Case Studies
The film Cliffhanger was given to the BBFC and was asked to be cut down to be suitable for a 15 certificate. The BBFC cut out scenes they thought were ‘unecessary violence’. The BBFC then released the film to cinemas across the UK with a 15 rating. Cinema staff reported that in many cinemas, especially a number in east London, that during a scene in which a Cockney character kills a black man, audience members cheered. This prompted the BBFC to cut the film down further still for video release.
This case shows a support for the argument that films should be restricted. If it incites racial hatred in certain audience members, then the scene in question should be removed. However, there are many films in which there are far more explicitly racist scenes that are left alone. Is it perhaps the relevance to the plot? If a story is set in pre-civil war America on a slave plantation then racism is relevant to the plot but in a film about mountain climbing, is it relevant?
A common misconception is that the BBFC banned the film A Clockwork Orange but in fact, despite the abundance of casual violence, the BBFC felt the film had enough of a resolution that it put the violence into perspective. The film, as a result was released in cinemas. The film’s director Stanley Kubrick received a number of complaints and even death threats to him and his family. He subsequently withdrew the film himself. It was re-released in 1991, after his death, by his family.
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