We are mindless fools being told by Big Brother what we can watch!!! (Movie censorship)

Name: dlb74

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Product:	Movie censorship
Date:	31.08.06 (438 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None that I can think of. Whatever happened to freedom of speech and expression (within reason)?!?

Disadvantages: We are being treated like silly little children who can't think for ourselves!

I decided to put forward this topic (Though wasn't the first to get an opinion up... Damn you, sparkymarky1973! Damn you all the way to hell!!!) for discussion as it's one that has always been a very big issue for me.

For many years now, the BBFC has been overseeing film, video and now DVD releases in the UK. From establishing what certificate a film should be given through to trimming out anything that they deem to be unsuitable for us to watch - like we're stupid and can't decide for ourselves what we can
handle when it comes to our own viewing.

The thing is, we see horrific images on the news every single day now. From the memorable and terrible footage of the World Trade Center Twin Towers being brought down by hijacked jets to actually showing bodies in body bags when reporting from one of the many wars or awful incidents that have happened the world over. I hate to say this but we probably ARE getting
de-sensitised to unhealhty imagery - but I doubt that it's due to anything we can see in movies - reality is always much, much worse.

Maybe I'm beginning to show my age or am looking back with rose-tinted glasses - but in either case, I simply can't remember seeing such awful things on the news when I was younger. I'm not saying such things weren't reported - as of course they were - just perhaps not shown in such an
explicit fashion.

Meanwhile, those of us who enjoy our movies are frequently treated like idiots by the BBFC who feel that we are unable to make up our own minds. This is not helped by ridiculous media hysteria that results in movies and video games being blamed whenever something terrible happens - and the
perpetrator blames a film or game that they have been influenced by. When are people going to stop allowing these media from being used as a bloody scape-goat by these idiots?!?

I remember shortly after the tragic murder of James Bulger, the media reported that the two boys who killed the toddler - Jon Venables and Robert Thompson - had been obsessed with imagery they had seen in the horror film Child's Play 3 and other "violent movies". The Sun and other so-called crusaders started to cry out for a ban on "video nasties". Once again,
movies got the blame for parental failings. Quite frankly, these boys should not have been allowed to watch whatever they wanted at such a young and impressionable age.

Shortly after that point, I remember The Sun running a cover story of someone who had murdered someone and was blaming it on a killer from a horror film who had spoken to him and urged him to kill. Unfortunately, the movie serial-killer in question was Michael Myers from the Halloween series.

Note to mentalist would-be murderers out there and to stupid-arsed, gullible, print-any-crap-as-long-as-it-causes-sensation-and- makes-money *ahem* "newspapers"... If you're going to blame a heinous act on a killer from a movie, make sure he's one that ACTUALLY BLOODY TALKS!!! Michael Myers
doesn't speak a single word in ANY of the Halloween movies!

Anyway... I've found a very, very useful website for anyone who buys DVDs and wants to know whether the movie they are buying has been butchered by the BBFC or not.

www.dvdcompare.net

This website has an enormous list of DVDs - both American Region 1 and European Region 2 (from all over Europe - not just the UK). This compares such things as picture and sound quality, extras and bonus materials on the DVDs and whether there have been any cuts made.

I've been fortunate enough to buy some DVDs elsewhere (while I used to live and work in Luxembourg and Belgium) that are uncut - unlike the versions available here in the UK. Some of the films I have in my DVD collection that have been cut here in Blighty include the following:

THE MATRIX:
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This film was due to be passed uncut by the BBFC upon cinema release - but with an 18 certificate. Warner Brothers accepted the proposed cuts by the BBFC in order to make this film the 15 certificate that it now is in the UK in order to have a bigger box-office return.

So the UK version is missing head-butts and ear-slaps during a few fight sequences but what is almost worse is that all of the punching sound effects in those fights have had the volume reduced on the UK version - in order to (quite literally) reduce it's impact. How bad is that?!?

The only thing that is different on my French DVD is the opening title of the film. Instead of reading 'THE MATRIX', it reads 'MATRIX'. That's surely a small price to pay for the peace of mind that the BBFC boys haven't had their grubby mitts and scissors all over the version of the film you're about to sit down and watch...


INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM:
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Again on the French disc, the scene where Mola Ram lowers the sacrifice victim into the fire is uncut. You actually see him pull the victim's heart out from his chest before a shot of the chest sealing itself up - presumably due to black magic. When the victim is placed face down in a cage an lowered into the fire, it is much longer and to be completely honest much more brutal than the cut UK version as there are more shots of the sacrifice victim burning up...


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Please note: The films noted above were just a few examples of very, very popular movies that are not the full and uncut versions you may think you already own. I'm not saying I'm a gore hound or that violence actually makes a film better - but if they don't detract from the story that is being told then I see them as a part of the story - and shouldn't be removed if that's the way that the story was intended.

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There are many other movies that are cut in the UK and will undoubtedly keep being cut. You can always check out the BBFC's own website:

www.bbfc.co.uk

They are always honest about cuts they have made and at least this can give you an idea of cuts made at the time of cinema release. Otherwise for anything on DVD, I can't recommend dvdcompare enough.

Happy viewing, folks! Don't let the BBFC bite!

Thanks for reading!

Derek.

Summary: It's about time we had the freedom to watch what we want!