Cornerstone member slams film censors for letting down public.
Julian Brazier, in a letter to Conservative Policy Coordinator Oliver Letwin, has urged that an incoming Conservative Government shall take action on the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). He is concerned that the BBFC is unreliable in preventing scenes of violence from reaching our screens at a suitable rating. The letter read:
“In light of David Cameron’s recent comment: “Protection of childhood innocence against premature sexualisation is something worth fighting for” I would like to make a submission to policy review. I recently had a look at the annual report of the British Board of Film Classification - I believe that it is time to shake them up.
The failure to rate films suitably can lead to the portrayal of topics and themes in a way that may encourage their wider use. The BBFC is good at controlling scenes of drug use. They allow only scenes of drug use that put a negative spin on recreational drug taking.
Their stance on the portrayal of violence is pretty weak, however. Examples are films such as ‘Green Street’ and ‘The Football Factory,’ both rated ‘18’ and containing strong violence in the context of a popular past time. The BBFC says of ‘The Football Factory’: “passed ‘18’ for the strong violence … that featured in its tale of violent men attempting to profit from criminal activities”
Is this a theme that we want anyone, let alone 18 year olds to be watching? With the hooligan culture already wrecking some British football matches, do we need such films? I believe in a free country but incitement to violence is unacceptable.
‘House of Wax’, a ‘stalk and slash’ film, rated ‘15’, contains “occasional moments of strong gore and violence” but was limited to a ‘15’ rating due to “the formulaic and predictable story, its fantastical setting, and its generally restrained treatment of the violence”. Should the fact that it is in a fantastical setting be a reason for keeping any film as a ‘15’? Just because a film is not set in the current world does not mean that 15 and 16 year olds will not attempt to copy dangerous action sequences.
In some cases, previously cut material is being reinstated. For example: ‘American Gothic’ which was originally cut in 1987; ‘Not of this Earth’, 1988; and the 1994 film ‘Dracula’s Widow’, all had scenes of sexualised violence reinstated. The reason given was, “a lack of sufficient eroticised detail to raise concerns under either the current BBFC Guidelines or contemporary understanding of the relevant research and policy.”
The BBFC should be reformed and its guidelines strengthened. In too many cases its censors appear to have been lacking the mettle to deal robustly with the film industry’s nastier output. Only one recent chairman has stood up to the film industry – Andreas Whittam Smith – and he lost some bad cases under the appeal arrangements. Surely there is scope for reform here.”
