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Let us call a spade a spade
Nov. 26th, 2010 04:01 pmhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11846906
This is one of the two current issues regarding censorship floating round my head these days and being insistent enough for me to want to blog about them. The other subject is the fact that "Call of Duty: Black Ops" was "flash-indexed" and may well become illegal to sell in Germany pretty soon* (and is already on difficult legal ground), which might well make mne want to write a longer post on the inanity of the German "moral authorities" and the idiocy that is the § 131 of German law.
However, I do not play a great deal of computer games and am not even certain if I have ever played any "Call of Duty"-game full stop, so maybe I should rather discuss things I know a lot about and feel directly affected by every day. (Even if several of the points that need to be made in terms of films also apply to the discussion of computer games).
Actually, my argument is terribly simple: The version of "A Serbian Film" that will appear on UK screens will be missing 4 minutes and 11 seconds of footage, which probably everybody will agree is a significant portion of a normal-length feature film. Why is this footage missing? Because somebody, who believes that they know better than you what is acceptable to you has decided that this material is unacceptable.
This has nothing to do with protecting the youth, as the film would be rated as (18) uncut as it is now, this is supposedly about keeping the moral and order of the country intact. And that's bullshit. The BBFC does not protect the moral fibre of the country and "A Serbian Film" is as little out to undermine what is right and proper as, say, "The Evil Dead" was 30 years ago. This is simply about the comfort level of the members of the BBFC and about their feeling of superiority.
Is "A serbian film" likely to shock viewers? Well, I consider myself a bit of a connoiseur of extreme films and judging by all I have read about the film, yes, I expect that I will be shocked if I ever get the chance to view the uncut version. But I know that and I expect that and, let's be honest here, I want that. Nobody is standing in front of rollercoasters, either, telling you that you cannot go on there because you might throw up after. You go on the rollercoaster because you want to feel your guts and its contents take a round-trip of your whole body, because it makes you feel exhilerated in a way the merry-go-round simply cannot and if you are sick in the process, that is the risk you take. Or not, if you decide that it looks too much for you. But you make that decision yourself and don't let it be made by somebody whose experiences with food, movement and rollercoasters might well be totally different from yours.
*I do realise that a lot of what I complain about here could easily be countered by "Well, there are ways to circumvent the law and get what you want through other channels.". That may be so, but somehow I feel that "Well, you can always turn to crime" is not a satisfying solution in any supposedly civilised society.
This is one of the two current issues regarding censorship floating round my head these days and being insistent enough for me to want to blog about them. The other subject is the fact that "Call of Duty: Black Ops" was "flash-indexed" and may well become illegal to sell in Germany pretty soon* (and is already on difficult legal ground), which might well make mne want to write a longer post on the inanity of the German "moral authorities" and the idiocy that is the § 131 of German law.
However, I do not play a great deal of computer games and am not even certain if I have ever played any "Call of Duty"-game full stop, so maybe I should rather discuss things I know a lot about and feel directly affected by every day. (Even if several of the points that need to be made in terms of films also apply to the discussion of computer games).
Actually, my argument is terribly simple: The version of "A Serbian Film" that will appear on UK screens will be missing 4 minutes and 11 seconds of footage, which probably everybody will agree is a significant portion of a normal-length feature film. Why is this footage missing? Because somebody, who believes that they know better than you what is acceptable to you has decided that this material is unacceptable.
This has nothing to do with protecting the youth, as the film would be rated as (18) uncut as it is now, this is supposedly about keeping the moral and order of the country intact. And that's bullshit. The BBFC does not protect the moral fibre of the country and "A Serbian Film" is as little out to undermine what is right and proper as, say, "The Evil Dead" was 30 years ago. This is simply about the comfort level of the members of the BBFC and about their feeling of superiority.
Is "A serbian film" likely to shock viewers? Well, I consider myself a bit of a connoiseur of extreme films and judging by all I have read about the film, yes, I expect that I will be shocked if I ever get the chance to view the uncut version. But I know that and I expect that and, let's be honest here, I want that. Nobody is standing in front of rollercoasters, either, telling you that you cannot go on there because you might throw up after. You go on the rollercoaster because you want to feel your guts and its contents take a round-trip of your whole body, because it makes you feel exhilerated in a way the merry-go-round simply cannot and if you are sick in the process, that is the risk you take. Or not, if you decide that it looks too much for you. But you make that decision yourself and don't let it be made by somebody whose experiences with food, movement and rollercoasters might well be totally different from yours.
*I do realise that a lot of what I complain about here could easily be countered by "Well, there are ways to circumvent the law and get what you want through other channels.". That may be so, but somehow I feel that "Well, you can always turn to crime" is not a satisfying solution in any supposedly civilised society.
