I have always been interested in the history of film censorship in this country, and for any film fan with even a passing interest in more extreme movies, it's hard not to get sucked into it at some point. In the age of such immediately accessible content and movies on demand, it's crazy to think that well known films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist were essentially banned in this country until 15 years ago. It's equally crazy to think now you can walk into HMV and buy many of the so called 'Video Nasties' that sent a shock wave through the country in the early 80's These films and the moral panic that they spawned were documented in Jake West's brilliant 2010 documentary 'Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Video - Tape'. West also produced a follow up this year for the 30th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act - 'Draconian Days', which details it's effect on film censorship through to the modern day. One of the things that these films point out is that the moral crusaders who caused a such a fuss about these films in the first place either don't know or don't care that many of them are now readily available in an uncut form - they have moved on to video games and the internet as the new scapegoats for the ills in society.
In many ways. a moral panic a quintessential British thing, a reflection of our countries class system. It's always the upper class, well educated censors who are looking after the working class, whose lack of sophistication leaves them more vulnerable to be influenced by the content of films. This attitude is no better demonstrated than in this quote from James Ferman, ex cheif censor of the BBFC, who said after a screening of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - “It’s all right for you middle-class cinéastes to see this film, but what would happen if a factory worker in Manchester happened to see it?”. It's not just violent videos that have been subject to this classist discrimination, in the 1950s there was a similar moral panic other the effects of Horror Comics, and the same kind of panic is seen constantly in the press nowadays over video games. In the Victorian era, Penny Dreadful literature, the precursor to pulp fiction and the aforementioned horror comics, lead to fear of increased crime due to their influence on the lower classes, who read them on cheap, pulpy paper. However, it was seen as fine for the upper classes to read them in bound form. This same kind of classism was seen in the Video Recordings Era - Terminator 2 was released on VHS in a cut form, but the Laserdisc edition was completely uncut. The assumption obviously being that if you can afford the Laserdisc version of the film, then you are a 'middle-class cinéaste' with no danger of being influenced by any of the films violent content. This same kind of thing is even seen today, with The Hunger Games being released cut on DVD with a 12 certificate, and but uncut on Blu Ray with a 15.
On the other hand, it is difficult to defend some of the films that the BBFC are worried about. As a horror fan, I fail to see the attraction of 'mondo' movies such as Faces of Death which have a little purpose other than to show horrific images of real life death. I personally would never have any death film crap anywhere near my collection. The recent trend of increasingly nasty and boundary pushing horror films are also extremely hard to defend. I have no wish to ever see films like 'The Human Centipede 2' and 'A Serbian Film' and I find that the fact I have witnessed people my age talk about these films as something of a cheap laugh both disturbing and sad. Though for the most part I am against censorship, to me these kind of films represent the fact that we have reached an aphex, both as a society and in films, in which we have become completely numb to violence and it is impossible to shock. These films seem to some extent to be deliberately testing the BBFC, whose relaxation of censorship in recent years has seen the DVD and Blu Ray releases of many previously banned or unreleased films. They are certainly a much more friendly and open organistation nowadays, allowing the public to view their decisions on their website and even releasing a regular podcast. Hardcore horror fans can now easily import films from abroad, or download them from the internet, which increasingly makes the BBFC look outdated. But with the strength of the right wing tabloid press and moral panic tradition in this country, it is unlikely the BBFC will ever go away, and the question is only how it will grow and adapt further in the digital age.
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