. BBFC are important in terms of providing safety and protection to a massive audience and protecting those from viewing something so bad it may have the power to psychologically distort and mess them up.

The type of material that gets censored is things that show reference to extreme violence, religious offending, extreme brutality, demoting of women, graphic scenes of sexual assault unless portrayed in a way to show the consequences after, political controversies, extreme torture, promotion of drugs and alcohol, practical and moral messages such as carrying a gun is a good thing, and using a child as such a brutal antagonist like in the movie Mikey can be something censored by the BBFC due to the age of the child and the nature of his actions like killing an elder with a blunt object is something that the audience would not like to see. Also a movie like Scum was banned and edited several times as it contained scenes of gang rape and suicide, and also had graphic scenes of savage brutality in which the victim does not have the power to fight back so they’re just literally beat the hell out of, which is the sort of material that needs to be banned as it can temporarily or permanently damage a viewer psychologically.

Another banned movie is The Bunny Game, made in 2010 considered as torture porn, with the narrative a cocaine addicted prostitute who in turn is abducted by a mad male truck driver and then tortured, other reasons why this was banned was down to it having repeated dialogue, lack of plot, and no evident characterization.

The difference between films being cut and banned is clear, when a film is banned it cannot be released or distributed to the audience as it has been entirely stripped off publishing rights due to its nature and material, however when a film is cut it means that the producer has a chance to remove any scenes that the BBFC do not like or would not allow them to release if it remains, allowing for the film to have less scenes that could harm the viewer psychologically. An example of a film being given the chance to cut some scenes is the controversial ‘A Serbian Film’. On 25 August, the BBFC handed the film's distributor with a list of things that needed to be removed. As it says on their site, ‘49 individual cuts were required, across 11 scenes’ in total.  They claim that around 'three minutes 48 seconds' of the film would need to be removed and although this may seem like a contently large number of cuts at first, many of the cuts made in the film were small parts. 

An example of a film that was banned entirely is ‘Women In Cellblock 9’, this remains banned in the United Kingdom due to its large amounts of sexual violence, and one of the lead actresses in many of the sex scenes was 16 at the time the film was made. The film upon release was rejected by the BBFC when it was submitted and still has not been successfully appealed to be shown to viewers. This could be down to the fact that the actress in a lead role was 16 at the time and they used her in many unusual scenes for a girl of her in any period of time.

The debate for censorship still rattles on and is a debatable topic; the two different sides are Forna (for censorship) and Kemode (against censorship). Forna is for censorship and believe that films with unsuitable material should be censored due to the psychological effect it could have on a viewer and topics such as sexism would be considered very oppressing and controversial if a film was released demoting women as a whole or they released film about 9/11 which could cause society to have second thoughts on who to blame and may have an impact on modern lives, mixed with my opinion I am TeamForna and I believe that films should be censored as I would not like to enter a cinema with the worry that there is a mad man dressed up as Jason with a chainsaw or massive machete in his bag ready to slaughter anyone, nobody wants that worry. Reports in the news arose over a man, dressed as a character from the box office hit The Dark Knight Rises, shooting at the audience during a film in the cinema, it is generally common of shootings like this is in modern day now as there are no real laws imposed on weapons. Everyone wants a weapon now after watching all these uncensored movies. Kemode on the other hand is against censorship which may be down to the fact that people have an interest in the things they show and instead this material should be shown as audiences have a free choice to go and watch these things, they are not forced. Linking in with my opinion I understand this side of the debate as take me for example I can watch a movie like Kidulthood and not want to pick up a gun and use it as a means of defence or watch Human Centipede and not want to capture people off the street and attach their mouths to their face, you can say that films can be censored because it may harm the audience but at the same time they have that choice to go and watch these things no one forced them, it may be certain individuals that are affected by this, there are people in mental and psychiatric asylums for a reason yet there are others like me that can watch graphic movies as such and not want to make it happen in reality, as I’ve said, it is all down to personal choice and freedom.

Conclusion

From researching censorship I have a basic and mature idea of what to include in my opening and what may be suitable for an audience. Since I won’t consider myself as a troubled person and someone who takes interest into these weird and graphic ideas and motifs, my opening will be fairly simple something that can enter the BBFC and come out rated 15. From my research I have a basic idea of what to include in my opening and because of my research I can always go back and look at what to improve.