Hmmm... film censorship! Well there are some films that shouldn't be out there of course... say those ones where innocent people are murdered on screeen for a deviants sexual pleasure... it does happen... However some films should be out there just to open peoples eyes to other practices in society that are ignored. I went in saw SICK (I am from australia)... actually i saw 5 minutes of sick as i was so grossed out i had to leave (shouldn't have smoked that pot before i went in there)! However my boyfrined and his two friends saw the whole film... i was glad i saw a bit of it though... it's better than being naive.... However it wasn't the sadomasochism theme that turned me off but that he had cystic fibrosis. I couldn't stand that he (Bob)was so ill. He had drips in his arms and could barely breath. And the coughing... he was just too human... too real... Who cares if he likes to hammer nails through his dick... perhaps though i was a little creeped out by all the single males dressed inconspicuously in black in the audience... Oh well.. their life their choice, Cheers, Lizzie!

From: mctag@bigfoot.com (Robert McTaggart) Reply-To: mctag@bigfoot.com (Robert McTaggart) To: sinister@Majordomo.net Subject: Sinister: Must we fling this filth at our pop kids? Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 17:33:37 GMT

You lot,

The mail you are about to read contains sexual swearwords. It will almost certainly have an adult theme. It's also extremely off-topic, but I can't resist a discussion about film censorship, one of my pet subjects. Hopefully, some of you will find it interesting.

Andy Dean, the original White man in Hammersmith Palais, wrote:

...

and apologies if tag's already written this post (only more eloquently) but i'm a digestive.

I hadn't, but I will now. Censorship has shown signs of slackening in the UK recently, as the new president of the British Board of Film Censors seems to have taken the revolutionary step of crediting filmgoers with some intelligence. This has meant that a few horror films have finally been available on video e.g. "The Exorcist" which has been shown late night at some cinemas for many years, and was still playing to packed houses until its eventual video release. Infamous flicks such as "Driller Killer" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", withdrawn after the big "video nasties" furore of the early 80's (when the number of nasties you'd seen was a mark of how hard you were at school and we played Splatter Top Trumps at morning break) have also been re-released. It's been recognised that they aren't nearly as gratuitous as they were painted, and their reputations were mostly the result of hype (nothing like controversy for packing them in). I was surprised to find "Texas Chainsaw" isn't the gorefest I'd been led to believe, but is in fact some kind of masterpiece. That doesn't mean I'm in any hurry to see it again, its horror is almost entirely psychological and a lot more disturbing for it. And yes, it's well-publicised that it was Kubrick himself that withdrew "A Clockwork Orange" from the UK, but sadly, not because it was an overrated load of pretentious toss, but because of a handful of copycat acts of violence, almost certainly exaggerated.

Censorship can be counter-productive, as was the case when the Argentinian censors removed the notorious nude wrestling scene from "Women in Love". As a result, Argentinian viewers got to see Oliver Reed and the other bloke (whose name escapes me) collapsed, naked and exhausted after an unspecified type of frantic physical activity, and now, quite understandably, talk affectionately of "the buggary scene".

Helen wrote:

...

The banned book debate was rather intriguing, the last thing that there was controversy over in Australia was the film 'Sick: The life and death of Bob Flanagan super masochist'..

That little charmer was actually shown on Channel 4 in the UK, admittedly extensively edited. When I saw it at the BFI, it broke all records for the number of men crossing their legs in unison.

...

Funnily enough there was no controversy over the film "Happiness", which I'm led to believe is slightly 'worse' (in the context of censors,(for lack of a better word)) in content.

That's not strictly true, "Happiness" didn't show a naked man trussed up like a Christmas turkey or hammering nails into his gentleman's excuse me. And while it certainly dealt with some taboo subjects, these were either dealt with off-screen or merely talked about. That didn't stop it from being extremely unsettling. I liked it though, if "like" is the right word.

David pontificated:

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still off topic, but if you are going to point out where someone is wrong, i should too.

Blimey, that told you, Andy.

...

Romance does indeed show an erect penis, as well as penetration, but neither of these are firsts for the BBFC. La Vie de Jesus showed penetration, and The Idiots showed both an erect penis and penetration. As did Sitcom (well, the erect penis anyway). There may be more.

There are. Contemporary cinema is positively littered with instances of rampant tackle. Derek Jarman got one past the censors in "Sebastiane" by shooting the offending article at the edge of widescreen, and letting the BBFC see a version in a different format so that the meat and two veg wasn't visible, the subversive little scamp.

The fuss about "real shagging" in "Romance" is nothing new either, we've already had "Ai No Corrida", finally shown at UK cinemas 20 years after it was made. Like "Romance", it's rude, and not very good. "Romance" really does seem like the ultimate in porn dressed as art, and the fact it's directed by a woman doesn't really change that. It did spark one of those perennial "did they/didn't they?" debates though, because the man in it said they did, whereas the actress says they didn't. This sort of gossip crops up a lot, it happened with "Betty Blue", it happened with "Don't look now", and it happened with the "Dog on wheels" video.

As far as I know Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" is still banned in the UK, and is likely to remain so. Unfortunately, although it's a very powerful and well-made film, it does suffer from some very dubious notions about women. My Mum liked it though. The Brits certainly aren't the only ones to wave the censorship scissors around..."The Last Temptation of Christ" is banned in Greece. Several countries won't let Pasolini's "Salo" anywhere near a public cinema. And anyone who's been been glued to "The hip-hop years" in recent weeks will know that Brandt's comments about the American "moral" "majority" and their motivations weren't exactly without foundation. Here in Britain, we've got our own army of "outraged of Surbiton"s, most of them writing for the Daily Mail, who'd dearly love to see the likes of "Crash" kept off-screen (there were even a few local councils who tried to put the mockers on "Crash", thus denying residents a remarkable piece of unintentional comedy), but generally I tend to think that the BBFC have ignored such kneejerk reactions, and got the balance right.

Worryingly, that Jordan Knight single is freely available to minors, despite the ex-New Kid pin-up clearly proclaiming "Anyone can make you sweat, but I can keep you wet". I mean...really. Won't somebody think of the children? Worst of all, I was shocked to read that Trousers is *still* allowed out after dark, and regularly attends gatherings where young ladies may be present. Ban this filth.

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