Ratings & Classifications : An opening ponder.

After watching Mark Kermode's interesting entry on effect of age rating certificates and their differing effects on the performance of films I did starting thinking about what he said and then about film censorship in general.

Of course recently there has been some renewed discourse around the issue down to the fact that for the first time in a few years the BBFC refused to release a film unless cuts were made. That being the four minutes of cuts made to A Serbian Film.

Now rather boringly I have to admit I think the current state of affairs is probably about right. Currently very few films are refused classification by the BBFC and they are these days very open about the decisions they make. I do think they were right to ask for the cuts in A Serbian Film since the material in question centered around the sexual abuse of minors.

Now some people may say that as adults we should be allowed to all make our own decisions and we have a right to free speech. First off I don't think anyone who calls for total free speech has really thought about what they're asking for and secondly (and perhaps somewhat conservatively) I'm happy there is a body examining media released into the cultural sphere in this country.

I don't think anyone can argue that things are restrictive at present. Look at The Hangover (which received an 'R' in the states), which pretty openly strides through drug abuse, alcohol abuse, prostitution, gang violence and a lot of swearing. It was given a '15' rating, which I think is fair but I can imagine if had been released perhaps as early as the 90's it might have been bumped up to an '18'

At the other end of the scale the introduction of the '12' certificate has opened up the market, but it is a certificate I admit I'm not sure about. Illustrated by something like The Dark Knight; clearly the studio involved was happy to let director Nolan make things a little darker (well a lot in comparison to Batman & Robin) in the knowledge that they could hit the '12' and keep the valuable family market that would be cut back by the '15'.

Now I'm all for as people being allowed to see a film as possible but am a little wary since it seems very few parents check out a film before taking along children and something like The Dark Knight I can imagine being a little much for 'younger' 12 years olds. And from the other side the film was hamfistedly edited in places to ensure the lower certification especially the infamous pencil trick and any of the scenes involving knives.

In the end though I'm fairly certain we have a better system that the American one which pretty much allows anyone and everyone to see has much violence as they like but slaps it's highest certificate on pretty much anything sexual, so the likes of Blue Valentine gets initially an NC-17 (reduced to an R on appeal) whilst The Expendables happily gets the much more lucrative R rating straight out the gate.

Made all the more bizarre considering anyone can go to an R rated film if there is someone over 18 with them. The cultural attitudes touched upon by Kermode are also interesting, where the American audience seems to still treat NC-17 as something lurid, perhaps its a legacy of the exploitation film scene that exploded in the seventies.

Now that was a bit of a ramble and I may come back to the topic again at a later date once it's had more time to roll around my brain.